{{Short description|Formula One race car}} {{Use British English|date=August 2022}} {{Racing car | Car_name = Cooper T73 | Image = Cooper T71-73 Wheatcroft Straight.jpg| Category = Formula One | Constructor = Cooper Car Company | Designer = Owen Maddock | Predecessor = Cooper T66 | Successor = Cooper T77 | Team = Cooper Car Company | Drivers = {{flagicon|New Zealand}} Bruce McLaren<br />{{flagicon|USA|1911}} Phil Hill<br /> {{flagicon|AUT}} Jochen Rindt| Chassis = Steel spaceframe with partial stressed panels | Front suspension = Double wishbone, inboard coil spring and damper | Rear suspension = Lower wishbone, upper trailing arm and transverse link, coil spring and damper | Wheelbase = | Track = | Engine name = Coventry Climax FWMV | Capacity = 1.5-litre | Turbo/NA = naturally aspirated, | Configuration = V8, | Engine position = rear mid, longitudinally mounted. | Gearbox name = Cooper | Gears = 6-speed | Type = manual gearbox. | Weight = | Differential = | Fuel = | Tyres = Dunlop | Debut = 1964 Monaco Grand Prix | Races = 21 | Podiums = 2 | Wins = 0 | Fastest_laps = 0 | }}
The '''Cooper T73''' is a 1.5-litre Formula One car, designed, developed and produced by Cooper Cars for the 1964 Formula One season.
==Development== Bruce McLaren had persuaded Cooper to build a car, the T70, for the 1964 Tasman Series. It was based on the 1963 T66, and the T73 in turn was based on the T70. Consequently it still had a tubular steel chassis, but with additional stressed steel panels welded to the floor and sides. Front suspension was by double wishbones and inboard spring/dampers connected by rocker arms. At the rear there was a lower wishbone and a trailing arm connected to an upper link. The Tasman car had a small fuel tank for the shorter Tasman races, so the T73 had additional pannier tanks. As before, the Climax FWMV V8 supplied the power through a Cooper six-speed gearbox.
==Racing history== The T73 was driven by Bruce McLaren and Phil Hill in 1964, debuting at the Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren's car broke a wishbone in practice and he drove the previous year's T66 in the race, while Phil Hill retired with suspension failure. Thereafter, it was another season of disappointment, with McLaren's best results being second place in Belgium and Italy. He finished seventh in the World Championship. Hill had an even worse season, scoring a solitary one point and managing to crash both his T73 and the spare T66 in Austria, resulting in his temporary sacking by John Cooper, which resulted in him sitting out the Italian Grand Prix, replaced by John Love. The season ended with Cooper fifth in the Constructors' Championship.
McLaren and new teammate Jochen Rindt raced the T73 at the 1965 South African Grand Prix, after which it was replaced by the T77, although Rindt resorted to the spare T73 at the Italian Grand Prix when he bent a valve in his main car. One of the works cars was later sold to J.A. Pearce Engineering who fitted it with a Ferrari GTO 3-litre V12 and entered it in several races in 1966 and 1967 for Chris Lawrence. It was not particularly successful although it finished 5th in the 1966 International Gold Cup.
