COOPER – ROLLING OUT A BARREL OF HISTORY

Coopers still draw admiring glances even half a century after their heyday

The Cooper Car Club were able to offer no less than six classes comprising 54 sports and racing Coopers of different types, from the first ever production model built in 1948 to the successful formula racing cars of the mid 1950s and a section for early Mini Coopers.

Coopers won two World Championships in 1959 and 1960 with Australian driver ( and later team owner ) Jack Brabham. Later in the 1960s, Mini Coopers also succeeded in international rallying and saloon car racing – often beating much bigger and more powerful opposition.

Cooper drivers included Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart ( both later Knighted ), Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins and Graham Hill, although less well known are Gloucestershire drivers Ivor Bueb, Mike MacDowel and Jack Lewis.

Londoner Ivor Bueb moved to Cheltenham in 1945 and allied himself with the garage business of Geoffrey Turk. Ivor also joined the Cheltenham Motor Club and through it met Jack Welton, who raced a single seat 500cc Cooper. In 1954, Ivor Bueb bought a new Cooper and proved so successful in that year’s racing season that Cooper signed him up for their Works team. He finished second in the 1955 British 500 cc Championship and then moved to Jaguar, partnering Mike Hawthorn to victory in the Le Mans 24-hour sports car race. Ivor Bueb was to go on to win the 1956 Rheims 12 Hour event and Le Mans again in 1957 alongside Ron Flockhart before he tragically died in a racing accident at Clermont Ferrand, France, on 1 August 1959.

Mike MacDowel from Sheepscome, near Stroud, joined Coopers as a Works driver in 1956 after winning a national sports car championship in 1955. After success with Cooper Works sports cars he moved to a single seat car in which Cooper contested their first World Championship races in 1957. However, in that year’s French Grand Prix, the other Cooper team vehicle had to be retired half way through the race and Mike handed his car over to Jack Brabham – thus ending his only Grand Prix drive. Nonetheless, in a career stretching from 1968 to 1979, Mike MacDowel captured the British Hillclimb Championship in 1973 and 1974 even if he never took the outright Prescott Hill record.

Stroud’s Jack Lewis meanwhile started at the Cooper Racing Driver’s School at Brands Hatch, Kent, in 1958 and then bought the 500cc Cooper previously driven by Ivor Bueb. After winning races in this car, Jack went on to capture the British Formula Two Championship in another Cooper in 1960. His best result in Formula One was fourth in the Italian Grand Prix of 1961.

THE EARLY DAYS

In the1930's Charles Cooper had worked regularly as a mechanic for the famous land-speed record driver Kaye Don and also ran a modest garage in Surbiton, Surrey, performing more straightforward car repairs. His son John - born in 1923 - thus grew up in an exciting mechanical environment.

John left school at the age of 15 to become an apprentice toolmaker. After RAF service as an instrument maker during the latter stages of the Second World War, he was eager to pursue his passion for cars. Determined to enter motor racing, he teamed up with his old friend Eric Brandon, to embark on a project that would change the course of his life.

Together they used their talents and ingenuity to construct the single-seater Cooper 500 from the transverse leaf spring front and rear suspensions of two old Fiat Topolino front-ends found in a scrap yard. Powered by a pre-war JAP 500cc dirt bike engine, this car with its simple ladder frame chassis was uniquely distinguished from all others by the simple location of the engine behind the driver.

The first competitive outing of the prototype Cooper 500 was at Prescott Hill in 1946, where John and Charles Cooper rubbed shoulders with members of the Bugatti Owners Club - who had created the speed hill climb in 1938 and still own the site today.

The Cooper 500 proved to be an outstanding success, encouraging John and his father Charles to found the Cooper Car Company in 1947. However - due to the post war shortage of raw materials - the suspension uprights were welded up from steel salvaged from a Morrison air raid shelters, and the aluminium for the distinctive Bugatti inspired cast wheels came from Coley's yard - the depository for the waste metal from the Vickers and Hawker aircraft factories. The liners for the integral brake drums were turned from marine engine cylinder liners.

