Cooper

Cooper

Rear-engined Cooper cars revolutionized motorsport by winning Formula 1 world championships in 1959 and 1960, and the Cooper company laid the foundation for British dominance of Grand Prix racing immediately after the Second World War. In this vivid pictorial account of the rise and fall of Cooper, Mike Lawrence provides a fascinating insight into the cars, the company and postwar motor-racing history, and he shows how the innovative spirit of British pioneers transformed the sport a generation ago.The author recalls how in the late 1940s Charlie and John Cooper began to build simple 500cc racing cars. These light, nimble, inexpensive, easily maintained machines soon dominated the lower levels of single-seater racing, and they evolved into the sophisticated and ambitious Grand Prix cars and sportracing cars of the late 1950s. These were the creations that established Cooper as one of the great names in motor-racing history.Many of the best drivers of 1950s and 1960s racing made their reputations by winning in Coopers, including Moss, Hawthorn, Collins, Surtees, McLaren, Stweart and Rindt. Their famous careers are remembered in the book, as are Jack Brabhams championship victories in 1959 and 1960, and his pioneering rear-engined entry at the Indianapolis 500. His exploits opened the way for a new type of racing car at the highest levels of the sport.Mike Lawrence dwells on these days of unprecedented racing success, and he describes, too, the extraordinary Mini Cooper which dominated rallying in the mid 1960s. But he also records the years of Coopers decline and eventual disappearance from the racing scene more than 30 years ago. His sympathetic and expert account of the Cooper phenomenon will be fascinating reading for all motor-racing enthusiasts with a sense of history.