Charles Cooper (designer)

Charles Newton "Charlie" Cooper (born October 14, 1893 in Paris , France , † October 2, 1964 in Surbiton ) was a British racing car designer and racing team owner . Together with his son John , he founded the Cooper Car Company , which was one of the most successful racing car manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s and competed with works teams in formulas 1 , 2 and 3 . Cooper revolutionized monoposto racing when he launched the first successful mid-engined formula racing cars after World War II. He was also known by the Mini Cooper , one named after him sporty version of the small car Mini .

biography

Personal

Charles Cooper's parents were traveling actors who appeared across Europe in the last decade of the 19th century. His father was the native British Charles Renard Cooper, his mother an actress of French-Spanish origin. Charles Cooper and his twin sister Judy were born in Paris, where the parents performed intermittently in 1893. In the following years, the parents took on various engagements in France and Spain. The mother died early. After her death, Charles Renard Cooper returned to Great Britain with the children. The family settled in Malden .

After completing school, Cooper completed an apprenticeship at the automobile manufacturer Napier & Son in Acton . It was here that he first came into contact with motor racing when he was in charge of the racing car belonging to the owner of Napier. After the end of the First World War , in which Cooper participated as a soldier, he opened his own motorcycle and automobile workshop, which later became a manufacturer of racing cars.

Cooper was married and had a son. He died in October 1964 after a brief illness.

Own workshop

In 1922 Cooper opened a workshop for automobiles and motorcycles on Ewell Street in the London suburb of Surbiton, which was relocated to Hollyfield Road ten years later. In addition to the repair of vehicles, the construction of caravans was one of the main focuses of Cooper's activities.

In his spare time, Cooper raced amateur motorcycle races from 1925, primarily on the neighboring Brooklands course. There he met the racing driver Kaye Don , whose vehicles he looked after in his workshop from 1930. At times, Cooper also worked as Don’s mechanic on the racetracks. When Don was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to imprisonment in May 1934 after a car accident he had caused in which his passenger died, Cooper contacted the Alfa Romeo driver Ginger Hamilton , who also drove regularly in Brooklands. Cooper became Hamilton's racing mechanic. A little later he designed his first racing car, which was intended for his son John. The car was never used professionally.

During the Second World War, the company concentrated on the repair and maintenance of fire engines.

The racing team

→ Main article : Cooper Car Company

Designed by Charles Cooper and Owen Maddock: Cooper T41 with mid-engine

In 1946, Charles Cooper, his then 23-year-old son John and his school friend Eric Brandon began building their own racing cars “for sheer pleasure”. The first vehicles were intended for the 500 cm³ class, which later became Formula Junior or Formula 3. By 1959, Cooper had built 320 vehicles of the 500cc class. One of Cooper's earliest customers was Stirling Moss ; the Cooper T5 was his first racing car. Moss, Jack Brabham Peter Collins , Mike Hawthorn and many other drivers celebrated numerous successes with Cooper's Formula 3 cars.

Since 1950, Cooper Cars has focused on the production of racing cars. After Formula Junior, Cooper turned to Formula 2. The Cooper T20 with a Bristol engine ("Cooper-Bristol Mk. I") was one of the best vehicles of the 1952 World Cup . With the T41 from 1956, Cooper revolutionized formula racing: It was one of the first racing cars of the post-war period to be equipped with a mid-engine. The T41 and its successors dominated Formula 2 until 1960.

At that time, Cooper Cars was already active in Formula 1. The company built and sold compact mid-engined racing cars and fielded some of them with its own works team in the Formula 1 World Championship. Charles Cooper ran the racing team and was present at most of the events at the circuit. The works team achieved its greatest successes in 1959 and 1960 : Jack Brabham became Formula 1 world champion in a Cooper T51 - Climax , and the Cooper Car Company won the constructors' championship. Jochen Rindt and Bruce McLaren later drove for Cooper. The future McLaren team boss Ron Dennis began his motorsport career with Charles Cooper as a mechanic.

After the death of Charles Cooper, his son John was killed in a traffic accident. Ken Tyrrell temporarily took over the running of the racing team before it was sold to outside investors. The Cooper Car Company closed in late 1968.

Mini Cooper

Another mainstay of Cooper was the Mini Cooper, a sporty version of the small car Mini, which was successful in rallying in the 1960s. The main development of the car was done by John Cooper; Charles Cooper was involved in its development in an advisory capacity.

literature

• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing . 1st edition. Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .

• David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 . 1st edition. Stuttgart 1993.
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 . 2nd Edition. St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).

Web links

• The Cooper Car Company on the website www.grandprix.com
• Charles Cooper on the website www.oldracingcars.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ménard: La Grande encyclopédie de la Formule 1, p. 217.
2. ↑ Charles Cooper's biography on the website www.500race.org ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed September 26, 2013).  
3. ↑ David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 59.
4. ↑ Overview of the production of Cooper racing cars on the website www.500race.org ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed September 26, 2013).