A derivative hybrid version, called the '''T71/73''', was a mix between the T73 and the Formula 2 T71 chassis, powered by a 1.5 litre Ford Twin-Cam engine and built by Bob Gerard Racing and entered in the British Grand Prix in 1964 and 1965.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oldracingcars.com/cooper/t71-73/|title=Cooper T71/73 history}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pf-bn_ihlhYC&dq=cooper+t71+f2+weight&pg=PA220 | title=1 1/2-litre Grand Prix Racing: Low Power, High Tech | isbn=9781845840167 | last1=Whitelock | first1=Mark | date=10 August 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.oldracingcars.com/cooper/t73/ | title=Cooper T73 car-by-car histories }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/108/Cooper-T73.html | title=1964 Cooper T73 - Images, Specifications and Information }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/spec/108/Cooper-T73.html | title=1964 Cooper T73 Specifications }}</ref>
==Formula One World Championship results== {| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center" ! Year ! Entrant ! Chassis ! Engine ! Tyres ! Drivers ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 4 ! 5 ! 6 ! 7 ! 8 ! 9 ! 10 ! WCC ! Points |- !rowspan="5"| {{F1|1964}} |rowspan="4"| Cooper Car Company |rowspan="4"| T73 |rowspan="4"| Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 |rowspan="5"| {{Dunlop}} | | MON | NED | BEL | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | ITA | USA | MEX !rowspan="4"| 5th !rowspan="4"| 16 |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|USA}} Phil Hill |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 9 |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 8 |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 7 |style="background:#DFFFDF"| 6 |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret | | |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 9 |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|New Zealand}} Bruce McLaren | |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 7 |style="background:#DFDFDF"| 2 |style="background:#DFFFDF"| 6 |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#DFDFDF"| 2 |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 7 |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Rhodesia|1964}} John Love | | | | | | | |style="background:#FFCFCF"| DNQ | | |- | Bob Gerard Racing | T71/73 | Ford 109E 1.5 L4 |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} John Taylor | | | | |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 14 | | | | | ! NC ! 0 |- !rowspan="4"| {{F1|1965}} |rowspan="3"| Cooper Car Company |rowspan="3"| T73 |rowspan="3"| Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 |rowspan="4"| {{Dunlop}} | | RSA | MON | BEL | FRA | GBR | NED | GER | ITA | USA | MEX !rowspan="3"| 5th !rowspan="3"| 14 |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|New Zealand}} Bruce McLaren |style="background:#DFFFDF"| 5 | | | | | | | | | |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Austria}} Jochen Rindt |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret | | | | | | |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 8 | | |- | Bob Gerard Racing | T71/73 | Ford 109E 1.5 L4 |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} Alan Rollinson | | | | |style="background:#FFFFFF"| DNS | | | | | ! NC ! 0 |- !rowspan="2"| {{F1|1966}} |rowspan="2"| J.A. Pearce Engineering |rowspan="2"| T73 |rowspan="2"| Ferrari Tipo 168 3.0 V12 |rowspan="2"| {{Dunlop}} | | MON | BEL | FRA | GBR | NED | GER | ITA | USA | MEX | !rowspan="2"| NC !rowspan="2"| 0 |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} Chris Lawrence | | | |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 11 | |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret | | | | |}
==Formula One Non-Championship results== {| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center" ! Year ! Entrant ! Chassis ! Engine ! Tyres ! Drivers ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 4 ! 5 ! 6 ! 7 ! 8 |- !rowspan="3"| {{F1|1964}} |rowspan="2"| Cooper Car Company |rowspan="2"| T73 |rowspan="2"| Climax FWMV 1.5 V8 |rowspan="3"| {{Dunlop}} | | DMT | NWT | SYR | AIN | INT | SOL | MED | RAN |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|New Zealand}} Bruce McLaren | | | |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 15 | | | |- | Bob Gerard Racing | T71/73 | Ford 109E 1.5 L4 |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} John Taylor | |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 7 | |style="background:#DFFFDF"| 5 |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 10 | | | |- !rowspan="3"| {{F1|1965}} |rowspan="3"| Bob Gerard Racing |rowspan="3"| T71/73 |rowspan="3"| Ford 109E 1.5 L4 |rowspan="3"| {{Dunlop}} | | ROC | SYR | SMT | INT | MED | RAN | | |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} John Rhodes |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 11 | |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 8 |style="background:#EFCFFF"| Ret | | | | |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} Piers Courage | | | | |style="background:#FFCFCF"| DNQ | | | |- !rowspan="2"| {{F1|1966}} |rowspan="2"| J.A. Pearce Engineering |rowspan="2"| T73 |rowspan="2"| Ferrari Tipo 168 3.0 V12 |rowspan="2"| {{Dunlop}} | | RSA | SYR | INT | OUL | | | | |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} Chris Lawrence | | | |style="background:#DFFFDF"| 5 | | | | |- !rowspan="3"| {{F1|1967}} |rowspan="3"| J.A. Pearce Engineering |rowspan="3"| T73 |rowspan="3"| Ferrari Tipo 168 3.0 V12 |rowspan="3"| {{Dunlop}} | | ROC | SPC | INT | SYR | OUL | ESP | | |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} Chris Lawrence |style="background:#CFCFFF"| 8 | | | | | | | |- |style="text-align:left"| {{Flagicon|Britain}} Robin Darlington | | | WD | | | | | |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Cooper Car Company}} {{F1 cars 1964}} {{F1 cars 1965}} {{F1 cars 1966}}
Category:Cooper Formula One cars Category:1960s cars Category:Cars of England Category:Long stubs with short prose
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