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Showing posts with label Cooper T39 Bobtail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooper T39 Bobtail. Show all posts

Tuesday, 29 September 2020

1958 Lister Jaguar

I took this photograph at Britten's chicane during the 50's Sports Car Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Boulogne and Hawthorn Trophies Race Meeting at Oulton Park in June 2006.
Leading is Stephen Gibson in his 1958 Lister Jaguar with Rupert Whyte in his 1958 Lotus Eleven behind him. Next is Barry Cannell in his 1956/57 Willment Climax followed by what may be Tim Llewellyn's 1956 Tojeiro Jaguar, and bringing up the rear is the 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail of Adrian van der Kroft.

Saturday, 12 October 2019

Two Coopers

This photograph was taken at Donington Park at the SeeRed meeting in September 2005.
On the left is the 1958 Cooper T45 of Bill Kirkpatrick that competed in the Ron Flockhart Memorial Trophy race. The Cooper T45 was derived from the T43 of 1957 that had competed in Grand Prix racing in that year with a 2 litre Coventry Climax engine, but in 1958 the T45 was on equal standing with the other Formula One teams with a 2½ litre unit. Rob Walker's rear-engined 2½ litre Cooper Climax T45 was good enough to win the first two races of the season, the Argentine Grand Prix (Stirling Moss) and the Monaco Grand Prix (Maurice Trintignant), and although Mike Hawthorn with his Ferrari 246 Dino won the World Drivers' Championship that was the last one to be won by a front-engined car. Bill Kirkpatrick's car at Donington Park had a 1,960cc engine. The car next to it is Brian Joliffe's 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail with a 1,460cc Coventry Climax FWB engine. The T39 was raced in the popular 1½ litre class in sports car races in the mid-1950s, competing against the Lotus Eleven, Maserati 150S, Porsche 550 and others.

Saturday, 20 July 2019

1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars

This is a photograph I took at McLeans Corner during the 1950s Drum-Braked Sports Racing Cars race at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005.
Leading is Marshall Bailey in his 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail followed by the 1955 Maserati 300S of Rodney Smith (#3060) being driven by Mark Gillies. Closely behind Mark Gillies is the 1954 HWM Jaguar of Michael Steele and the car at the rear is the 1958 Lola Mk1 prototype of Richard Wills.

Monday, 2 July 2018

Crowded Pit Lane

I took this photograph at the Vintage Sports Car Club's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2008.
It's a line of cars in the pit lane waiting for a practice session for the BRDC Historic Sports Car race to begin. Number 78 is the 1955 Jaguar D-Type of Benjamin Eastick and is chassis XKD 133, not a genuine 1955 car but apparently constructed in the 1970s using genuine Jaguar D-Type parts. I showed photographs of  this car on 11 July 2017. The car in front of the D-Type is Barry Wood's 1959 3.8 litre Jaguar-engined Lister Knobbly, and is chassis BHL 117, a car I featured on 31 October 2017. In front of that is the Cooper T39 Bobtail of John Clark who shared the driving in the one hour long race with (I think) Emma-Jane Gilbart-Smith, and I showed a photograph of this car on 13 March 2018.


Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Cooper T39 Bobtail

I took this photograph in the pit lane during a practice session at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in May 2008.
There's no number 218 listed in the programme of the event, but in the one hour long BRDC Historic Sportscars race, where cars generally have a co-driver, the programme has a Cooper T39 Bobtail number 18 with the drivers shown to be John Clark and 'tba'. I suspect that this is John Clark's Cooper, and that the lady in the cockpit is Emma-Jane Gilbart-Smith who has co-driven with John Clark in other events. I'd be grateful if someone could confirm or correct this for me.

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Crowded Paddock

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2007.
There's a preponderance of British Racing Green, and even the blue car nearest the camera is a British car - it's the 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail of Adrian van der Kroft that I featured on 11 July 2016. Adrian van der Kroft is also the owner of car number 38, a 1952 HWM F2 car fitted with a Jaguar engine. There are 5 Cooper Bristols - those of David White, Patrick Walker, Nigel Bancroft and Geoffrey O'Connell lined up together at the rear, and the one with the red nose is Paul Grant's. Number 49 is the 1954 HWM Jaguar of Michael Steele, 27 is Ian Nuthall's 1952 Alta F2, and numbers 10 and 7 are Nick Wigley's 1954 Connaught B type and 1959 Cooper T51 respectively.

Monday, 11 July 2016

Cooper T39 Bobtail

This car competed in the Race for Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars at the HGPCA's Donington International Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004.
It's Dutchman Adrian van der Kroft's 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail, and it was named the 'Bobtail' because of the way the tail of the car was cut off just behind the rear wheels.

Saturday, 29 November 2014

Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars

One of the races at the Donington International Historic Grand Prix meeting at Donington Park in May 2004 organised by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Organisation was the HGPCA Race for Pre-1959 Drum-Braked Sports Cars.
Here's a group of cars in that race heading down through the Craner Curves towards the Old Hairpin, Leading the group is Ollie Crosthwaite in a 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail and behind that number 7 is a 1955 Maserati 300S driven by Mark Gillies. Jeremy Agace is driving the white and blue 1956 Maserati 250Si alongside, behind which is another 1956 Cooper T39 Bobtail with Marshall Bailey at the wheel. Next comes a 1954 Kurtis 500 driven by Christopher Keen - interestingly, although the programme of the event shows the engine size of all the other cars taking part in the meeting in cubic centimetres, that for the Kurtis as shown in cubic inches, appropriate I suppose for an American car. It was shown as 283ci which I understand equates to some 4637cc. Following the Kurtis is Nick Wigley's 1953 Tojeiro Bristol, then Barry Wood's 1952 RGS Atalanta and Michael Ehrlich's 1953 Kieft Bristol.