The Coopers continued their practice of building spaceframe chassis that ignored orthodox design thinking in having several curved links and the mid-engine layout meant weight savings and aerodynamic advantages over front-engined cars, which typically had separate gearbox and differential cases, and had to find room for propshafts to the rear wheels.

The works Coopers were fitted with modified Citroen gearboxes, while Rob Walker's team ran bespoke units from Italian specialist Valerio Colotti, although these proved much more fragile.

He managed to push his car across the line in fourth, but Cooper still won the race as Bruce McLaren became the youngest winner in Formula One history (a record he held until surpassed by Fernando Alonso in 2003), leaving Brabham the Drivers' Champion.

Cooper travelled down to the 1960 Argentine Grand Prix seemingly at the peak of their powers, and Trintignant won the Buenos Aires F1 event that preceded the main championship race.

Right from the outset the T51 was designed to be produced in large numbers and offered for sale to privateer teams, with Rob Walker getting full-works cars and the rest receiving slightly more workmanlike models.

Guglielmo Dei set up Scuderia Centro Sud to publicise his business as distributor of Maserati cars to central and southern Italy, hence the name he chose for his team.

Dei never kept his drivers for long, as they tended to be either journeymen, faded former stars like Maurice Trintignant, or up-and-coming racers like Wolfgang Von Trips who would soon be snapped up by bigger teams.

Scuderia Centro Sud Championship results (key) The British Racing Partnership team was founded by Ken Gregory and Alfred Moss, Stirling's father, in late 1957.

They spent 1958 and 1959 competing in Formula Two events, with the odd entry into F1 races, particularly in the UK, and experimented with 1.5-litre Borgward engines for their 1959-spec T51s, under an arrangement whereby Stirling Moss would use the Borgward-engined BRP cars with Rob Walker as the entrant.

BRP's list of drivers for 1960 was quite impressive, including at various points future champions Phil Hill and Denis Hulme, respected names like Tony Brooks and Dan Gurney, as well as Ferrari sportscar ace Olivier Gendebien.

[1] Scuderia Castellotti Championship results (key) The T51 was entered into championship races by a further twelve organisations, the most notable being Reg Parnell, who later took over Yeoman Credit's racing activities from BRP, and Fred Armbruster, who entered Pete Lovely in the 1960 United States Grand Prix with a T51 uniquely fitted with a Ferrari Tipo 555 engine, a different engine to those used by Scuderia Eugenio Castelotti.