1961 Mk2,T56 

Original Specification.

Wheelbase   7’ 5”

Track            4’ front, 3’11” rear.
Engine          BMC-XSP.  64.4mm bore x 76.2mm stroke, capacity 994cc.
                      Wet sump. Single twin-choke Weber carburettor.
Gearbox       Renault 4 speed, or at optional extra cost
                      Citroen-ERSA 4 speed with 3 pairs of quick-change
                      alternative ratio final drive drop gears.
                      Sliding spline drive shafts.
Wheels         13” cast magnesium.
Brakes          8” radial fin cast magnesium drums.
                      Hydraulic twin leading shoe.

This second Formula Junior was designed to closely resemble the contemporary F1 model and the now predominately straight tube chassis, just 2 inches shorter wheelbase than the F1 car, was clothed in a fibreglass body with a long nose & high tail fin and was the first Cooper to use 13” wheels.
Suspension was coil springs & wishbones all round, retaining the previous uprights but now with brake drums separate from the wheels.
BMC continued as the standard engine but some Ford Cosworths were fitted which had become available in 1098cc capacity and dry sump.
Walt Hansgen was victorious in the models’ very first race, actually in November 1960, at Riverside, California in the prototype.
Ricardo Rodriguez then won with this car in Mexico City, following which it featured in a motor racing B movie film, in which Ricardo was lead actor and the car was painted in Coke-Cola colours complete with huge bottle top logos.
Future World Champion, New Zealander Denis Hulme raced a Mk2 several times and eventually won with his car Pescara. 
Nearer home, Tony Maggs and John Love were hugely successful, finishing 1st & 2nd together for the Works Team in over a dozen European races, sharing the laurels roughly equally and even staging a dead heat once at Montlhery.
The Midland Racing Partnership team fielded up to five of this model and John Rhodes won a great many of the UK races for them. He went on to race Grand Prix Coopers and acquired the title “Smoking” Rhodes when he raced Mini-Coopers to equally good effect.
On the strength of all this success the famous film actor and motorcycle racer Steve McQueen bought one of the works team cars at the end of the year.
30 cars are known to survive including Works Team cars, MRP cars and the Hansgen/Rodriguez car.

1961 Cooper FJ Mk2 T56 Tony Maggs, 7th Aug 1961, Brands Hatch

Courtesy of the Cooper Car Club Archive