The rise and fall of the single‑seater Cooper

The Cooper Car Company grew out of bubbling, infectious enthusiasm displayed by young tousle-haired John Cooper and his equally-keen former schoolfriend Eric Brandon. In the depths of our country’s immediate post-war austerity and gloom, they simply wanted to go motor racing.

Their ambitions were aided by the fact that bubbly John’s father, Charles Cooper, had served a full apprenticeship in motorsport as mechanic and had also run cars for Brooklands racer ‘Ginger’ Hamilton. He’d also built up a decent, if compact, garage business based in Hollyfield Road, Surbiton, Surrey.

Bespectacled, burly Charlie Cooper was a hard-nosed businessman, but he shared his son’s enthusiasm for what was being touted as a new category of “poor man’s motor racing”, using home-built, single-seater, open-wheeled cars powered by 500cc engines. Most of those would be drawn from motor-cycle production, and would be air-cooled, chain driven and mounted behind the driver’s seat.

Charlie Cooper backed son John and his pal Eric in taking two front-ends from scrap Fiat Topolino cars and welding them back-to-back. The Topo’s front suspension was independent, sprung by a transverse leaf spring. Cooper’s new confection thus provided all-independent suspension, front and rear, by transverse leaf. A single-cylinder speedway JAP air-cooled motorcycle engine dropped in behind the driver’s seat, chain-driving the back axle. A sleek aluminium body was fashioned to accommodate fuel tank, seat and driver – and poor man’s motor racing… here Cooper came.

Two such cars were built initially, one for John and one for Eric, and both proved themselves very competent young drivers, their cars arguably the best in the new class. For 1948 Charlie Cooper created the Cooper Car Company to supply 500cc replica cars to the interested clients hammering at the garage door. Twelve ‘Mark 2’ Cooper single-seaters were laid down, and what would become the world’s biggest manufacturer of specialist racing cars was on its enthusiastic way…

Improved 500cc designs would follow for each successive year. In 1950 such 500cc single-seater racing was recognised by the FIA world governing body as International Formula 3, and Cooper established almost complete domination of the category. Such drivers as Stirling Moss (one of the first 1948 customers) and Peter Collins cut their teeth in these little Coopers. From 1951 through to 1954, the height of the 500cc F3 era, Coopers won 64 of 78 major races.

The original box-section chassis longhorns were replaced by tubes and while almost every available variation of 500cc motor-cycle-derived engine was used at some time, latterly the ‘double-knocker’, twin-overhead camshaft Norton unit became the most preferred.

And the little cars grew up with 1,000 and later 1,100cc twin-cylinder engines being adopted by some owners for hill climbing, Formula Libre and even Formula 2 circuit racing. In 1949 Stirling Moss’s burgeoning talent was first recognised, by an Italian crowd watching the Garda GP beside Lake Como, as he finished third overall in his 1,000ccc Cooper-JAP, beaten only by new Ferrari V12s, first and second.

At Hollyfield Road, meanwhile, Cooper also began building little front-engined sports cars, most notably with MG engines and conventional shaft drive to the rear axle. More customers emerged. For 1952, 2.0-litre naturally aspirated Formula 2 racing, Cooper adopted six-cylinder Bristol engines to fit up front in sleek little chassis, producing the Cooper-Bristol line. Mike Hawthorn made his name in his Bob Chase-owned example, brand new and unpainted – prepared by Leslie Hawthorn – and the sensation of the 1952 Goodwood Easter Monday meeting. Young Hawthorn’s self-evident prowess earned him his works Ferrari drive for 1953, which saw him beat Fangio’s Maserati to win the 1953 French Grand Prix.

Cooper-Bristols also appeared with wheel-enveloping bodies as front-engined sports-racing cars. Cooper Formula 2 frames also ran with Alta four-cylinder engines. A big sports car line was developed for 1954, the Cooper-Jaguars with a new concept of multi-tubular backbone chassis, driver hung outboard as in a sidecar – and with 3.4-litre Jaguar XK power.

So Cooper had found its feet with rear-engined air-cooled cars, and had built a good business by adding front-engined water-cooled racing and sports car designs.

