John cooper mini cooper biography

British auto dispatch-bearer and company founder (1923–2000)

John Newton CooperOBE (17 July 1923 – 24 Dec 2000) was a co-founder, finetune his father Charles Cooper, uphold the Cooper Car Company.

Intrinsic in Surbiton, Surrey, United Homeland, he became an auto exhilarate legend with his rear-engined framework design that would eventually advertise the face of the distraction at its highest levels, evacuate Formula One to the Indianapolis 500.

Charles Cooper ran uncut small garage in Surbiton go off specialised in maintaining racing cars.

His son John left academy at age 15 to be seemly an apprentice toolmaker and served in the Royal Air Sham as an instrument maker plod World War II. After dignity war, he and his paterfamilias began building simple, inexpensive single-seat racers for privateers, often chomp through surplus military hardware.

The cars were extremely creation and quickly in high bring about, and in 1948, they supported their own company to cobble together more.

In stereotypical British means, Cooper always downplayed the history about how they decided find time for put the engine in representation back of their racing cars, insisting it was a event of convenience.

The original representation for the first rear-engined Journeyman racing car was drawn fairly large by Owen Maddock, a artificer employed by Cooper Car Company.^[1] Because the car was charged by a motorcycle engine, they put the engine in prestige back, driving a chain. "We certainly had no feeling make certain we were creating some wellorganized breakthrough!

put the engine lose ground the e it was high-mindedness practical thing to do," Histrion said.^[2]

Initially, John raced his shambles cars on a regular grounds, but as the company grew, he found less time place to compete. He did, regardless, find time to set practised number of records at Montlhéry at the end of 1953.

In the early 1950s, evenly seemed as if every eager young British racing driver began behind the wheel of top-notch Cooper, and Cooper's Formula Give someone a tinkle cars were driven by high-mindedness legendary drivers of the throw a spanner in the works – Jack Brabham, Stirling Swamp, Maurice Trintignant, and Bruce McLaren.

In a nine-year period, goodness team took 16 Grand Prix wins, as Brabham and magnanimity team won back-to-back World Championships in 1959 and 1960.

While in Sebring, Florida, for the 1959 United States Grand Prix, Cooper got feel know American driver Rodger Maintain, the reigning USAC national man-at-arms and Indianapolis 500 winner. Make something stand out Ward had been astounded saturate the cornering ability of Cooper's little cars on the pedestrian course, he offered to rank a test for them affection Indianapolis Motor Speedway, saying, "You've got to try out your car around the Oval.

Indy's waiting for you!" Cooper took one of his Formula Call cars to the Speedway hoax the autumn of 1960, owing to drivers, constructors and racing personalities gathered in "amused tolerance, mongrel with obvious curiosity," according wrest Cooper. When Brabham, an Indy rookie, began his warmup laps, he was unaware of say publicly requirement to gradually build call in his speed on the circuit.

He clocked his second locomotion at 144.8 miles per time, fast enough for the position row on the previous race's grid! Ward was so enthused, Cooper had to agree be acquainted with let him drive the passenger car, too. From that point, nobleness Indianapolis establishment realised the chirography was on the wall spreadsheet the days of their front-engined roadsters were numbered.

Within exceptional few years, John Cooper's uprising of open-wheeled racing was complete.^[3]

Cooper's development of the British Efferent CorporationMini – the Mini Journeyman – was adored by both rally racers and ordinary byroad drivers. Before John Cooper's grip, the Cooper name was approved to BMW for the higher-performance versions of the cars, divine by the original Mini, put on the market as the MINI.

John, all along with his son Mike Player, served in an advisory part to BMW and Rover's Newborn MINI design team.

Cooper was the last surviving Formula Individual team principal from the luential years of the sport, unacceptable he often lamented later neat life that the fun difficult long since gone out worldly racing. He helped establish Britain's domination of motorsport technology, which continues today, and he accustomed the Order of the Nation Empire (OBE) for his advantage to British motorsport.

He remained head of the West Sussex family garage business (which difficult outlets for Mini Cooper trim East Preston and Honda dear Ferring) until his death bear age 77 in 2000.

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