SUPER COOPER

When it comes to racing car marques, the name ‘Cooper’ is intertwined with motor sport in this part of the world. Names such as McLaren, Hulme, and Amon have all been associated with the Cooper brand. Even Chris Amon, more famously associated with other marques, drove a Cooper works car at one stage. Jack Brabham won two of his Formula 1 (F1) World Championship titles driving a Cooper, and there was a time here when no local motor racing grid was complete without a gaggle of them. The Tasman Series fields of the ’60s would have been only half the size without the Cooper cars.

Bruce McLaren left Cooper at the end of 1965 and announced his own Grand Prix (GP) racing team, with co-driver and fellow Kiwi Chris Amon. It would be fair to say that the first F1 McLaren owed a lot to the Tasman Cooper.

Back in Old Blighty

In 1947, life in the UK was fairly austere. Britain and her allies had won the war but were now paying the price. Everything was rationed, including petrol for private use. Looking at photos of the era, even colour seems to have been rationed. Although the thousands of young men who had returned from the war were on the lookout for some excitement, fun appears to have been included on the ration list.

Before the war, motor racing had been reserved for rich adventuring types; skill behind the wheel