For 1955 Charlie and John Cooper were attracted by the burgeoning popularity of 1,100cc sports car racing. They adopted the lightweight aluminium Coventry Climax four-cylinder fire-pump engine, adapted for automotive use as the Climax ‘FWA’. Reading the rules ingeniously they adapted a single-seat open-wheel F3 chassis design to carry body outriggers each side, and a sleek centre-seat aerodynamic body. The ‘Bobtail’ Cooper sports car had been born. Through 1955-56 they would sell like hot cakes, and a works team was formed running them with 1,100cc and enlarged 1,460cc Climax engines.

The FIA had announced a new 1,500cc Formula 2 class to take effect Internationally in 1957.  Through 1956 Cooper simply amputated the body outriggers from their ‘Bobtail’ sports concept, fitted the lightest and sleekest of single-seat aluminium ‘slipper’ bodies to leave the wheels exposed, and – hey presto – a 1,500cc Cooper-Climax rear-engined, water-cooled Formula 2 car.

Driven most notably by Roy Salvadori this F2 Cooper-Climax began winning F2 dress rehearsal races (as at Goodwood) in 1956 and with the likes of Roy, his new Australian team-mate Jack Brabham, Moss, Maurice Trintignant, Bruce McLaren and others, the F2 Coopers became a dominant force in Formula 2 from 1957 to ‘59. In that final season, fuel-injected Borgward engines carried Moss in his Rob Walker-liveried Cooper-Borgward to top F2 honours.

Meanwhile Jack Brabham had shoe-horned a six-cylinder Bristol engine into the rear bay of a ‘Bobtail’ form enveloping bodied Cooper to enter the Formula 1 1955 British GP. He later drove that car to win the year’s Australian GP. When Roy Salvadori tested an F2 Cooper-Climax at Goodwood he became convinced that with a slightly larger engine it could form the basis of a competitive F1 car tailor-made for such a tight circuit as Monte Carlo and the Monaco GP.

Customer Rob Walker eagerly offered to finance such a project. Jack Brabham drove a 1.96-litre Cooper-Climax for Rob in the 1957 Monaco GP, seemed set to finish third, but then had to push the car home after a minor failure, placing sixth. Works Coopers became F1 also-rans on the faster circuits later that year, but into 1958 Moss took the Walker 1.96 Cooper-Climax to the season-opening Argentine GP and won!  That was not only Cooper’s first World Championship-qualifying GP win but also the first by a rear-engined car in FIA World Championship history. And, glory be, Maurice Trintignant then followed up by winning the next GP at Monaco in a 2.1-litre Walker Cooper. Coventry Climax made 2.2-litre engines available to the embryo Cooper and Lotus works F1 teams through the rest of that year, but the full 2.5-litre front-engined cars from Ferrari, BRM and Maserati out-muscled them on the faster circuits.

Until 1959, when Climax cast larger new cylinder blocks for their FPF four-cylinder, twin-cam racing engines and Cooper could attack with same-size engines. Jack Brabham scored the Cooper works team’s first F1 victory in the International Trophy race at Silverstone, then won the Monaco GP for Surbiton’s first World Championship-qualifying success.

Cooper’s hard-working – and long-suffering – chief designer Owen ‘The Beard’ Maddock had done a wonderful job. John Cooper had contributed technically but most crucially knew which buttons to press with his increasingly conservative father, Charles. While the old man contributed immense experience, acumen and shrewdness his mantra had become “Why change it if we’re winning?”, and he seemed blind – or dismissive – to the emerging challenge of such sophisticated new rivals as Lotus and Lola.

Meanwhile Jack Brabham himself was not only a talented and tremendously competitive driver. The Australian was also an extremely capable engineer and his pen-pal back home, ‘down under’ was engineer and racer Ron Tauranac. Ron would suggest Cooper improvements to Jack who would press them upon John. He would either then talk his Dad into accepting them, or manipulate some funds to allow Jack to have his way. Test lap times were then the best way to convince Charlie it had been his idea all along…

Stronger casings for their ERSA-modified Citroën gearboxes were Brabham-inspired through 1957 to ‘58, quick-ratio changing, driveline-lowering drop gears were Tauranac/Brabham-inspired 1958 to 59, as were expensive German-made ZF limited-slip differentials. With Ron’s background input ‘Black Jack’ drove John and Charlie forward.

