Cooper Car Company

Cooper Mk IV of circa 1950 Cooper with 500-cc Norton Manx engine Norton Manx Engine Cooper Mark IX of 1956: This example is powered by an 1100-cc JAP engine. 1956 Cooper Sprint, Myreton Motor Museum The Cooper T54 which competed in the 1961 Indianapolis 500 Cooper Monaco Cooper Monaco King Cobra T61M Cooper T39/Climax cars Goodwood 30 May 1955, Equipe Endeavour Chief Mechanic John Crosthwaite facing cars 1956 Silverstone GP Formula 2 race winner Roy Salvadori with foot on tyre of Cooper T41 A rear three-quarter picture of a Cooper T51, the first World Championship-winning mid-engined Formula One car 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 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.

Origins