57-589: The Cooper Car Company was a British car manufacturer founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper . Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon , they began by building racing cars in Charles's small garage in Surbiton , Surrey , England, in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s they reached motor racing 's highest levels as their mid-engined, single-seat cars competed in both Formula One and
114-529: A 175 cc (10.7 cu in) motorcycle engine. He built himself a Flying Flea light aircraft from plans published in Practical Mechanics , and in 1936 he constructed a second special for John, now in his early teenage years, this time based on an Austin 7 . Cooper's Brooklands connections later blossomed into a partnership with Alfa Romeo racer Ginger Hamilton . With Hamilton's assistance, in 1934 Cooper moved his business to new premises about
171-508: A British travelling actor and theatrical manager. His mother was Franco-Spanish, and died when Cooper was very young. Following his mother's death Cooper's father moved Charles, his twin sister Judy and elder sister Lettie back to his native country, and set up a family home in Malden . On leaving school, Charles Cooper was taken on as an apprentice at Napier & Son 's engineering works in Acton . It
228-494: A Formula Ford car called the Oscar and also a series of Oval Circuit cars known as Fireballs. Driving the rear-engine version of this car, Frank won more than 200 races during a period up until 1975 in a car he had designed and raced himself. This record is believed to have never been beaten. In all, Coopers participated in 129 Formula One World Championship events in nine years, winning 16 races. Besides Formula One cars, Cooper offered
285-735: A couple of races, Ginther was recalled by Honda to commence testing of their new car and the American was no doubt more than somewhat chagrined to discover that it was even bigger and heavier than the Cooper. After making a one-off arrangement with Chris Amon (unemployed due to the McLaren team's engine problems) to drive in the French Grand Prix , Cooper had an enormous stroke of luck when John Surtees became available after falling out with Ferrari. Once conflicting fuel contract issues were resolved (Surtees
342-474: A key part of Don's racing team. In addition to tending to Don's varied stable of MGs and Bugattis , that were regularly raced at Brooklands , Cooper was also involved in the preparation and running of the Sunbeam Silver Bullet , Don's 1930 land speed record challenger. In his spare time, Cooper constructed a midget car for his nine-year-old son, with a custom-made chassis and bodywork, powered by
399-433: A mile down the road. The new garage and Vauxhall Motors dealership that Cooper built on wasteland behind 243 Ewell Road, which opened onto Hollyfield Road, was to become the heart of the Cooper operation right through its glory years. During the war years Cooper kept his business afloat by servicing fire engines. However, when John and his friend Eric Brandon returned from their wartime service in 1946 they decided to use
456-499: A plot of land on Ewell Road in Surbiton , near his family home, and built the business that would form the foundation for his future success. He married Elsie ( née Paul) in 1922 and the following year their son, John Cooper , was born. During the early years after the Great War Cooper's interest in motorcycles and motor sport brought him into contact with another record-breaking pioneer driver, Kaye Don . Cooper gradually became
513-465: A rear-engined racer at a Grand Prix event since the end of WWII. The front-engined Formula Two Cooper Bristol model was introduced in 1952. Various iterations of this design were driven by a number of legendary drivers – among them Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn – and furthered the company's growing reputation by appearing in Grand Prix races, which at the time were run to F2 regulations. Until
570-570: A second example built for Brandon, proved to be highly competitive and spawned a rush of interested parties keen to purchase a replica for their own use. In 1948 the Coopers and Brandon manufactured 12 of their first production Cooper 500 cars (the Mark II, or T5) for sale to the public, priced at slightly over £500. Among early purchasers was a young Stirling Moss , who later went on to a successful international Formula One career. Prompted by Spike Rhiando
627-526: A series of Formula Junior cars. These were the T52 , T56 , T59 , and T67 models. Ken Tyrrell ran a very successful team with John Love and Tony Maggs as his drivers. Following the demise of Formula Junior, Ken Tyrrell tested Jackie Stewart in a Formula Three car, a Cooper T72. This test at the Goodwood Circuit marked the start of partnership which dominated motorsport later on. John Cooper retired to