 And ‘The Beard’, jazz-band player Owen Maddock, contributed for 1960 with the ‘C5S’ five-speed Cooper-Knight gearbox which emerged in the 1960 Cooper-Climax ‘Lowline’ T53.  That Formula 1 car carried Jack to four consecutive GP victories in 1960 and him and Cooper to back-to-back F1 World Championship titles that memorable year.

The Cooper Car Company Ltd was on top of the world, and this from a tiny suburban outfit with little more than 30 employees overall, yet racing car suppliers “to the world”.  They built sports cars, rear-engined with Climax, Maserati and ultimately Ford, Buick and Chevrolet V8 engines. They built Formula Junior cars to replace the FIA’s abandoned Formula 2 category, and from 1964 to ‘69 they would build Formula 2 and Formula 3, Formula B and Formula Atlantic and Formula 5,000 cars…

When Formula 1 rules for 1961 replaced the old 2.5-litre category with a 1.5-litre limit, Cooper and other British constructors did their best with four-cylinder, ex-F2 Climax engine designs before the tailored Climax FWMV V8 engine became available. But Cooper lost its pre-eminence as the greatest British challenger. Lotus and BRM had followed Cooper’s genetic rear-engined lead and produced more sophisticated, more refined and faster new designs. Lola pitched in too.

In 1962 Brabham had left Cooper to create his own team, with Ron Tauranac having moved to England. Bruce McLaren led Cooper’s works team, and he won the Formula 1 Monaco and Reims GPs for them. But at the height of Cooper’s F1 dominance in 1959 to ‘60, John Cooper had struck a deal with the British Motor Corporation to develop a tuned Mini saloon car variant: the Mini-Cooper. With long-serving works specialist ‘Ginger’ Devlin, John finalised a spec which BMC productionised, creating what for the general public has become Cooper’s best-known and most popular legacy.

Charlie Cooper died suddenly in 1964. John Cooper was seriously injured when his experimental twin-engined Mini-Cooper was involved in a crash on the road. Cooper Formula Junior and Mini-Cooper team chief Ken Tyrrell managed the works F1 team in John’s enforced absence. When John returned to the frontline in 1964 some of the old spark was lacking. He missed Charlie terribly. The rise of Lotus, Brabham, Lola and others in customer racing car production denuded Cooper sales.

For 1965 the Chipstead Motors group offered backing and by 1966 had taken over the Cooper Car Co in face of the expensive new 3.0-litre Formula 1 introduced in 1966.  Maserati V12 engines were adopted and new Tony Robinson-masterminded monocoque F1 chassis built. John Surtees – ex-Ferrari – joined Cooper in mid-season 1966 and won that year’s Mexican GP last round. Pedro Rodriguez then won the 1967 Mexican GP in a works Cooper-Maserati, but the great marque was by then entering its dotage. Customer minor-Formula car sales had virtually dried up. Through 1968 Cooper-BRM V12 F1 cars were campaigned, and when for 1969 realistic sponsorship could not be attracted to continue a Formula 1 programme, the Cooper name quietly faded from the single-seater motor racing scene. That left the biscuit-box-on-wheels Mini-Coopers to carry the old torch, which they did so effectively for many years to follow. But to we open-wheeler fans, it did not count - and it did not compensate.

To sum up the Cooper Car Company years I always remember the words of the late Andrew Ferguson, who cut his motor racing management teeth at the Surbiton factory, with Charlie, and John: “There was never a day when I didn’t look forward to going to work there – I’d always go home with my ribs aching because something hilarious had happened…”. Regarding Charlie Cooper in particular, “for me the real measure of The Old Man was the size of the crowd which turned out for his memorial service. Everybody but everybody in British motor racing turned out for him…”.

Of the late Ken Gregory, for many years Stirling Moss’s business manager and then principal with ‘Pa’ Moss of the BRP team: “Give Charles credit – a rough diamond, but he was as honest as the day is long and his word was his bond. He was rightly proud of what his company had achieved, and British motor racing owes him a great debt…”

Photography courtesy of the GP Library.