Goodwood Revival Race-season highlight honours Cooper groundbreakers
Restorers continue to unearth cars with big-name provenance for the Revival
Tributes to the work of the Cooper Car Company, reflecting its work as both racing car constructor and tuner, and the career of its one-time star driver, Sir Stirling Moss, underpinned the 2019 Revival. Newly restored cars with links to Rindt, Clark, Mclaren and Hopkirk made their venue debuts.
Lotus 44
It was the first time this ex-jim Clark Lotus raced at Goodwood. Said its owner Bruno Schoffner, ‘It’s the only ex-clark Lotus never to have been restored. Clark drove it for Ron Harris in the 1966 European Formula Two Championship, but that season Brabham won every race, with Jack Brabham himself winning the Championship.’ It was an uncharacteristically unsuccessful season for Clark, his only Formula Two points coming at the Île de France Grand Prix where he finished second to Jack Brabham at Montlhery. Formula One only yielded one win, at Watkins Glen, although he finished second at the 1966 Indianapolis 500.
‘The reason the car wasn’t restored is because it became obsolete after the 1966 season,’ said Schoffner. ‘The 1.0-litre F2 regulations were replaced with 1.6-litre engines, and the cars needed completely re-engineering. This car ended up in Switzerland after that season, and we’ve only done the bare minimum to make it race-legal again, keeping it as original as possible.’
Morris Mini Cooper S
Making its first post-restoration appearance, its first outside of Australia, this plucky Cooper S was a veteran of the world’s greatest touring-car race.
‘It was raced by Paddy Hopkirk and Brian Foley in the 1967 Bathurst 500,’ explained owner Jono Morris. ‘It’s a road car, complete with back seats – that’s how Australian touring-cars raced in those days, and in 1966 the top 16 places at the Bathurst 500 went to Minis – it was a race dominated by small European cars back then. In response, the BMC factory decided to build three specials in an attempt to defend its title – technically road cars, but with 1275cc A-series engines with twin SU carburettors and disc brakes – and sent them over with Hopkirk to head up the factory team.
‘However, in 1967 Australian racing changed forever – Ford turned up with a team of Galaxies and the whole concept of V8 Supercars was born. Minis were still successful, but were relegated to class wins – this came fourth in Class C in 1967.
‘After the race it was put back to road spec, then a later owner stored it on a farm in Canberra for most of its life. I bought it from its restorer.’
Cooper T62
Mike Cooper – grandson of Cooper founder Charles and son of Mini Cooper creator John – was on-hand to present the tribute to the car company, which included a rare appearance of the car that Bruce Mclaren used to win the 1962 Monaco GP.
‘Because it was Monaco, the Ferraris didn’t have the advantage,’ Cooper explained. ‘They couldn’t use their grunt and Monaco suited nimbler-handling cars better, favouring the British garagistés with their superior chassis engineering.
‘The achievements of the Coventry-climax engine in the pre-3.0-litre F1 era are incredible when you consider that it started life as a pump for fire engines. It was originally a 1.2, but Coventryclimax was very much a part of Cooper back then, and had a good working relationship with my father, who persuaded it to go to 1.5 and 2.0 litres for various formulae, and even 2.7 for Indianapolis.
‘Bruce Mclaren arrived at Cooper in 1958 as a mechanic as well as a driver. Not long after he started, he asked my grandfather when his first drive would be, to which Charles replied; “This weekend, Monza. You’re driving the transporter!”’
Abarth-simca 2000GT
This Abarth attempted its first race since the Sixties after a six-year restoration returned it to the track. Explained mechanic Davide Riparbelli, ‘It was one of the works cars for the 1964 Targa Florio, driven by Hans Hermann, Jochen Rindt and Luciano Conti. Although it was red during that race, when we restored it we decided to paint it black because for most of its career – the most successful part – it was like this.
‘It has lots of original parts compared to other surviving Sixties Abarths. Many were raced into the Seventies and had many components upgraded and replaced, so it was a great opportunity to restore such an unaltered car.
‘On the Targa Florio, although Hermann and Rindt were in the team, Conti began the driving; it broke down on the sixth lap before either of the big names got to drive it. In 1965 it was bought by Gianni Lado, who repainted it and got class wins at the Trieste-opicina and Agordo-frasserè roadraces, and an overall win on the Coppa Alpe del Nevegal, before it went into storage. It wasn’t seen again until it was auctioned in 2014.’
Jaguar E-type roadster
One of two E-types shipped new to the Bahamas in 1961 made its Goodwood debut, fresh from restoration by Chris Keith Lucas. ‘Afterwards it went to Australia where it was painted blue and used as a road car; its history was unrecognised.’
The car was delivered new to celebrity chef Hans Schenk who notched up eight first or second places in the Bahamas Cup and Island Residents’ races between 1961 and 1963; he sold it to Tony Adams who added five more podium finishes before emigrating to Australia with it. Said Lucas, ‘After we cleaned off the paint and filler we found where cooling ducts had been welded on under the bonnet, and where the wheelarches had been folded under to fit wider tyres.’
RAC TT regular Sam Hancock, familiar to Lightweight E-types but new to the lower-spec pre-1966 Kinrara cars, spoke ahead of the Kinrara Trophy dusk race on the Friday, ‘It doesn’t feel that different, but the responses are a bit slower, it’s softer, less urgent and a bit heavier. I’m still figuring out how to get the best out of it.’
Jaguar E-type coupé
Another period racing E-type making its postrebuild debut was the coupé raced by Leicester Jaguar dealer Robin Sturgess in the 1962 season, wearing the 2 BBC number plate from his 1961 season roadster re-registered 848 CRY. Mark Midgley bought the car in December after it was found in America last year, ‘It was in a bad way – there was rear end damage that had twisted the bodyshell. It was all together as a road car with the original high-compression engine, gearbox and differential. We’ve taken it back to its 3-hour Martini trophy spec, with the Perspex rear window.’
Sturgess was one of the elite dealers given early access to cars to bring publicity through racing success. The coupé boasted D-type camshafts and a big-valve, gas-flowed cylinder head.