1952 Cooper Bristol

This car is making its way through a typically wet Oulton Park paddock to take part in a practice session for the Allcomers Race for Historic Racing Cars at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Trophies Meeting at Oulton Park in June 1971.

It's the 1952 Cooper Bristol MkI of John Roberts which has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. Father and son Charles & John Cooper had started the Cooper Car Company in 1946, and at first specialised in building cars for the new 500cc class of racing that British enthusiasts had started as a simple and economical way to go motor racing after the war. This developed into the International Formula 3 class in 1950, and Cooper then ventured into the Formula 2 class by putting a 1,100cc JAP engine into one of these cars, way below the 2 litre limit allowed, but even with the lack of power the car was still reasonably competitive because of its light weight. When the World Championship was run under Formula 2 regulations in 1952 because of a dearth of the larger-engined Formula 1 cars Cooper decided to design a car to compete at that level. The 1,971 Bristol engine was chosen, but the Cooper Bristol MkI (later designated the T20) could not really compete with the Ferraris and Maseratis in World Championship races and was much more successful in minor British events. In 1953 the MkII (later T23) car was introduced, having a tubular frame chassis instead of the box section frame of the earlier car and the drive train was altered to lower the driver's seat. Although a better car it wasn't much more successful than the MkI, and the following season when the new 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into force the car was rendered obsolete. They still soldiered on for a few years, mainly in minor British events, and then became regulars in the historic racing scene, where they're still to be seen to this day.