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Cooper

Allen R. Kuhn: FIII in California

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Torrey Pines January 15, 1956, Harry Morrow JBS close up view. Photo by Allen R. Kuhn

Photos by Allen R. Kuhn
Story by Pete Vack with Jim Sitz

Following up on our Formula III series, we had not written anything on the class in America. But were there 500 cc events in the States?

Yes, they were raced throughout America but no one paid much attention. Says Jim Sitz, “Formula III never took off in California or the U.S.A. since the fans wanted to see the big, powerful and noisy cars. The most popular events for a normal weekend of racing were the Corvette and modified classes. The FIII cars were noisy but did not appear to be very fast.”

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Unheralded Predecessors: Opposition

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1951 Kieft Norton CK51 would be Stirling Moss’s new mount.

By Pete Vack
Photos by Jonathan Sharp from the Goodwood Revival, 2015.

Of the three victories achieved by non-Cooper cars in 1950, Frank Aikens of Wingco fame won at Silverstone with the Dick Ceasar-designed Iota-Triumph. The Jonsson-driven Effyh won another, and the third defeat was, of course, dealt at Rheims by the JBS, the most serious contender so far. Alfred J. Bottoms’ short career was both wild and meteoric. He was an ex-motorcycle racer who embarked upon an F3 effort in 1950, modifying another special with his own revised rear suspension.

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Unheralded Predecessors: Foreign Competitors

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A beauty from Sweden, the Effyh was like a miniature Auto Union. This example was in the Jack Mayes collection in 1989. Photo by Mary Vack.

By Pete Vack

By the end of ’49, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile decided to adopt the 500cc class and incorporate it as the new Formula 3, recognizing its potential as a training ground for future Grand Prix drivers. The Paris-based body had not only anticipated the success of the formula, but in 1949, the French Association Generale des Amicales et Coureurs Independants was ready to promote a 500cc class to be known as the Mouvement Racer 500.

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Unheralded Predecessors: Cooper Ascendent

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Jean Geslin in a Cooper Norton at Pomona. Photo by Allen R. Kuhn

By Pete Vack

Read Part 1

FROM ITALY WITH LOVE

While its first few appearances were plagued by broken motor mounts, John Cooper knew that the Cooper Mk I had potential. His father, Charles Cooper, was a burly Vauxhall dealer and garage owner from Surbiton who had spent a good part of the Thirties as racer Kaye Don’s mechanic, and he allowed his son full access to the shop’s tools and supplies.

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F3 500cc: Unheralded Predecessors Part 1

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1947 Monaco Norton

By Pete Vack
Color photography by Jonathan Sharp

They were laughable, incredibly noisy, devastatingly fast, often home built, and frequently ridiculed. But after 1950, 500 cc racing, better known as Formula 3, was one of the most significant classes ever to assemble on a grid. Born out of wartime dreams, these 500 pound, 500 cc race cars, with their independent suspensions, tubular chassis and motorcycle engines placed directly behind the driver, led directly to the Formula 1 and sports racing “rear engine revolution” of the 1960s. According to Count Gianni Lurani, “The success of F3 gave enormous impetus to the still immature British racing car industry. In time, the center of road racing and road racing manufacture was to shift across the English Channel, a possibility hardly imagined in the first post war years.”

That so much was achieved from so little was not expected then, nor is it remembered today. The one-make races, the motorcycle engines, and the scarcity of international competition discouraged the mainstream race fans with their various marque and national prejudices. The 500 cc cars were perceived as slow, troublesome and outside the realm of ‘real’ racing. F3 failed to catch the interest of more conventional race car builders, both on the Continent and in the U.S. Following the ultimate demise of the formula in 1959, the trend setting F3 cars were forgotten by all but a few die-hard enthusiasts in the United States and Great Britain.

However maligned, F3 was destined to change the face of the racing world. Cars like the Cooper Mk VIII, JBS, Mackson, and Erskine Staride set the pace for today’s modern F1 machines.

Unheralded Predecessors, indeed.

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