Cooper Car Company

The first cars built by the Coopers were single-seat 500-cc Formula Three racing cars driven by John Cooper and Eric Brandon, and powered by a JAP motorcycle engine. Since materials were in short supply immediately after World War II, the prototypes were constructed by joining two old Fiat Topolino front-ends together. According to John Cooper, the stroke of genius that would make the Coopers an automotive legend—the location of the engine behind the driver in the Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout pioneered by German race cars in the 1920s and 1930s—was merely a practical matter at the time. There was nothing new about 'mid' engined racing cars but Coopers led the way in popularising what was to become the dominant arrangement for racing cars. As the car was powered by a motorcycle engine, with its gearbox driving a chain, it was more convenient to have the engine and drivetrain in the back.

Called the Cooper 500, the cars' success in hill climbs and on track, including Eric winning the 500 race at one of the first postwar meetings at Gransden Lodge Airfield, quickly created demand from other drivers (including, over the years, Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Jim Russell, Ivor Bueb, Ken Tyrrell, and Bernie Ecclestone) and led to the establishment of the Cooper Car Company to build more. The business grew by providing an inexpensive entry to motorsport for seemingly every aspiring young British driver, and the company became the world's first and largest postwar specialist manufacturer of racing cars for sale to privateers.

Cooper built some 300 single-and twin-cylinder cars during the 1940s and 1950s and dominated the F3 category, winning 64 of 78 major races between 1951 and 1954. This volume of construction enabled the company to grow into the senior categories. Using a modified Cooper 500 chassis, the T12 model, Cooper had its first taste of top-tier racing when Harry Schell qualified for the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. Though Schell retired in the first lap, this marked the first appearance of a rear-engined racer at a Grand Prix event since the end of WWII.

The front-engined Formula Two Cooper Bristol model was introduced in 1952. Various iterations of this design were driven by a number of notable drivers – among them Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn – and furthered the company's growing reputation by appearing in Grand Prix races, which at the time were run to F2 regulations.

Until Cooper began building rear-engined sports cars in 1955, about two years after the mid-engine Porsche 550 was introduced, it had not become aware of the benefits of having the engine behind the driver. Based on the 500-cc cars and powered by a modified Coventry Climax fire-pump engine, these T39 cars were called "Bob-Tails". With the centre of gravity closer to the middle of the car, Coopernd it was less liable to spins and much more effective at putting the power down to the road, so they decided to build a single-seater version and began entering it in Formula 2 races.