THE FORMULAS FOR SUCCESS

Motor racing in postwar Great Britain was still very much in its infancy but John Cooper was instrumental in persuading circuits like Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Goodwood to persevere with motor racing as a sport and the success of the 500cc car also led the Cooper Car Company into new markets.

Providing a relatively inexpensive entry point into motorsport, the Cooper 500 heralded a boom in the business for father and son. The Cooper Car Company became the world's first and largest post-war, specialist racing car manufacturer for sale to private customers, or 'privateers' as they were known in the motorsport world. The list of successful Cooper drivers included Alan Brown, J.Brise, Ian Burgess, Ken Carter, John Coombs, Bob Gerrard, D.Gray, Les Leston, Stuart Lewis-Evans, Andre Loens, Jim Russell, George Wicken and Bill Whitehouse. A less successful driver was Bernie Ecclestone but one of their first customers for the popular Cooper 500 was none other than Stirling ( now Sir Stirling ) Moss, who launched his driving career at Prescott Hill Climb in a Mark 2 Cooper in 1948. Incidentally, Murray Walker began motor sports commentating over the tannoy at Prescott Hill in in the 1950s.

As with any successful racing car there was continuous development and between 1951 and 1954 Mark 2 Cooper 500s won 64 out of 78 major races. There were many different motorcycle engines fitted to these cars but the Norton was by far the most successful. The most powerful were those tuned by Francis Beart of Kingston, who was building and developing them for motorcycle racing and was decidedly unhelpful to the troublesome car racers. These twin overhead camshaft 500 single cylinder engines known as "double knocker" Nortons ultimately became the basis for the successful Vanwall Grand Prix racing engines.

The Mark 6 of 1952 was the first to use the now-familiar tubular chassis frame. The Cooper frame was not strictly a space frame because it used four curved main tubes with struts in between and lugs to act as pick up points for the various components. An early type of disc brake system by Palmer-HRG was also available from 1955.

The success of the 500cc cars attracted drivers from other Formulae and about 100 cars were fitted with larger V-twin motorcycle engines, the most popular being the JAP and Vincent.

These cars were particularly successful in hillclimbs and sprints, the RAC Hill Climb Championship being won by Ken Wharton in the years 1951 to 1954 and in the following years to 1957 by David Boshier-Jones. Tony Marsh also won 6 RAC Hill Climb Championships later on. The uprated Coopers could also give a good account of themselves in Formula 2 and Formula Libre events.

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One of these cars was purchased by Bob Chase to be driven by Mike Hawthorn and in it's first outing at the Goodwood Easter meeting it was second to Froilan Gonzales in the 4.5-litre "Thinwall Special" having previously won two supporting races. Mike Hawthorn went on to win three more major events with the car that year. Other successes with the Cooper Bristol were gained by Alan Brown, Bob Gerrard, Rodney Nuckey, Ken Wharton and the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio.

The scene was now set for Cooper to launch its eagerly awaited assault on the world of Formula 1. Private-owner Jack Brabham drove his specially-made Formula 2 car to sixth place in the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix, after previously running as high as third. On difficult, winding circuits with their superior balance, the agile Coopers were now beginning to challenge the supremacy of Ferrari, Maserati, Vanwall and BRM.

There was also a Cooper Alta built for Stirling Moss from a design by another John Cooper (no relation), but this was not a success. However, back in Surbiton, some Cooper sports - as opposed to Formula 1 cars - were built from 1948 to 1952 based on the 500cc cars using engines from Ford, Vauxhall, MG, Rover and Lea Francis. The first of the rear-engined sports cars arrived in 1955 with tubular chassis and retained the transverse leaf spring held between rollers, so that the position of them could be altered to modify the anti-roll effect. The engines were the Coventry Climax 1,098cc and 1,460cc overhead camshaft units developed from the fire pump design.

The gearbox for these early cars was taken from the Citroen Light 15, reversed, and fitted behind the engine. It was not strong enough for the power of the larger engines and when failure did occur it was disastrous because there was so little clearance between the crown wheel that the casing split. The Citroen was no longer in production so the Cooper team were always rushing around the local scrap yards looking for replacements. The body was unusual with a centre seating position and cut-off tail. They set a new trend in long distance sports car racing with class wins at the Sebring 9 Hours and Goodwood 12 Hours.

