Tag Archives: Fry

Can You Help Us Dad ? – Cooper 500 Prototype

In 1932 John Newton Cooper probably became the luckiest 9 year old in Surbiton when his Dad, Cooper Garage proprietor Charles Cooper, built him a car with a motor cycle engine and gearbox in the front and a chain drive to the rear axle.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Peter Harvey, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

By the time John turned 14 in 1936 his dad had built him another car using Austin Seven components which many years later would be retrospectively given the name T1.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Peter Harvey, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

At the same time as Charles was building cars for his son an informal group of motoring enthusiasts known as CAPA were formulating idea’s for an affordable motor sport category and Dick Caesar, the C in CAPA is credited with the idea of using 500 cc motorcycle engines to power specials that could be devised for the category.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Peter Harvey, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

A second group of enthusiasts competing at Shelsley Walsh were also turning to using motor cycle engines for their specials which included David Fry who built a vehicle known as the Freikaiserwagen.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

During the ’39 – ’45 war some members of CAPA and others found themselves working at the Bristol Aircraft Company where they formed a motor sports club to further think through their ideas, in 1946 this club was wound up in favour of a non works ‘500 Club’ aimed at organising events for their “500 Formula” which eventually became an internationally recognised category known as Formula 3.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

When 23 year old John Cooper and his friend Eric Brandon were looking for a way into motor sport they decided that the new 500 Formula was the way to go and turned to John’s Dad Charles for help.

Cooper 500 Prototype, Cholmondeley Pageant of Power

Charles helped John and Eric build two Cooper 500’s which featured FIAT Topolino 500 suspension front and rear connected by a simple frame and a JAP motor, prepared for speedway competition, behind the driver with a gearbox and chain drive to the rear wheels.

These two cars became the first two of an eventual 320 Formula 500 vehicles Cooper Cars are thought to have built between 1946 and 1959, by which time Jack Brabham was on his way to the first of two consecutive world championships driving Coopers latest mid engined Formula One cars.

Peter Harvey is seen at last years Cholmondeley Pageant of Power driving the second Cooper 500 Prototype built for Eric Brandon which was retrospectively given the T3 tag.

Thanks for joining me on this “Can You Help Us Dad ?” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I be starting a short series of blogs on concept cars. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Dash For Lemon Cake – Frenchay Village Show

Last week I received an e-mail advising me that the Frenchay show would be taking place on Saturday but a prior engagement meant I’d struggle to make it. Remembering how good the Lemmon cake was last time I went, I thought I’d give it a go.

Riviera by Buick, Frenchay  Village Show

As you can see I made it and enjoyed not only a quality slice of Lemon Cake, but also reacquainting my self with the Riviera by Buick which I first saw a couple of weeks ago at Yate Town Football Club.

ALFA Romeo 1750 Zagato, Frenchay  Village Show

Cockpit ergonomics have advanced considerably since this 1930’s Zagato bodied ALFA Romeo 1750 was built, but one wonders if the fun factor has not been inversely proportional.

Hillman Huskey, Frenchay  Village Show

While at boarding school I used to clean one of the teachers cars, a Hillman Husky like the 1959 example seen here, for something like a shilling / 12d / 5np a week. The parking light seen here is operated when parking on the side of a road or on a lay-by on a road with a speed limit of more than 30 mph, as mandated to this day by paragraph 249 of the highway code.

Triumph Herald, Frenchay  Village Show

Back in the day before I went to boarding school I remember going on a tour of a Metropolitan Police station in London, the sweet essence of disinfectant in the cells left a lasting negative impression. I’m not sure on the date of this sticker seen on a 1963 Triumph Herald that has been turned into a period Panda Car.

MG TC, Frenchay  Village Show

Looking back it is amazing how sports cars like this 1949 MG TC were built with exposed fuel tanks strapped to the back, MG carried on this practice until they replaced the MG TF 1500 in 1955.

Hillman Imp, Frenchay  Village Show

Bristol’s Tim Fry and later Ferrari racer Mike Parkes lead the team that developed the Hillman Imp with it’s all aluminium overhead cam 4 cylinder motor developed from a Coventry Climax fire pump. The 998 cc / 61 cui version of the Imp was first seen in 1964 and was popular among side car racers in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Thanks for joining me on this “Dash For Lemon Cake” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psychoontyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Americana Thursday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Brave Heart – Singer Chamois

Comparing today’s Hillman Imp /Singer Chamois with yesterday’s FIAT 850 it is hard to believe that the Imp/Chamoise was in production one year ahead of the 850. Unencumbered by an existing design, like the FIAT 850, the clean lines of the Imp / Chamois were the work of Tim Fry and occasional Ferrari F1 driver Mike Parkes who were given carte blanche at the start of the ‘Apex’ project.

Incredibly, well incredible to my 2010 eyes with 2020 hind sight the FIAT 850 out sold the Imp / Chamois nearly 5:1 despite the Imp / Chamois being in production for 5 more years from 1963 – 1976. This particular vehicle apparently first registered in Bristol in 1966 is the badge engineered high end Singer Chamois Mark II with a conventional throttle cable and manual choke replacing the pneumatic throttle linkage and automatic choke of the MK I in 1965.

The Imp / Chamois vehicles were built in a brand new factory in Linwood near Glasgow by a workforce more experienced in building mighty ships than assembling little cars. Knockdown kit versions were also assembled in Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Venezuela, Uruguay, Costa Rica, South Africa and Australia.

Nearly 200,000 of these vehicles were built from 1963 – 1966 it then took another 10 years to build the same number again. The engine in the rear started life as an iron block FWMA Coventry Climax fire pump engine but was made, unusually for the time, entirely out of aluminium with a redesigned cylinder head in this application.

The 875 cc 53 cui engine delivered 39 hp enough to take the car to a respectable 80 mph. The car was perhaps hampered by having the engines cast in Glasgow and machined in Coventry before being shipped back to Glasgow for installation, a round trip of some 600 miles, but more than any thing the vehicle appears to have been a largely wasted marketing opportunity when compared against the similarly sized FIAT 850.

Thanks for joining me, I hope you have enjoyed today’s Scottish edition wishing everyone with a heritage north of Hadrian’s Wall a happy St Andrew’s day.

Hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for another exciting instalment of ‘Getting a lil’ psycho on tyres’, don’t forget to come back now !

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