Marlboro Masters 1998:

Historic Grand Prix Cars (2/7)

This is not a Grand Prix car but an Indianapolis special. It doesn't really fit into the rest of the field, but because of its unique magnificence it's embraced by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association.
Don Shead drives this purpose built car with the 4.1 litre Offenhauser engine. The car produced an impressive roar but it wasn't very efficient on the track. The banked corners of the Indianapolis speedway are more its cup of tea.

Here the Turtle Drilling Special is overtaken on the outside by the Cooper Bristol, a lighter car that corners better.
Notice the oil tank as a separate unit on the side of the car, a feature of most Indy cars through the 1960's. The fuel tank is in the tail of the car. The tires of this car cost a fortune, they have to be custom made and the driver was very careful not to ruin them. According to RitzSite visitor Mark Stockwell this Turtle Drilling Special is actually a Kurtis-Kraft roadster.

Another Cooper Bristol tries to pass the Turtle Drilling Special. This car is driven by Dutchman Fred Zimmer and is built in 1952. Its powered by a 2 litre 6 cylinder 127 hp Bristol engine, which is in fact a further developed pre-war BMW engine built in license by Bristol.
The Cooper Bristol Mk1 (or T20 as it was designated by the Cooper factory internally) was the car in which Mike Hawthorn made his name. In early 1952 the car appeared on the track for the first time and it was the first Cooper F2 car after a line of very successful F3 cars. It was outclassed by the Ferrari F2 cars, but it scored points and Mike Hawthorn was the leading non-Ferrari driver in the championship of 1952. He used nitro-methane as fuel, which was legal but not very common.

The Cooper T20 was replaced in 1953 by the T23 or Cooper Bristol Mk2. It had a lighter tubular frame, larger brakes and a smoother body. For Stirling Moss a version was made fitted with an Alta engine, which was a disaster. But with the original Bristol engine it didn't score any championship points either.
After the 1953 season these cars were raced in formula libre races outside Europe, by Jack Brabham in Australia for example.
Here you see Graham Burrows racing the Cooper over the Zandvoort track.

This Connaught resembles the Cooper cars and has also a 2 litre engine. Driver is Bob Gilbert.
Connaught made only three formula cars in its existence: The A-type F2 car, the famous B-type F1 Grand Prix car that won the Syracuse GP and the C-type F1 car that never got fully developed. The Connaught A was a very sound design with good road holding capabilities, but lack of engine power prevented it from being a top contender. It had a Lea-Francis four cylinder 1960 cc engine that produced between 135 and 165 hp, depending on its modifications. Although the Bristol engined Coopers from the same era had even less power, they were also more nimble and lighter, and because of that more competitive.

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