This car took part in the Bonhams Drum Brake Sports Cars [HGPCA] race at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park in August 2003.
It's the 1956 Cooper T39 of George Cooper, more commonly
known as the Cooper Bobtail because of the truncated tail of the car which was
aerodynamically effective, but which John Cooper claimed to have been shortened
so that it would fit inside the works transporter. The car was used in the
1,100cc and 1,500cc classes of sportscar racing and this car has a 4-cylinder
inline 1,450cc Coventry Climax engine. It was reputedly the road-holding
characteristics of this car that led John Cooper to produce first the
rear-engined 1½ litre Formula 2 car and then the 2½ litre Formula 1 car that
gave Jack Brabham the World Drivers' Championship in 1959 and 1960. Cooper's
successes led all the other teams to adopt the rear-engine layout, and the last
Formula 1 Grand Prix to be won by a front-engined car was Ferrari's victory in
the 1960 Italian Grand Prix.
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