Unforgettable Car Geniuses: John Cooper

Today's Formula 1 champions began their careers in karting. In the 1940s, karts did not exist, the war had just ended, and money was scarce. However, in England there was a great desire to race, a large number of cheap 500cc Norton engines among the war surplus, and a family of enthusiastic engineers, surnamed Cooper, with a great idea: to build a small single-seater powered by a well-tuned 500cc Norton engine for a championship that became a great training ground. The small Coopers, which were not karts but small rear-engined single-seaters, soon became the first cars driven by many famous British drivers at the beginning of their careers.

Who were the Coopers? John Newton Cooper, born in 1923, just over twenty years old, and his father Charles, founded the Cooper Car Company in 1946. John had left school at 15, becoming an apprentice toolmaker, and during the war he had served in the Royal Air Force as an instrument technician. His father had always been involved in the automotive world. They knew what they were doing.

They began building the small Cooper Norton single-seaters of what was then called Formula 3. John did not “invent” the rear engine for single-seaters, as the genius Ferdinand Porsche and others had already thought of it, but he placed it in the most practical position to transmit power to the rear wheels. The result was a valuable and unforgettable training ground for future champions. In fact, it was a precursor to the concept of karting.