THE COOPERS CLIMAX

Formula 2 cars were raced by Brabham, Roy Salvadori and Bruce McLaren to many wins in 1957 and 1958. The 1958 cars were the first Coopers to discard the transverse leaf spring layout. Coopers were fitted with the Borgward "Rennsport" engine for the British Racing Partnership in 1959 and won all the 19 major races for their class.

1958 was also the year when the private entrant, Rob Walker, changed the concept of Formula 1 racing car design by fitting a two litre Coventry Climax engine in one of Cooper's rear engined Formula 2 chassis and winning the Argentine and Monaco Grand Prix. His team drivers were Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant. The following year Jack Brabham took the World Championship and again in 1960 with 6 Grand Prix wins in a Type 60. The small frontal area and low weight of the Cooper proved its worth against cars with larger engines and as a result all Grand Prix cars now have rear engines.

In the sports car category the Jim Russell built Cooper Monaco, with a space frame chassis, was introduced in 1958 with a Coventry Climax engine bored out to 2.7-litres. This was a very successful car which was still winning races as late as 1963 in the hands of Roy Salvadori. It also formed the basis for Carroll Shelby's King Cobra.

Formula Junior really took off in 1960 and the British designed cars became dominant. The Cooper Mark 1 car was powered by the BMC 998cc engine from the Austin-Healey Sprite, but had, on most occasions, to give second best to the Ford Cosworth engined Lotus 18s. It did however give John Surtees his first experience of racing cars after a very successful career on motorcycles.

The 1961 Cooper Formula Junior with coil spring rear suspension was more successful and John Love, Tony Maggs and John Rhodes were rewarded with wins.

The introduction of the 1.5-litre Formula 1 in 1961 allowed Ferrari, who were further advanced with the "shark nose", to dominate. 1962 saw the departure of Jack Brabham to form his own team and the promotion of Bruce McLaren to number 1 Cooper works driver. He rewarded them with a third place in the Constructors Championship after wins at Spa and Reims.

ENGINE FAILURE

The management of the Cooper Formula 1 team was taken over by Ken Tyrell in 1963 who inherited the Type 66 and Bruce McLaren and Tony Maggs as drivers. The team was under funded and lacked the ongoing relationship with an engine manufacturer so necessary to retaining a competitive edge. Even the Formula Junior cars with the hydrolastic suspension were out of the running. The only real success was achieved by Roger Penske who had taken a Formula I car and converted it into a sports racing car called the Zerex Special from which the McLarens were developed.

In 1964 the T72 Formula 3 was driven by Jackie Stewart with great success, but this was more to do with driver ability than car design. The T73 Formula 1 driven by Phil Hill and Bruce McLaren was not so successful. Backing from the Chipstead Motors Group, owned by the Marks and Spencer heir, and the signing of Jochen Rindt in 1965 did nothing to improve matters. An ambitious project - which included hastily commissioning Maserati to build a special V-12 engine when the proposed 16-cylinder Coventry Climax engine failed to materialise - was undertaken in 1966. A new monocoque chassis was also designed by Tony Robinson for drivers were Joe Bonnier, Richie Ginther, Guy Ligier, Jochen Rindt and John Surtees but they were unable to make any real impact with a car that was too heavy and did not handle well. The new T83 Formula 3 car was also outclassed.

Maserati designed another engine for 1967 but this did not bring success, other than a win by Pedro Rodriguez in the South African Grand Prix, so the team switched to a BRM V-12 engine for 1968. But the death of driver Ludovico Scarfiotti killed practising in his Porsche at Rossfeld in Germany on June 8^th was only one of their problems. After failing to make the Formula 5000 T90 car into a competitive racing car and a lack of finance to develop the Alfa Romeo engined Formula 1 car the marque faded away.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN MOTOR RACING

The Cooper name lives on today with the new BMW inspired Mini, and also in a remarkable new tome: Memorable Moments in Motor Racing, published by Cyan Books. Gaining ISBN 1904979586 in November 2005, this 304-page hardback has a recommended price of £20.00 and is old in aid of NARA – The Breathing Charity. Edited by David Barzilay and with a foreword by David Coulthard, it is illustrated by historic photographs, Michael Turner paintings and Jim Bamber cartoons and was compiled by NARA supporter and motor racing enthusiast Mike Jiggle. He started this easy yet compelling read by asking several hundred motor sports personalities – not to mention legends – what their most memorable motor racing moment was. Here are some of the Cooper related answers:

Alan Brown, Formula One driver

"It was, I suppose, winning the British Empire Trophy in 1954 in a Cooper Bristol. You know, motor racing is the best sport in the World. I also remember being at Silverstone in 1956 and thinking it’s time to give up so I stopped for no particular reason other than I ran out of steam.

