During this time Maddock designed a string of successful racing cars, including the Formula One World Championship-winning Cooper T51 and T53 models.

After leaving Cooper in 1963 Maddock went on to a successful career as an engineering consultant, including a spell as a hovercraft designer working for Saunders-Roe on the Isle of Wight.

He also counted saxophone, bass clarinet and piano among his repertoire, and continued to play and compete in jazz competitions until shortly before his death.

"[4] Melly also recalled that Maddock could take his passion for jazz to extremes: In his bedroom was an old-fashioned wind-up gramophone above which was suspended a weight through a pulley so adjusted as to lighten the pressure of the sound-arm on the record.

In fact the rather faded blonde with whom he was having an affair at that time told me she found it very disconcerting that, no matter what point they had reached, if the record finished, Owen would leap off and put on another.On graduation he gained Associate Membership of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, but his professional development was interrupted when he was called up for two years' National Service, during which he was stationed in Germany.

After demobilisation Maddock went home to Surrey, and returned to Kingston Tech in April 1948 to complete a refresher course to maintain his AMIMechE status.

[6] Gradually the Coopers began to make more use of Maddock's drafting skills, however, realising that having proper technical drawings was preferable to sketching designs to full scale on the walls, where they were frequently painted over!

[9] Eventually Maddock was installed in his own drawing office within the Cooper building, although it was somewhat cramped, being located beneath the works stores.

[11] The existing Cooper 500 chassis design process had been one of evolution since the earliest production 500s rolled out of the Surbiton works in 1947, and had been based on simple, traditional twin longitudinal box-section ladder frame.

However, when he showed each to Charlie Cooper his response was "Nah, Whiskers, that's not it..."[11] Frustrated, Maddock finally went away and drew a frame in which every tube was bent.

[11] Although the idea started as a joke Maddock would later defend the design, even in the teeth of strong criticism from Cooper's star driver Jack Brabham.

The design of the Cooper Bristol was largely based on that of the Mark V Formula Three car, though, with Maddock principally acting as a draughtsman.

In early 1953 industrialist, and owner of the Norton Motorcycle Company, Tony Vandervell approached the Coopers to obtain their assistance in building a chassis for his forthcoming racing engine.

A further four chassis were constructed to Maddock's design the following year, in Vandervell's own Vanwall racing team's premises across the River Thames in Acton, London.

The Vanwall cars went on to take the inaugural World Constructors' Championship in 1958, but by that time Cooper themselves were making inroads into the Formula One establishment.

Following on from producing the Vanwall Maddock began work on a new sportscar, designed around Coventry Climax's new FWA 1,098 cc inline-four engine.

John Cooper was, however, somewhat sceptical of the new silhouette, and regularly explained away its lack of tail by telling enquirers that "we had to cut it off because it wouldn't fit in the transporter otherwise".

Jack Brabham had gained a strong reputation as a racer in his native Australia driving a lightly modified Cooper Bristol which he branded the RedeX Special.

Brabham, working almost alone on the car, completed the Formula One special the day before its first race: the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree Circuit.

While the FWB was a development of a pump engine adapted for automobile use, the FPF was a bespoke, dry sumped racing design.

Even in 1,500 cc (92 cu in) Formula Two form Maddock's lightweight cars could produce strong performances against more powerful machinery, but the true potential of the design was shown when Rob Walker Racing decided to build a T43 with an enlarged 1964 cc FPF engine – and the works entered it for the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix.

[20] In the race itself Brabham climbed as high as third place, behind the Maserati 250F of Juan Manuel Fangio and the Vanwall of Tony Brooks, before the little car's fuel pump failed on its 100th lap.

For the first races of 1958 Walker retook possession of the modified car and, running on AvGas, Stirling Moss drove it to victory in the Formula One season opening 1958 Argentine Grand Prix.

The two clashed particularly over the curved tube chassis design, but the T45 had shown what could be achieved when the pair collaborated, and between the two of them they were to elevate Cooper to the top of the Formula One pack in the next few years.

Maximum capacity was cut from 1954-1960's 2.5 L to only 1.5 L (92 cu in), greatly reducing the power and torque available, but also bringing fuel economy and weight benefits.

This change required Formula One chassis designers to rethink their approach to a car's whole construction as poor handling and excess weight could no longer be effectively compensated for by greater engine output.

The introduction of the monocoque chassied Lotus 25 during the 1962 season, and its dominance in the hands of Jim Clark during 1963, highlighted the shortcomings of its spaceframe rivals, including the new Cooper T66.

[24] On his departure from Cooper Owen Maddock took up a post as a designer with Saunders-Roe, a large aeronautical engineering company based on the Isle of Wight.

Maddock had been drawn to the firm because of its leading role in the development of the hovercraft; he had also maintained an interest in aeronautics since taking up gliding as a hobby few years previously.

In later years, following the decline of the British hovercraft industry, employment had become hard to find and so Maddock returned to his love of jazz.