On December 12th 1959 Jack Brabham pushed his Cooper T51 across the line at Sebring for a fourth place finish in the United States Grand Prix. That gave the Australian enough points to win his first World Championship. It also secured the Constructor's Championship for the Cooper team. History was written that day as it was the first World Championship for a mid-engined car as well as the first time a customer engine beat major manufacturers the likes of Ferrari and Maserati. Cooper's revolution had immediate effect as no other front-engined machine ever won the championship again. The T51 represented the fourth evolution of the single seater introduced halfway trough 1956. The lack of a proper engine prevented the team to compete in Formula 1 on a relatively level playing field until 1959. This was finally made possible by the arrival of a 2.5 litre version of the Climax engine, which proved to be the final piece of the puzzle. Today we celebrate Cooper's revolution and Brabham's heroic efforts at Sebring with a detailed look at the highly influential Cooper T51 Climax.
This year's Formula 1 season also saw a new team take home the trophies at their first attempt. News of a Mercedes-Benz take-over earlier this week also means it was Brawn GP's only attempt. Their Mercedes-Benz engined BGP001 propelled Jenson Button to six wins in the opening seven races. Rubens Barrichello added two more victories during the team's fairytale season. For most of the pre-season, it looked like there would be no team at all after Honda had announced its withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of 2008. Team principal Ross Brawn eventually found enough funding to take over the team and just a few weeks ahead of the first Grand Prix the BGP001 was rolled out. It immediately impressed during testing and Button and Barrichello caused a major upset by finishing first and second at the team's debut. The BGP001 was the big star of the most surprising Formula 1 season in many years. As a 'Silver Arrow', Brawn will enter the 2010 season with two new drivers as Barrichello and Button will move to Williams and McLaren respectively next year. It will be very interesting if the impressive form can be maintained.

Although the Ferrari F40 LM was developed by Michelotto in the late 1980s, it was not seriously raced in Europe until half a decade later. The arrival of the GT1 class and the BPR Championship finally provided the racing F40 with a podium to shine on. Its closest competition was the brand new McLaren F1 GTR but the Ferrari nevertheless proved hugely competitive. One of our feature cars won a BPR race in 1995 and finished 12th at Le Mans. For 1996 Michelotto developed an even wilder 'GTE' version of the F40, which was even more competitive and often outpaced the McLarens. A year later both the Ferrari and McLaren faced purpose-built racing cars from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz and gradually lost touch. The ultimate development of these GT1 machines was the Mercedes-Benz CLK-LM that was used in the second half of the 1998 season. Although it failed at Le Mans, the V8-engined racer won all subsequent rounds of the FIA GT Championship. It very effectively killed off the GT1 class that very briefly saw the world's finest supercars go head-to-head. Both the F40 LM and CLK-LM are pictured earlier this year during the Modena Trackdays.
In 2010 four new teams look set to join Formula 1, which is in part made possible by the readily available Cosworth V8 engine. It is a repeat of the 1970 season when a host of new manufacturers tried their luck at Formula 1 with a car built around the Cosworth DFV engine. The most successful of these was March, who aimed at selling their new 701 at customers. Among them was Ken Tyrrell, who entered his Marches for World Champion Jackie Stewart. The Scot scored three pole positions and won one race in 'his' 701 before switching to the first Tyrrell. Our extensive gallery features four of eleven 701s built, including the example used by Stewart. A little less fortunate was DeTomaso's efforts with the Dallara built and Frank Williams run 505. The car was too heavy and Williams' lead driver Piers Courage suffered a fatal crash. One of the surviving chassis has recently been fully restored by Hall & Hall and was driven up the hill at the most recent Festivals of Speed. For 1971 Williams switched to a March 701, which is also featured in our article.

Although officially known as the Canadian American Challenge Cup, the Can-Am series was known for years as the 'Bruce and Denny Show'. That was a reference to the absolute domination by Team McLaren and its drivers Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme. The arrival of Porsche's turbocharged 917/10K in 1972 finally brought an end to five seasons of domination. Clearly 'outresourced', McLaren did not go down without a proper fight. Gordon Cuppock developed the M20, which was the first all new McLaren Can-Am car since 1968. Following contemporary F1 design, it featured side-mounted radiators, focusing all the weight around the centre of gravity of the car. In pre-season testing the M20 shattered all its predecessors' lap records. Very light and relatively nimble, the new McLaren at times managed to keep up with the turbocharged Porsche 917s, which had an additional 200 bhp on tap. Early in the season Denny managed to score two wins with the M20 but he could not challenge George Follmer for the remainder of the year. McLaren withdrew from Can-Am at the end of the year. Two years after Denny's last win, an M20 fittingly took Can-Am's final win. Earlier this year we caught up with one of the three M20s built for Team McLaren in 1972.
With McLaren gone in 1973, the sole remaining challenger for the all conquering Roger Penske entered Porsches was the Shadow team. During previous seasons, the all-black machines only really stood out due to their unusual designs, which always looked fantastic on pape. By employing British designer Tony Southgate some much needed convention arrived at the Don Nicholls run team. Southgate's first Can-Am design for Shadow was the DN2. In an attempt to match the Porsche's for power our feature car is fitted with a twin-turbocharged version of Chevrolet's big block engine. Sadly it never was close to reliable and the naturally aspirated version was blasted out of the water by the latest Porsches. With turbos virtually banned, Shadow won all but one race in 1974 with the DN4, which was a development of the DN2.

During the 1924 French Grand Prix the Bugatti Type 35 made its international racing debut. Although it would go on to become the most successful racing car ever constructed, it was thoroughly outpaced by the equally new Alfa Romeo P2. The two Alfa Romeos looked set to take a one-two win in the world-class field until Antonio Ascari's engine broke with three laps to go. His team-mate Giuseppe Campari held on to record Alfa Romeo's first win in a major Grand Prix. The P2 continued to dominate and Alfa Romeo became the very first World Champion in 1925. Although no longer eligible for the international events, the Grand Prix car was raced for several more seasons, scoring a further ten wins. The crowning win came in 1930 when Achille Varzi added the Targa Florio to the Alfa Romeo's tally. Responsible for the design of the brilliant racer was Vittorio Jano, who had been lured from rivals Fiat by a young Enzo Ferrari. The P2 used a twin-cam, supercharged straight-eight engine installed in a very light but sturdy frame. Today two examples still exist and we have taken a closer look at the Grand Prix version that is still owned by Alfa Romeo.
The Alfa Romeo P2 feature also serves as the introduction of our heavily revised 'Major Wins' section in the cars' spec tables. As you'll be able to see you can click on the years and races to get the results for that season or event over the years respectively. It is still very much a work in progress and the results' database is still growing rapidly.
Both Volvo and Renault revealed teasers this week of upcoming models. The clearest are the first pictures of the all new Volvo S60, which is set to debut during next year's Geneva Motor Show. On the 25th of this month Renault will revive the legendary Gordini brand with the introduction of the Twingo Gordini RS. The picture supplied only reveals the wheels but rest assured, the car will be bright blue. A Gordini version of the Clio and Megane will follow in due time.
At the recent SEMA Show, American tuner Lingenfelter had a go at bringing back another legendary machine; the Pontiac Trans Am. Using a 2010 Camaro as a donor they created the 455 T/A Concept. Its retro looks are backed up by a 655 bhp V8.