CyberSnippets

COOPER

Cooper Car Company Ltd., Surbiton, Surrey, UK 1947 - 1971

The Cooper Car Company was founded by Charles Cooper, as a result of being asked to make replicas of the successful 500cc Formula racing cars he built for his son John and Eric Brandon.

Charles had gained experience in the 1930s as mechanic and manager for Kaye Don and ran a small garage business in Surbiton. The lure of motor racing and the opportunity to build a low cost racing car for the new 500cc Formula was irresistible. In 1946 there were virtually no resources available for cars and so he used the transverse leaf spring front and rear suspension of the Fiat 500 "Topolino" salvaged from a scrap yard and a prewar "dirt track" 500cc JAP engine. The chassis was a simple ladder frame and the engine was mounted behind the driver.

These first two cars were so successful that by the end of 1947 there were orders for another 12 cars, which became the Mark 2.

The shortage of materials continued, the suspension uprights were welded up from steel salvaged from a war time Morrison air raid shelters, the aluminium for the distinctive cast wheels came from Coley's yard which was 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. These Cooper wheels were inspired by those seen pre-war on Bugatti racing cars with which Charles would have been familiar.

The Mark 2 was driven with great success by Stirling Moss, Peter Collins and many other aspiring racing drivers. As with any successful racing car there was continuous development and between 1951 and 1954 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 racing was close and exciting and the list of successful Cooper drivers included Ivor Bueb, 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.

The Mark 6 of 1952 was the first to use the 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 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 Hillclimb Championship being won by Tony Marsh in the years 1951 to 1954 and in the following years to 1957 by David Boshier-Jones. They could also give a good account of themselves in Formula 2 and Formula Libre events.

1952 was the year when Formula 2 temporarily became the premier formula and saw the introduction of the Cooper Bristol using the 2-litre Bristol engine mounted in the front of a box-section chassis frame with tubes supporting the body panels. It used the familiar transverse leaf spring suspension system. 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. He 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 and Ken Wharton.

There was also a Cooper Alta built for Stirling Moss from a design by John Cooper (no relation), but this was not a success.

Some Cooper sports cars were built from 1948 to 1952 based on the 500cc cars using engines from Ford, Vauxhall,MG, Rover and Lea Francis. Several wide chassis Cooper Bristols were built into front engined sports cars and raced successfully.

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 crownwheel that the casing split. The Citroen was no longer in production so they 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.

A single seat car was built with a Bristol engine for Jack Brabham to compete in Grand Prix racing whilst 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. Coopres were fitted with the Borgward "Rennsport" engine for rhe 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 2.5-litre Coventry Climax engine in the 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.

In the sports car category the 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 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 3^rd place in the Constructors Championship after wins at Spa and Reims.

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 underfunded 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 and a new monocoque chassis designed by Tony Robinson, was undertaken in 1966.

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 which 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 practicing 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.

The Cooper name lives on with the new BMW inspired Mini.

Cooper Formula 2
(Crystal Palace)

Cooper Bristol F2
(Cadwell Park)

Cooper Bristol F2
(Donington)

Cooper Climax T53
(Goodwood)

Cooper Bristol
(Silverstone)

Cooper Bristol
(Cadwell Park)

Cooper Bristol
(Shelsley Walsh)

Cooper Bristol Mk2
(Shelsley Walsh)

Cooper Formula 2
(Shelsley Walsh)

Cooper T43
(Coys Festival)

Cooper T45
(Coys Festival)