New Cooper At Goodwood

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30115, 26 April 1963, Page 11

New Cooper At Goodwood

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BRUCE McLAREN

JUST two weeks before the ° Glover Trophy race at Goodwood on Easter Monday, Coventry Climax told John Cooper he could have the first of the 1963 V 8 engines. It has a shorter stroke than the 1962 engine, and » fuel injection system—P.l. or petrol injection. A new Cooper chassis was nearing completion, so the decision was made to finish the first of the new works cars for the Goodwood meeting.

The new works Cooper displays new thinking in racing car suspension. The front suspension has been designed to prevent the nose dipping under braking, while the rear suspension has been altered to prevent the tail lifting under similar braking conditions. Basically the rest of the car is a 1962 model, but with a reduction in both weight and frontal area. New Seat

One of the major differences from last year’s car is that I no longer have an upholstered seat. Instead a seat tank has been fitted. With this new arrangement I am actually sitting in an eight-gallon fuel tank, the seat portion being shaped into a sort of form-fitting armchair. These seats are devoid of any upholstery to save space, and to an on-

looker must seem very uncomfortable.

Surprisingly enough, this is not the case. Because the driver is supported over a fairly large area he is more comfortable than on many fully-upholstered saloon car seats.

The general ride and •handling of the car is good, and this, combined with the flexibility and range of the P.I. Climax engine which we can now rev to 9500 r.p.m, (compared with 8800 r.p.m. last year) will, with a little more time for development and testing, make the Cooper

a very competitive GP car. The practice times were very close. Graham Hill was fastest in the works BRM with a comfortable onesecond advantage, but the new Brabham, my Cooper. Ireland's Lotus-BRM, and Ginther’s works BRM were all within o.Bsec of each other.

I led for the opening lap in the race and then had a fine old dice with the two works BRM's and Brabham.

He dropped out with a loose wire in the ignition system, and Ginther slowed and eventually retired with brake and engine troubles, leaving Hill, myself, and Ireland motoring along in front.

Ireland was flying in the Lotus-BRM and there wasn’t very much I could do about it when he caught and passed me. Then when Hill stopped because petrol wasn’t getting to the fuel injection set-up on the BRM, Ireland went on to a nice win for the British Racing Partnership. It was good to see fellowNew Zealanders doing well at Goodwood. Dennis Hulme was second in the Formula Junior race with a works Brabham, and a new boy to England, Chris Amon, drove a steady race to fifth place in the ex-Surtees Lola Climax VB. Another New Zealand newcomer was Ross Greenville, who had his first outing in a factory-entered Formula Junior Gemini