To understand the core message of Terry Wright's book, you first have to read the very last section: "While the pedigree of the modern racing car can be traced back to the famous marques of France, Germany and Italy, its clearest line of descent can be said to have started with the boy racers of southern California and the special builders of middle England. When Charles and John Cooper mated their offspring with the racing engines of John Prestwich, a new breed emerged. Motor racing was never to be the same again" (You can trace the lineage of the modern racing car back to the famous marques of France, Germany and Italy. But the clearest lineage began with the young racers in Southern California and the race car manufacturers in Middle England. When Charles and John Cooper fitted their offspring with John Prestwich racing engines, a new species was born. Racing was never to be the same again).
The hallmark of the Cooper for the Formula 500 was a simple mid-engine design, powered by a single or twin-cylinder racing motorcycle engine via a chain, of which a total of around 290 were produced. However, the concept of the Cooper was not entirely new. Just before the Second World War, David Fry and Dick Ceasar had already created the so-called Freikaiserwagen. The name of the car comes from a Germanization of the names of the two builders and is an expression of the reference to the mid-engined Auto Union racing cars. The car had a 500cc JAP racing engine located behind the driver, without a supercharger. The design principles did not follow those of the typical racing cars of the time, such as the English ERA, but rather the Midgets, i.e. the small racing cars for racing on unpaved ovals.
The Freikaiserwagen and the Cooper form the two stops for the hinge around which Terry Wright's book revolves. In the Freikaiserwagen, he sees a series of developmental strands that lead far back into the history of the automobile and motor sport. They are based on the desire for light and cheap vehicles and racing cars.
The hinge itself is the formulation of the Formula 500 in the years 1945-1946 in England.
In the Cooper for the Formula 500 from 1946, he sees the concept realized that allowed the English racing car builders to gradually take the lead in the technical development of racing car construction.
The book is therefore divided into three parts. The first part describes the developmental strands in the period before the Second World War that made the Formula 500 concept conceivable in the first place. The second part documents the thought process during the break in racing forced by the war, which ended with the formulation of the regulations in 1946. The third part documents the development of the formula up to 1951 and in particular the Cooper-JAP, which was the dominant design.
With its concept, the Freikaiserwagen brought together three strands of development, some of which had a long tradition:
The emergence of racing engines for motorcycles, and among them in particular the KTOS 8/80 from JAP (J. A. Prestwich Industries, Tottenham).
The idea of cheap racing cars, which Wright associated with the tradition of the Voiturettes and Cyclecars at the beginning of the century. Of particular interest here is the use of single and twin-cylinder engines by De Dion-Bouton and Léon Bollée in their voiturettes even before the end of the 19th century. Other important representatives were Morgan and GN (Henry Ronald Godfrey and Archibald Frazer-Nash) in England. The development led to the Freikaiserwagen in 1938.
The emergence of the midget, initially as a training device for young drivers and later as a relatively inexpensive form of racing. Especially because the races took place on unpaved tracks. In this context, Terry White refers to Harry Hartz, an American Midget star and three-time runner-up in the Indianapolis 500-mile race (1922, 1923, 1926). He drove a Midget in Southern California in the early 1920s at the age of 16 and earned his spurs that way. Later, Midget races were organized throughout the USA. The wave spread to Australia and England in particular. Harry Skirrow, who fitted his Specials with JAP engines in the 1930s, deserves special mention here.
The "500 Club" was founded at the end of 1945 from the Bristol Aeroplane Company Motor Sports Club. The technical regulations were finalized on 25 March 1946. The idea behind these regulations from start to finish was to ban expensive solutions so that less well-off competitors also had a good chance. This included, in particular, the ban on superchargers. It was also David Fry and Dick Ceasar who played an important role in the formulation of the Formula 500.
It is interesting to note that the idea of the Formula 500 was already the subject of heated debate in the English motor sport press in 1941. There were outspoken critics, such as Bill Boddy from Motor Sport, who openly doubted the attractiveness of such a formula. They campaigned for England to enter Formula 1 with conventional racing cars. After the Second World War, therefore, there were effectively two paradigms in terms of racing car construction in England: the 500cc formula with its emphasis on simplicity and cheapness and, in Formula 1, the BRM V-16 with the complexity of a fighter plane.
The rise of the 500 Formula, with fields of up to 50 cars, was due to a second development. After the Second World War, more and more military airfields were cleared in England, which could now be used as race tracks. Silverstone and Goodwood are just the best-known examples. The ban on racing on public roads in England was therefore no longer an obstacle. While in 1946-1947 it was mainly hill climbs that were advertised, the number of circuit races increased rapidly as a result. It is probably no exaggeration when Terry Wright attributes a central role in England's rise in motorsport to this development.
In the final section, Wright looks at the history of the Formula 500, first in England and later, i.e. from 1950 onwards, in Europe. He concentrates primarily on Cooper and JAP, but also refers to Kieft, Iota and the Vincent and Norton engines.
He concludes with a brief look at the period 1951-1961 and a review of the most important drivers who began their careers in the Formula 500 and Cooper-JAP: Ken Wharton, Peter Collins, Harry Schell and Stirling Moss.
The book is not a picture book, not light fare, but a tough read. The 352 pages are densely packed with information and peppered with countless footnotes. This is not to say that pictures and illustrations are neglected, but that the text (the story) takes center stage. This basically meets scientific requirements, as the sources have been extensively researched and meticulously documented.
Terry Wright draws a magnificent line from Harry Hartz (1896-1974), born in Pomona, CA, to Charles and John Cooper (1893-1964 and 1923-2000), born in Paris and Kingston upon Thames respectively. Father and son Cooper were twice world design champions (1959, 1960). He thus provides the background to the standard work on the history of Cooper by Doug Nye.
Anyone interested in racing history will find a lot of interesting information here on developments that are often treated as peripheral topics and are hardly ever connected with each other. The appeal of this book lies above all in establishing these historical connections. The descriptions of the individual strands are written with a view to the actual goal, the establishment of the 500 formula in England in 1945/1946. This in the knowledge that it marked the beginning of a development that made England the leading country in motor racing. A position that Motorsport Valley in central England has successfully defended to date.
It is possible that not all of the bridges that Terry Wright has built will prove to be fully resilient, even though he has collected a lot of supporting material. Nevertheless: simply a gigantic work!
If you are interested in the subject further, please refer to the Loose Fillings website, where the Australian point of view dominates.
Bibliographical details
- Title: Power Without Glory: Racing the Big-twin Cooper
- Author: Terry Wright
- Publisher: Loose Fillings Sydney
- Edition: 1st edition 2015
- Size: 352 pages, 500 pictures
- Format: hardcover with jacket, 210x260 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN-13: 978-0-9943661-0-8
- Price: from the publisher £55.00; on amazon.co.uk: £65.00; on Ebay: 90.00 EUR (always excluding postage and packing)