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#1733084909965684-680: The Cosworth-Ford DFV , but felt that its connections to British Leyland with the Mini-Coopers made this inadvisable. Instead, a deal was done with BRM for the use of its 3-litre V-12, originally conceived as a sports car unit, but which BRM themselves would be using in 1968. A slightly modified version of the T86 was built for the new engine, dubbed T86B and Italian ex-Ferrari driver Ludovico Scarfiotti and young Englishman Brian Redman were employed to drive it. The cars managed three-four finishes in
741-614: The Indianapolis 500 , and their Mini Cooper dominated rally racing . The Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini production cars that are built in England, but is now owned and marketed by BMW . The first cars built by the Coopers were single-seat 500-cc Formula Three racing cars driven by John Cooper and Eric Brandon, and powered by a JAP motorcycle engine. Since materials were in short supply immediately after World War II ,
798-519: The Maserati concession for the UK and arrangements were made for Cooper to build a new 3-litre Cooper-Maserati car which would be available for sale as well being raced by the works team. The Maserati engine was an updated and enlarged version of the 2.5-litre V-12 which had made sporadic appearances in the works 250Fs in 1957. It was an old design, heavy and thirsty and the new Cooper T81 chassis built to take it
855-566: The Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix, largely thanks to the unreliability of the competition, but then Scarfiotti was killed driving a Porsche in the Rossfeld hill climb and Redman had a big accident in the Belgian Grand Prix which put him out of action for several months. Cooper continued the season with a motley collection of drivers, none of whom could make anything of the outclassed T86B. During
912-511: The 1967 season had the team's fortunes steadily decline and the midseason appearance of the lighter and slimmer T86 chassis failed to improve things. Rindt, impatiently seeing out his Cooper contract, deliberately blew up his increasingly antiquated Maserati engine in the US Grand Prix and was fired before the season finale in Mexico . For 1968, Cooper would have liked to have joined the queue for
969-636: The Argentine race held in mid-January, four months ahead of the second race of the season in Monaco . This meant that this race had the fewest entries (10) of any Grand Prix in the history of the F1 World Championship. Vanwall released Moss to compete with another team and he linked up with the Rob Walker Racing Team to drive their Cooper T43, a car about to be superseded at the factory Cooper team by
1026-693: The Chipstead Motor Group in April 1965. The same year, the Formula One team moved from Surbiton to a modern factory unit at Canada Road, Oyster Lane in Byfleet, just along the road from Brabham in New Haw and close to Alan Mann Racing . Cooper's 1965 season petered out and at the end of the year, number one driver Bruce McLaren left to build his own F1 car for the new for 1966 3-litre formula. Cooper's new owners held
1083-571: The Cooper company forward, it was Charles' shrewd business brain that provided the stability – and profitability – that laid the foundation for their sporting success. Regular works driver Jack Brabham won the World Drivers' Championship in both the 1959 and 1960 Formula One seasons driving the Coopers' revolutionary mid-engined cars , and the Cooper team itself took the World Constructors' Championships . Although they never again achieved
1140-497: The Cooper marque taking the World Constructors' Championship titles. Throughout this time, although son John was the Cooper figurehead and works team manager, Charles as managing director provided a steady hand and sound business acumen that kept the Cooper company financially stable. Following a number of years' declining health Charles Cooper died in late 1964, just under two weeks short of his 71st birthday. John found that he
1197-456: The Coopers also produced a slightly lengthened version that would accept the larger, 1,000 cc (61.0 cu in), V-twin version of the JAP engine. Throughout 1948 Cooper drivers took numerous class wins, race victories and fastest times, and demand grew. Occasionally, in these early years, Cooper himself sometimes drove one of his cars at a race meeting. Although he usually finished well down
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#17330849099651254-539: The Coopers' garage facilities to build themselves a racing special to the newly issued National 500 cc (30.5 cu in) regulations. This project grew into the mainstay of Charles Cooper's business for the remainder of his life. Together, the Coopers concocted a simple but effective design, combining all-independent suspension, a lightweight ladder chassis, and a powerful JAP single cylinder motorcycle engine (secured through Cooper's contacts from his motorcycle repair days). John's 500 cc racer, swiftly followed by
