Aintree '57

[Ray Bell]

Were there any other sub-2-litre cars at Aintree then?

Is it possibly the supplementary regulations for the event precluded these and this subterfuge was simply to get a start?

Of course, the old Citroen gearbox was hard pressed enough dealing with 2-litres, of course.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Were there any other sub-2-litre cars at Aintree then?

No,but there were several at Silverstone in 1954.

[Ray Bell]

Well, maybe we're on the track of the reason then... supp regs that stipulated over 2-litre cars only. Otherwise you could be sure someone would have tried to run an Alta, a Cooper Bristol or something.

[Vitesse]

Setright, in "Grand Prix Car 1954-66", says specifically that one of the two Coopers at Rouen (presumably Brabham's) had an engine enlarged to 1.9 litres, while the other (MacDowell?) was a straight F2.

For the British GP he says 1.9 litres again for the works car, with the Walker car being 'similar'.

At Caen, Setright says one of the Coopers ran with a 2.0 litre engine - Sheldon says both Brooks (Walker car) and Salvadori (works) had this displacement.

We then jump to 1958 with Moss' famous victory in Argentina, still with 2 litres behind him and Monaco, where Trintignant also has a 2 litre Walker car (a new chassis with the old engine?).

However, Setright now comes up trumps -

Of the two factory-entered cars, one had a 2-litre Coventry Climax engine, the other a new one of 2.2 litres.

So, no 2.2 before Monaco 1958 ....

[Roger Clark]

THe 2015cc engine used by Walker cars in early 1958 was an Alf Francis special, built before Climax came up with the 2.2 litre engine. The extra 55cc that Francis achieved over the 1960cc engine can't have had much effect on performance and I can't help but wonder why he did it.

Jack Brabham had an over 2-litre engine built by Repco for the 1958 Australian races.

I assume that Setright's references to 1.9 litres and 2.0 litres (Vitesse's post) are the same thing. 1960cc is equivalent to 2.0 litres to one place of decimals, but many people would express it as 1.9.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Roger Clark
THe 2015cc engine used by Walker cars in early 1958 was an Alf Francis special, built before Climax came up with the 2.2 litre engine. The extra 55cc that Francis achieved over the 1960cc engine can't have had much effect on performance and I can't help but wonder why he did it....

In 1965 Australian Touring Car racing awoke to new regulations. Previously the cylinder capacity of a car was allowed to be enlarged to take it as close as one liked to the class capacity limit.

The new rules restricted boring to 0.040"... in the case of a Cooper S this meant a stretch of 35cc. Everyone did it, and they must have reckoned it was worthwhile because they kept on doing it. And I don't mean only among the Minis...