Tony Crook, Formula One driver

"I suppose it was either my first or last race ( 400 races and 10 years later ). So I will mention both. The very first race to be held in England after World War II was in 1946. It was held at Gransden Lodge on a former Bomber Command airfield. There had been a few sprints and hill climbs in the months before which I had competed in but this was the first actual race. I had always wanted to race and during the War, whilst in the RAF, I had to drive around the runways and perimeter tracks in my type 328 BMW. While still in uniform I had joined Raymond Mays, father of the ERA and BRM [ teams ]. He entered me for this first race and I won it! Thus becoming the first winner in the UK since the war. How proud I was! After that for the next 10 years races, sprints, long distance races followed every weekend. In these day’s we didn’t just appear every fortnight, as now. In 1954, for instance, I entered 60 races in one season. My last race was as memorable as my first, for a different reason. My first had been a winner, my last a crash! It was the end of the 1955 Goodwood 9 Hour race and, in the dark, a Ferrari in front of my Cooper Bristol lost its oil. I spun on it and was unavoidably rammed by Stirling Moss. Stirling was just behind me and could do nothing about it. He was winning his class and so was also eliminated. I was hospitalised but when I regained consciousness the biggest bunch of flowers was from Stirling Moss. I always remember those flowers and his absolute sportsmanship, more even than racing. How friendly we were in those days."

Ernie Knott, Signwriter

It was in May 1949. I had started a sign writing business in Brackley trading as Enotts Sign Service. The following year I was offered work by the track manager Jimmy Brown to carry out sign work for the Silverstone circuit. I became the official sign writer to the British Racing Drivers Club and wrote the main scoreboards that were erected in the pits area in addition to lots of direction and entrance signs. One of my duties was to number the racing cars prior to the International trophy meeting and at the Grand Prix plus some club meetings. I recall attending on the grid at the start of the 1952 British Grand Prix with paint and brush in hand. Engines were started, revving and raring to go. The chief timekeeper shouted to me that he could not see the number on the wide mesh of the grille on Mike Hawthorn’s Cooper Bristol and instructed me to paint another number nine on the right hand side of the nose panel. I quickly stepped into action and as I completed the number the flag was dropped and the grid swept away in a cloud of rubber. A scary moment! The winner was Alberto Ascari in the 500 Ferrari and Mike was third having started fourth on the grid."

Jim Russell, Racing Driver / Owner of the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School

" When I built the Cooper Monaco and was also running the Formula 2 car and had a mechanic with one car and Ivor Bueb’s mechanic with another. But then we went to Oulton Park for the British Empire Trophy meeting with two cars, Salvadori, Moss, Graham Hill were all there, and I went out, won the British Empire Trophy with a Formula Two car. There’s a photo of me with Brabham and Salvadori at the start of the sportscar race, and I won that too. So that moment really stands out. I was also happy with what I did with the two litre Cooper Monaco, which I got going faster than the Formula Two cars. I got a trophy at Snetterton for holding five lap records there. Formula Three, Formula Two, the Cooper Monaco with the two litres – unlimited and outright records. Those were all big things for me."

Rob Walker, Team owner

"During my Formula One racing days, Ferrari were always our chief rivals, and the team to beat. In 1959 Stirling Moss was driving for me , and in September we took part in the Italian Grand prix in Monza in our undersized Cooper. Monza is really the home of motor racing since the early 1920s. The spectators were about 120 000 Ferrari fanatics, known as the Tifosi. In practice Stirling managed to place the car in pole position. It was the habit at Monza for the chief mechanic to push the car with his other mechanics and, accompanied by the owner, onto the grid. Ferrari always used only one mechanic to push the car to show off to the crowd how light and free the car was. For us this was easy with the tiny Cooper, and it was pushed into pole position, with me standing beside it. I felt very proud while thousands of Tifosi were howling at us! But I felt even prouder when Stirling brought the car home first ahead of a host of Ferraris and Maseratis."