1311-447: The F3 category, winning 64 of 78 major races between 1951 and 1954. This volume of construction was unique and enabled the company to grow into the senior categories; With a modified Cooper 500 chassis, a T12 model, Cooper had its first taste of top-tier racing when Harry Schell qualified for the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix . Though Schell retired in the first lap, this marked the first appearance of
1368-593: The Formula One-level 1950 Monaco Grand Prix . In 1951 the Cooper Car Company, as it had by then become, manufactured 60 of the Mark V version of the racing cars, and had begun to dabble in larger vehicles. Over the next few years the Coopers, and their new chief designer Owen Maddock , produced cars for many other series. The Cooper Bristol Formula Two cars had some successes, particularly with Mike Hawthorn at
1425-484: The Indianapolis establishment gradually realized the writing was on the wall and the days of their front-engined roadsters were numbered. Beginning with Jim Clark , who drove a rear-engined Lotus in 1965, every winner of the Indianapolis 500 since has had the engine in the back. The revolution begun by the little chain-driven Cooper 500 was complete. Once every Formula car manufacturer began building mid-engined racers,
1482-520: The Mini and various Cooper conversion kits have been, and continue to be, marketed by various companies. The current BMW MINI , in production since 2001, has Cooper and Cooper S models and a number of John Cooper Works tuner packages. On 1 April 1968, John Cooper leased the building, 243 Ewell Road, to the Metropolitan Police and the local Traffic Division (V Victor) moved in. They would stay there for
1539-463: The Sussex coast, where in 1971, he founded the garage business at Ferring, near Worthing. The garage sold Mini Cooper engine-tuning kits and performance parts. The garage was sold to Honda in 1986 and the business was moved to East Preston to convert Mini Coopers into race cars. In October 2009, Mike Cooper, the son of John Cooper, launched Cooper Bikes, the bicycle division of the Cooper Car Company. As
1596-492: The building became a Porsche dealership. Charles Cooper (motor manufacturer) Charles Newton " Charlie " Cooper (14 October 1893 – 2 October 1964) was a British motorsport mechanic , designer and entrepreneur. With his son John Cooper he founded the Cooper Car Company , which produced a string of successful racing cars through the 1950s and '60s. While John provided the enthusiasm and vigour that drove
1653-450: The championship-winning Cooper T53 "Lowlines" to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a test in 1960, then entered the famous 500-mile race in a larger, longer, and offset car based on the 1960 F1 design, the unique Type T54. Arriving at the Speedway 5 May 1961, the "funny" little car from Europe was mocked by the other teams, but it ran as high as third and finished ninth. It took a few years, but
1710-407: The company began building rear-engined sports cars in 1955, they really had not become aware of the benefits of having the engine behind the driver. Based on the 500-cc cars and powered by a modified Coventry Climax fire-pump engine, these cars were called "Bobtails". With the centre of gravity closer to the middle of the car, they found it was less liable to spins and much more effective at putting
1767-589: The company's fortunes in Formula One declined, however, the John Cooper-conceived Mini – introduced in 1961 as a development of the Alec Issigonis -designed British Motor Corporation Mini with a more powerful engine, new brakes, and a distinctive livery – continued to dominate in saloon car and rally races throughout the 1960s, winning many championships and the 1964, 1965, and 1967 Monte Carlo rallies . Several different Cooper-marked versions of
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1824-454: The departure of McLaren, Cooper had a seat to fill in the second car and with the team's recent lack of success, understandably, a large queue of potential drivers was not forming at Canada Road. In the circumstances, Cooper were fortunate to acquire the services of Honda's Richie Ginther , who was temporarily unemployed due to the Japanese company's late development of their new 3-litre car. After
1881-399: The establishment of the Cooper Car Company to build more. The business grew by providing an inexpensive entry to motorsport for seemingly every aspiring young British driver, and the company became the world's first and largest postwar, specialist manufacturer of racing cars for sale to privateers . Cooper built up to 300 single-and twin-cylinder cars during the 1940s and 1950s, and dominated
1938-505: The first win for a rear-engined car , the first win for a car entered by a privateer team and the first win for a car powered by an engine built by another manufacturer. Moss took his seventh Grand Prix victory by 2.7 seconds over Italian driver Luigi Musso ( Ferrari 246 F1 ). Musso's British teammate Mike Hawthorn (Ferrari 246 F1) was third. A change in fuel regulations meant that the British teams Vanwall and BRM would not be ready for
