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The Italians may have perfected the mid-engine super car, but it was British racing innovation that got us there. The 1959 Formula One championship marked the first time a mid-engine race car had ever claimed the ultimate victory. Jack Brabham made racing history behind the wheel of a mid-engine Cooper T-51 race car, and the course of car design was forever altered, as mid-engined race cars began to dominate on the world’s racing circuits.
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By 1961 the Italians, who were at first slow to adapt to the mid-engine design were fully in the game, and all regular competitors in Formula One were driving mid-engined race cars. Other milestone victories for the mid-engine soon followed — the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans won by Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini in a Ferrari 250P; and the 1965 Indianapolis 500 won by Jim Clark driving a Lotus 38.
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