1953 Cooper Bristol MkII

This car competed in the Cheshire Building Society Allcomers' Race at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1981.

It's Roddy MacPherson's 1953 Cooper Bristol MkII which has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. The Cooper Car Company had been started in 1946 by father and son Charles & John Cooper when the new Formula 3 class of racing for 500cc cars was introduced as a relatively simple and cheap way to go motor racing and they built a car powered by a 500cc motor cycle engine, usually a Norton or a JAP. Cooper later entered 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 designed 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.

Here's Roddy MacPherson rounding Lodge Corner during the race.