1995-560: The heights of a World Championship, the Coopers' innovative vehicles left a lasting influence on racing car design. Before 1959 all Formula One World Champions had driven front-engined cars; since 1959 no front-engined car has won the World Championship again. Charles Cooper was born in Paris, France, in 1893 and spent his early years in France and Spain. He was the son of Charles Renard Cooper,
2052-452: The new T45 . With the race set to be held in very hot conditions the race was shortened from 400 kilometres to 313. The shorter race led the Walker team to consider running the race without stopping for tyres. The car's four stud wheels would take almost two laps to complete a tyre change, much slower than their Ferrari and Maserati rivals. Moss and his team began a deception, complaining about
2109-463: The new car which I'd shown to Charlie Cooper. He kept saying 'Nah, Whiskers, that's not it, try again.' Finally, I got so fed up I sketched a frame in which every tube was bent, meant just as a joke. I showed it to Charlie and to my astonishment he grabbed it and said: 'That's it!' " Maddock later pioneered one of the first designs for a honeycomb monocoque stressed skin composite chassis, and helped develop Cooper's C5S racing gearbox. Brabham took one of
2166-445: The next 25 years and 'TDV' would become one of the busier police garages. In August 1968, they were supplied with two Mini Coopers, index numbers PYT767F and PYT768F. The centre boss of the steering wheel was replaced by a speaker and microphone and a PTT transmitter switch, was added to the steering column. The vehicles were trialled for a number of months, but no orders were placed for other garages. The police subsequently moved out, and
2223-469: The order, the blow was softened by the fact that commonly most of the cars finishing ahead of him carried the Cooper badge. The Coopers continued to refine and improve their 500 and 1000 cars for the next decade, with demand boosted still further by the 500's eligibility for the international Formula Three rules introduced in 1950. American driver Harry Schell even entered a Cooper 1000 – fitted with an expanded, 1,100 cc (67 cu in) engine – for
2280-522: The power down to the road, so they decided to build a single-seater version and began entering it in Formula 2 races. Jack Brabham raised some eyebrows when he took sixth place at the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix in a rear-engined Formula 1 Cooper. When Stirling Moss won the 1958 Argentine Grand Prix in Rob Walker's privately entered Cooper and Maurice Trintignant duplicated the feat in the next race at Monaco,
2337-475: The practicality and intelligent construction of Cooper's single-seaters was overtaken by more sophisticated technology from Lola , Lotus , BRM , and Ferrari . The Cooper team's decline was accelerated when John Cooper was seriously injured in a road accident in 1963 driving a twin-engined Mini, and Charles Cooper died in 1964. After the death of his father, John Cooper sold the Cooper Formula One team to
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2394-420: The prototypes were constructed by joining two old Fiat Topolino front-ends together. According to John Cooper, the stroke of genius that would make the Coopers an automotive legend—the location of the engine behind the driver—was merely a practical matter at the time. As the car was powered by a motorcycle engine, they believed it was more convenient to have the engine in the back, driving a chain. In fact there
2451-514: The racing world was stunned and a rear-engined revolution had begun. The next year, 1959 , Brabham and the Cooper works team became the first to win the Formula One World Championship in a rear-engined car. Both team and driver repeated the feat in 1960 , and every World Champion since has been sitting in front of the engine. The little-known designer behind the car was Owen Maddock , who was employed by Cooper Car Company. Maddock
2508-540: The season, Cooper built a modified chassis, the T86C, intended to take an Alfa Romeo 3-litre V-8 but the project was stillborn. The beginning of the end for the Cooper Car Company was in 1969, as it tried, and failed, to find sponsorship for a new Cosworth DFV -powered car and there were many redundancies. Frank Boyles was the last to leave, since he was in charge of building customer cars and it had been hoped that some more F2 cars would be sold. Frank went on to design and build
2565-488: The team and immediately won the opening race of 1967 in South Africa in an unlikely Cooper one-two. This was a fortuitous win for Rodríguez, as he was being outpaced by Rhodesian John Love in his three-year-old ex McLaren Tasman Cooper powered by a 2.7-litre Coventry Climax FPF. Unfortunately, Love had to make a late pit stop for fuel and could only finish second. This was to be Cooper's last Grand Prix victory. The rest of
2622-514: The tyre situation and how much time they would lose changing tyres. Jean Behra in a privateer Maserati 250F led at the start but was quickly passed by Hawthorn. By lap ten Juan Manuel Fangio had taken the lead in the Scuderia Sud Americana entered Maserati 250F and Moss had worked his way forward into second position as the pitstops began for the heavier Italian built cars. After the pitstops Moss led from Musso and Hawthorn. Behra
