Stirling Moss took his last ever win in this Cooper T53 | GRR
In the early 1960s, Cooper was having things its own way in Formula 1. It became the first outfit to win a world championship with the engine placed behind the driver, leaving other manufacturers playing catch-up. It didn’t take long: Lotus arrived with the 18, and Cooper had to react by turning its T53 into the T53 'Lowline', its name reflecting the fact it had a smaller body with a reduced frontal area and a more laid-back driving position.
Rob Walker Racing and its star driver, Stirling Moss, were making great waves with the machine when the FIA set the cat among the pigeons by changing Formula 1 regulations to cap cubic capacity to 1.5 litres. It remained a European championship and the existing 2.5-litre cars went on to have a life in the Intercontinental Formula, with races taking place in Europe, the United States and Australasia. It eventually begat the Tasman Series, but that’s a story for another day.
While Rob Walker Racing switch allegiance to the Lotus 18 for Formula 1 (and, in fact, won a grand prix before Team Lotus itself), the team’s Cooper T53 Lowline was built to Intercontinental specification for Moss. That very car is here at the Goodwood Revival, and current owner Nick Topliss tells us about its history. “The most notable race was at Silverstone,” he says. “Moss lapped an entire grid twice apart from Jack Brabham who he only lapped once.” That incredible performance took place at the BRDC International Trophy, and it’s the race the Moss himself chose as his greatest wet weather victory. Given that he was the original rain master, that’s a significant accolade.
The car was flown to Australia in 1962 where it was entered into the Warwick Park 100 Mile. Rob Walker Racing and Moss are detailed on the entry list as Lotus/Cooper with an annotation to say that it was the Cooper that was used for the race. It was the final race win for Moss in his professional career before the crash at Goodwood that famously saw him withdraw from the sport.
As a consequence of Moss’s accident, the Cooper remained in Australia and pretty soon retired to the Lakey Museum in Philip Island. It stayed there until the 1980s when it was bought by American collector Art Valdez. He competed in the support race of the Australian Grand Prix before flying it home, and used it sparingly until Nick bought the car a few years ago.
Nick was actually looking to buy a Cooper T51, not daring to dream he might be able to acquire a T53 Lowline. There were two T51s in the Valdez collection that he went to see, but it was the T53 that held his attention. “It was there in the corner, and I thought I have to try to get that car, with all its lovely history and what a wonderful looking thing. I was very lucky, I was in the right place at the right time. When I got it, it was absolutely original. I was so excited about it.”
But with originality comes responsibility. “I soon realised what a challenge it was. I had the original wheels, half of which were cracked. All the original suspension needed crack testing and X-raying and all that sort of stuff. But it’s lovely because it is still so original. It still has its original seat and steering wheel, things that have disappeared over the years from most cars.”
Given the car’s superb originality and fascinating Stirling Moss history, Nick made the decision to keep it as original as possible. The engine and gearbox had a refresh and competed with the car, albeit rather gently, in that form. After a couple of seasons, concerns over the fragility of the aged components convinced Nick to change tack. “I decided what I needed to do if I continued to run it would be to put the engine and gearbox on the shelf and build new ones,” he says.
And he didn’t do things by halves, scanning and reverse engineering a new gearbox from scratch. “I do all the engineering on it and fabricate all the parts,” he says. “What’s a joy is learning about the car, and then learning about the engineering to maintain it. I enjoy that just as much as driving it, if not more. I’m not a born racing driver, I’m more of a born engineer.” With that, he produced a 3D printed scale model of the gearbox made from the same scan as the full-size working object.
“The gearbox will hopefully be less fragile,” he says. “The original gearbox was incredibly thin walled and made of magnesium. I’ve increased its strength and reliability. I’ve made it in aluminium, used modern materials for the gears and things. Although the original ’boxes were a super design, they had a reputation in period for being unreliable mainly because of the materials so the gears would strip and things would just disintegrate. Now metallurgy has moved on and everything has improved.” The Coventry-Climax engine has similarly been built anew so the original Moss engine can be preserved on the shelf.
Despite the refreshed mechanicals, the T53 exudes a sense of history when you see it in the metal. You can’t help but imagine that last victory that Moss took in the car in Australia, or that stellar performance at a wet Silverstone more than sixty years ago. It’s part of what makes the Goodwood Revival so magical.
Photography by Toby Whales.