Birthday Present Set Coopers

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 21

Birthday Present Set Coopers

'pHE Cooper cars which should dominate the Lady Wigram Trophy race on Saturday originally came about as the result of a father’s

wish to give his son, aged 8, a tiny racing car to amuse himself. Charles Cooper designed and built this insignificant car himself at his Surbiton motor garage, and gave it to his son, John, as a birthday present. .This action laid the foundation of the outstanding rise to fame of the Cooper car.

Although a small car, John Cooper’s new vehicle packed plenty of power. It had a Fran-cis-Barnett motor-cycle engine and three-speed gearbox, fourwheel drum brakes, and a maximum speed of about 40 miles an hour.

John Cooper, born in Paris 66 years ago, was surprisingly enough not from a family of motoring enthusiasts, but one which had a theatrical tradition. He had not the slightest interest in the stage, and from his earliest days was wrapped up in cars. When aged 15, he was employed as an apprentice at the Napier factory at Acton, which was once famous for the racing cars it produced. In the First World War he was gassed at Valenciennes and spent several months in hospital, and on his return to Eng-

land set up his small garage business at Surbiton.

From 1921 to 1934, Charles Cooper was the mechanic of Kaye Don, a well-known racing driver. When Don got his 130 miles an hour badge at Brooklands in 1928 —the first person to gain an award for this speed—it was Charles Cooper who tuned the car. Cooper also drove an M.G. T agnette and raced in a team with the great Captain George Eyston. John Cooper, bred into a world of motoring talk and activity, was in his element from the start. At the age of eight, when he received his birthday present, he was already a confirmed addict of racing cars. When he was 12, he received another car designed and built by his father —a highly tuned Austin Seven fitted with twin carburettors and a special crankshaft, giving it a speed of about 90 miles an hour. John Cooper gave it plenty of hard work on grass tracks in different parts of England. After leaving school, John Cooper joined Hawkers, where he learned the tool trade. During the war years he worked on secret projects, including midget submarines.

It was perhaps inevitable that after the war, this remarkably skilled father and son team shoud combine on a major project. Realising that motor racing was becoming far out of reach of the ordinary man, the Coopers set their minds to work on building a car which would be cheap to buy and race. Their concept of building cars with motor-cycle engines was not a new one, but their originality of design paved the way for great things. In June, 1946, father and son in five weeks built a car with a Fiat 500 chassis and a J.A.P. speedway engine. Its first success was at the Brighton Speed Trials, where it recorded the best time in the 850 c.c. class. A second car was built in 1946, and then in 1947, when the two cars began notching more successes, inquiries denoted that the Cooper name had made its mark. A new company was

formed, 12 cars were put into production, and Coopers of Surbiton were on the road to the pinnacle of fame which they reached last year.

Stirling Moss was one of the first customers—then an unknown in motor racing. But it was in a Cooper that Moss first found his feet in the sport. Out of 16 events Cooper cars entered in 1948, they won 14.

Each year, a new 500 c.c. was brought out, and in 1952, the Formula II Cooper appeared with the 8.M.W.-based Bristol 1971 c.c. engine. Mike Hawthorn, the former world champion driver, was bought a new Cooper-Bristol by a friend of the family, and Hawthorn met such great success that he was hailed as one of the greatest “finds” of the year. The Cooper-Bristol won every race in its class at Goodwood that Easter, and was only beaten by a 4J-litre Ferrari in the Formula I race. Ferrari and Maserati were at that stage dominating grand prix racing, and Coopers recognised there was not sufficient power available in the Bristol engine. So it was that in 1956, when the new Coventry-Climax engine was designed, that Coopers really hit the limelight. Lotus and Cooper were both planning a car to take the new twin overhead camshaft Climax engine, but Coopers decided to launch a Cooper Climax with a special single overhead camshaft engine. This car met with considerable success.

To concentrate on major grands prix, Coopers built three cars for the 1958 motor racing season. Moss won the Argentine Grand