2679-495: The war, invalided home after being gassed during the capture of Valenciennes in late 1918, only weeks before the signing of the Armistice with Germany . During the course of the war Cooper had built a considerable body of experience of practical mechanics on top of his engineering training. Following a short period spent turning a profit by reconditioning war-surplus motorcycles, in 1919 he decided to set up his own garage. He bought
2736-578: The wheel, and the Cooper Bob-tail sports car was frequently unbeatable. Australian racing driver and some-time mechanic Jack Brabham joined the Cooper works team in the mid-1950s, and through his drive and ambition Cooper rapidly began to produce cars that could compete at the highest level. This culminated in Brabham winning the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1959 and 1960 , with
2793-422: Was delayed by a spin and Fangio by a misfire. With ten laps remaining the others decided Moss was not going to pit and Musso and Hawthorn picked up the pace. Moss' tyres were disintegrating but there was enough with careful driving that Moss limped to the line for a remarkable victory. Behind the two Ferraris Fangio was the first Maserati to finish with Behra, two laps down, scoring the remaining points. Harry Schell
2850-400: Was known as 'The Beard' by his workmates, and 'Whiskers' to Charles Cooper. Maddock was a familiar figure in the drivers' paddock of the 1950s in open-neck shirt and woolly jumper and a prime force behind the rise of British racing cars to their dominant position in the 1960s. Describing how the revolutionary rear-engined Cooper chassis came to be, Maddock explained, "I'd done various schemes for
2907-416: Was necessarily on the large side, in spite of which the bulky V-12 always looked as though it was spilling out of the back. Three cars were sold to private owners, one each to Rob Walker for Jo Siffert to drive, Jo Bonnier 's Anglo Swiss Racing Team, and French privateer Guy Ligier . None of these cars achieved much success. Jochen Rindt was entering the second year of his three-year contract, but with
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#17330849099652964-400: Was next ahead of Fangio's teammate Carlos Menditeguy , both Maserati 250F mounted. Peter Collins was the only retirement of the ten entries having stopped on the opening lap with a broken axle in the third Ferrari. It was the first victory for a rear-engined car but for the moment it would be an aberration brought on by tactics. It was not yet obvious that the death of the front-engined car
3021-522: Was nothing new about 'mid' engined racing cars but there is no doubt Coopers led the way in popularising what was to become the dominant arrangement for racing cars. Called the Cooper 500, this car's success in hillclimbs and on track, including Eric winning the 500 race at one of the first postwar meetings at Gransden Lodge Airfield , quickly created demand from other drivers (including, over the years, Stirling Moss , Peter Collins , Jim Russell , Ivor Bueb , Ken Tyrrell , and Bernie Ecclestone ) and led to
3078-451: Was the sixth Argentine Grand Prix . It was held on the #2 variation of the circuit. The race was held over 80 laps of the four kilometre circuit for a total race distance of 313 kilometres. The race was won by British driver Stirling Moss in Rob Walker 's privately entered Cooper T43 . Apart from being the first World Drivers Championship race win for Cooper as a constructor it was also
3135-419: Was unable to keep the team going by himself and he sold it less than a year later. 1958 Argentine Grand Prix The 1958 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 19 January 1958 at Autodromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires Circuit. It was race 1 of 11 in the 1958 World Championship of Drivers and race 1 of 10 in the 1958 International Cup for Formula One Manufacturers . The race
3192-521: Was while working at the Napier plant that Cooper got his first taste of motor sport, working on the racing and record-breaking cars of company director and pioneering driver Selwyn Edge . Soon after completing his apprenticeship World War I broke out. Britain declared war on 3 August 1914, and only three weeks later Cooper enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps . He saw active service throughout
3249-577: Was with Shell, Cooper with BP), Surtees joined the team. Cooper honoured its commitment to Amon, so three cars were run in the French GP. Subsequently, the team reverted to two entries for Surtees and Rindt and with the former Ferrari driver's development skills and a switch to Firestone tyres, the car was improved to the point that Surtees was able to win the final race of the year in Mexico . Surtees left to join Honda for 1967 and Pedro Rodríguez joined Rindt in
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