Under John Cooper, the Monte Carlo Rally Mini became a British icon

COOPER'S MINI MONTE CARLO ADVENTURE

Since its inception in 1911 by Monaco's Prince Albert I, the rally, under difficult and demanding conditions, was organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco, the same group that organised the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco and the Monaco Kart Cup.

Since 1973, the race has been held in January as the first race of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship, run over a 1,461 kilometre course in 15 different stages. But nine years earlier - on 17 January 1964 the Monte Carlo Rally became more challenging than ever with the entry of well-organized factory teams. And among such large, powerful cars as V8 engined Ford Falcons, Mercedes-Benz 300SE, a Volvo 544, Saab 96 and other pedigree challengers from Citroen were some rather special Minis.

Originally conceived as an inexpensive and economical means of transportation following the 1956 Suez Crisis, the fuel-sipping Mini designed by Sir Alec Issigonis - first produced by the British Motor Corporation in 1959 - had been transformed into the hot-blooded Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S thanks to the legendary John Cooper of Formula 1 fame.

John Cooper recognized the transverse-engined Mini's excellent attributes as a quick and nimble performer with great potential on the motorsport circuits. As well as combining its gearbox and engine casing, the " traction avant" Mini had a "wheel at each corner" with all-independent variable-rate rubber suspension, letting it hug every curve like a Kart. The Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S clearly stood out as the "every man's sports car". There was truly no other car in the market able to offer the same kind of sporting performance for so little money and providing outstanding driving pleasure within such compact dimensions.

Wherever the Mini - either in standard trim or in highly modified form - appeared at the start of a race, newspaper headlines were never far behind. And from 23 January 1964 Belfast born Paddy Hopkirk - hunched over the wheel next to his skilled navigator Henry Liddon -gave the press plenty to write about.

On snowy sections of the route from Minsk over twisting mountain passes, red, white-roofed Mini 37's front-wheel-drive proved advantageous over the more powerful - albeit heavier and larger - rear-wheel-drive competition. "The snowplow had been on the roads, they were very narrow so it suited a small car," Hopkirk said. "We were also well prepared; it was a very ... grounded car."

And in the final moments of the rally on the Grand Prix circuit, Paddy and Henry pulled a sensational victory over the second place contender by little more than 30 points. After his victory, Hopkirk was feted as a hero. His fame was such that he was invited on Britain's biggest television programme, Sunday Night at the Palladium, and he even got to meet the Beatles.

Around the country too, young men were adding rally style spotlamps to the front of their own Minis. Or failing that, attaching saucepan lids and covering them with rally style covers to save money!

In 1965, the Mini grabbed top honors again, this time piloted by Timo Makinen from Finland, with one of the greatest drives ever. He was the only non-penalized car in the whole event. He never arrived late to a time control or put a wheel wrong in over 3,000 miles of competition.

January 1966 meanwhile saw Paddy Hopkirk in a 1275cc Mini Cooper S registered 'GRX5D', while Rauno Aaltonen and Timo Makinen drove similar Group One compliant cars registered as 'GRX55D' in 'GRX555D' respectively. The team set out for Monte Carlo, confident of another victory. Like the previous two years, the Minis could not be caught and they quickly showed their supremacy.

But just before the final section of the rally, an odd notice appeared at rally HQ stating that all competing cars had to be fitted with both a driving beam and a passing beam. The French officials could not believe the Minis were dominating their race and so they set about scrutinizing the three cars in a desperate attempt to find an irregularity. Eight hours later, the Minis were disqualified because of their headlamps!

However, the Mini’s were back in 1967, headlights in order, and they won again, this time with the team of Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon. The legend of the Mini as a giant-killer racer was assured!

A sought-after Corgi diecast model of Timo Makinen's Mini Cooper S GRX 555 D