Front view of a 1955 Cooper T39 on static display at the motorsport at the palace 2011
A 1955 Cooper T39 on static display at the motorsport at the palace 2011. The Cooper Car Company was founded in 1946 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles' small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, England in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, they reached auto racing's highest levels as their rear-engined, single-seat cars altered the face of Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and their Mini Cooper dominated Rally racing. Thanks in part to Cooper's legacy, Britain remains the home of a thriving racing industry, and the Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini (BMW) production cars that are still built in England but are now owned and marketed by BMW. The first cars built by the Coopers were single-seat 500cc 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, 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. Because the car was powered by a motorcycle engine, they believed it was more convenient to have the engine in the back, driving a chain. Charles and John Cooper had built a successful company based around their 500cc Formula 3 racers, when they introduced the Cooper T39 'Bobtail' 1100cc racer in the mid 1950s. The T-39 Cooper cars were creative and employed aerodynamic principles to minimize drag. The overall weight of the vehicles were extremely low, giving the Climax FeatherWeightAutomotive (FWA) engine as much support as possible, as the powerplant produced around 75 horsepower.
Size: 4064px × 2704px
Location: Crystal Palace Park, Crystal Palace, London
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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