Chas Le Breton's Cooper T-79

[Chris Wright]

Hi Charles,

Nope number 17 is my number sorry.

But it also ran as number 25:  Basil van Rooyen Cooper-Climax T79 1968 South African GP.

Charles you need to send Mark Huber a personal message regarding your entry.
Unfortunately this is a by invitation only proxy race. Please contact him.

[charlesx]

Hi Chris. Thanks for the information and the photo. Do not suppose you have one of other side of car do you. Have applied to Mark to enter so here is hoping.

Have a couple of good photos of John Love and plenty of Bruce McLaren and Phil Hill racing a similar car in Tasman Cup.

Regards Chas Le Breton

[Chris Wright]

Mar 23, 2015 17:40:52 GMT -5 charlesx said:

Hi Chris. Thanks for the information and the photo. Do not suppose you have one of other side of car do you. Have applied to Mark to enter so here is hoping.

Have a couple of good photos of John Love and plenty of Bruce McLaren and Phil Hill racing a similar car in Tasman Cup.

Regards Chas Le Breton

Couldn't find any more pictures, but it looks just like John Love's Cooper, got to be the same car, and there's a few photo's of this car.
Track down Russell Sheldon on facebook, he's South African, and may have better photos.

[David Mitcham]

Hi Charles

Here's a link to a photo of the left hand side of the John Love car; like Chris I reckon it's the same one as Van Rooyen's.



Best Regards David

[charlesx]

Hi all.

Have confirmed 1968 South African GP was first round of 1968 F1 championship. Was also last time Jim Clark raced in F1 - he won by 25 secs.

Basil van Rooyen qualified 20th but retired with engine trouble on lap 22. Basil now lives in the Land of OZ.

Dimensions found for T79 suggest was re-built T73 F2 car. VRAA gives wheelbase as 91" - 1/32 = 2.89"/73.42mm

Autosport however says 92.5".

Does anybody have any better information including size of wheels. They look like 13". I now have plenty of photos thanks Chris.

A re-collection from when car was used in NZ in 1965 Tasman Cup by Bruce McLaren and Phil Hill - this was year there was big debate about tyres. These cars used Firestone.

Regards Chas Le Breton

[Mark Huber]

Number 25 is reserved for Charles' Cooper T79.

[charlesx]

Thank you Mark. Regards Chas Le Breton

[Phil Kalbfell]

The car was entered by John Love in 68, as he still owned it at that time.

There is only one T79. The lip on the engine cover was added in SA.

The Autosport wheelbase sounds correct to me as the Climax motor was longer than the F2 motors and I think the car ran a bigger gearbox.

[old23]

Chas, as far as I am able to determine, the John Love T79 of the 1966 and 1967 SA GP, and the Basil van Rooyen T79 of the 1968 SA GP, was the same car that Bruce McLaren commissioned for and drove in the 1965 Tasman Series (i.e.. chassis FL-1-65). I have no specs on it, but the Doug Nye book (Cooper Cars) claims, with reason, that it was based on the F1 (not F2) T73 used by the Cooper Team in 1964. On the VRAA spreadsheet (not that anyone here knows what that is) the wheelbase according to Whitelock was 91", but I noted that all other sources (Autosport, Model Cars Scrutineers Dimensions 1968, and Model Cars Prototype Parade) listed it at 92.5" which is 73.42 mm, and therefore accepted that as the "VRAA official" wheelbase for the T73.

Stewart

[Chris Wright]

Mar 24, 2015 8:42:16 GMT -5 Mark Huber said:

Number 25 is reserved for Charles' Cooper T79.

Charles you now have your own "Build" thread in the GPdG section. Please post all build, and reference materials here, thanks.

Chris

[charlesx]

Have just found some good information on development of original T79. Will relay in next few days.

Something I have gleaned from extra photo however is that later version of car as raced in South Africa had sprouted some sort of extra bulge on drivers right. Extra fuel storage perhaps. Can anybody provide any data on this. Means I will probably need to alter the body I have. Perhaps F1 events were longer so needed more fuel capacity.

Thanks for opening this thread for me Chris.

Regards Chas Le Breton

[Chris Wright]

Charles, I would assume that those bulges are fuel tanks and are on both sides of the car. The T-77 had them too.

If you delve into Coopers of this era, you'll find they are the most messed around with inconsistent cars of the 1.5 litre series. It's probably why they didn't succeed, they never stuck with one design and perfected it.

[Chris Wright]

One more photo.

[charlesx]

Thanks for picture Chris. No sign of side tank on that one but photos of other side of car clearly indicate something like you say. Even appears there is a strap helping to hold it in place.

Have good photo of other side of original car and clearly no addition. This car of course was not really a Cooper but the first McLaren. It was a one-off not even built in Cooper factory but by Bruce McLaren's mechanic Wally Wilmott.

Re Cooper modifications I think that was the order of the day back then and probably still is but more behind scenes. I am currently reading a book written by former Brabham Mechanic who said Brabham's personal race car was always being modified and frequently broke down as result earlier on. According to him (Max Rutherford) Ron Tauranac (sorry spelling probably wrong) was forever getting him to make modifications to fuel system in particular. The other team cars and customer cars were left as designed and performed really well.

Hoping I can get direct sideways photo of drivers right side of John Love's car which better shows extent of modification. Will certainly look at T77.

Regards Chas Le Breton

[Phil Kalbfell]

The Grand Prux events were about 200 miles about double the lenght of Tasman events that the car was built for. In 1967 Love had to stop for fuel while leading the event, so I would imagine the side tanks were fitted after that, and probably only for the Grand Prix event as te local races were also much shorter.