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.
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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.
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