Forgotten Classic: The Short, Sweet Story of Bitter Cars

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming about mid-century cars and architecture (which may seem stunningly nonessential as the phrase "nuclear war" reappears in newscasts after a decent absence) to mention that World Central Kitchen is now serving refugees from the war in Ukraine as well as the ongoing chaos in Afghanistan.  WCK has a perfect 100 score on Charity Navigator, translating into a 4-star rating.  We wish the world were as safe a place for democracy as World Central Kitchen is for hungry refugees.  We'll have some notes on architecture in Ukraine soon...

No, that's not a Bitter automobile in the above photo, but it began a series of developments that led Erich Bitter to offer a car under his name.  The  glassy, fastback  Opel CD (Coupe Diplomat) show car from 1969 shows how designer Chuck Jordan ('63 Riviera, '67 Eldorado) could reduce form to essentials…or in this case, to less than essentials. One gained access to the car by lifting a canopy including the wraparound glazing, a trick GM's Larry Shinoda* had tried on the Corvair Monza GT* show car 7 years earlier.  This would never work on a production car, especially at a time of tightening safety regulations.  There was also the fact that although a Chevy V8 was planned, the CD show car was a non-running prototype.  Never mind, though...  GM Europe chief Bob Lutz thought the show car's form could be salvaged for a limited production car to attract customers to Opel's showrooms. Italian coach builder Pietro Frua* agreed, and soon enough Frua would build 2 prototypes of a luxury fastback with conventional doors and bumpers (well, a bit more bumpers than the show car), and real engines under their hoods...

Exactly a year after the CD show car's debut at the Frankfurt auto show, Frua's fastback reinterpretation attracted spectators and the automotive press at Frankfurt.  Commissioned by Opel as production-ready (or at least production-friendly) prototypes, the Frua CDs seemed to be reinterpretations of Giorgetto Giugiaro's design for the Maserati Ghibli*, which had appeared on the Ghia* stand in Turin 4 years earlier.  The low hood line featured a subtle blister to clear the 5.4 liter Chevy V8, and perhaps under the influence of GM's Chuck Jordan, Frua included the slanted vent slats from the show car behind the rear quarter windows.  Both prototypes featured large hatches for luggage access, and the second one shown had a more substantial frame around the backlight.  The Diplomat-based chassis featured disc brakes and a DeDion rear suspension.  GM management, however, was not convinced to put the car into production. 

Erich Bitter, however, saw the Frua CD's potential, and endeavored to get the car into production.  Aiming at a true 2 + 2 configuration, a GM design team involving Dave Holls and Richard Ruzzin reworked the Frua design.  The resulting Bitter CD, sometimes called the Opel Bitter CD because of GM's involvement, first appeared at the Frankfurt show in 1973, powered by a 5.4 liter (327 cu. in.) Chevy V8, its elegantly creased steel body sitting on a 105.5 inch wheelbase.  Baur in Stuttgart, which had built the BMW 507 and was by 1973 building the BMW 2002 cabriolets, received the contract to build the bodywork for the new car.

The cabin was glassier than on the Frua prototypes, and the frameless rear hatch seemed not as well thought-out as the sturdier-looking one on the Frua CD, with the result that luggage would be on display.  The front bumpers, however, were more substantial than on the Frua CD. Baur's bodywork gained a good reputation for workmanship, and the V8 provided lively enough performance despite the CD's 3,800 pound weight.

Metallic colors show off the form best, and the CD, which was produced from 1973 into 1979, sold 395 examples.  Only 6 were produced in 1973, and 1974 was the CD's most successful year, with 99 units produced.  After that, the oil crisis, along with the car's 58,500 DM price, slowed sales.  Back in 1969, around the time GM was showing off that wild CD concept car, Frua had suggested something a bit more modest to compete with the Neue Klasse BMWs that were then costing Opel sales.  Frua's Admiral Coupe B featured Opel's inline 6, a clean notchback profile, seating for 4, and even BMW's "Hoffmeister kink" at the C-pillar.  Like the Frua CD coupes from the following year, however, it remained a prototype...

That earlier notchback coupe idea may have occurred to Bitter's product planners when it came time to replace the CD.  Based upon the 6-cylinder Open Senator chassis, their new car made its debut a the 1980 Monaco GP, and because Baur was busy building the BMW M1, fledgling Italian coach builder OCRA built under 80 bodies before finish concerns led to Bitter moving the body contract to Maggiora.  The SC's original shape had been sketched by Erich Bitter, but received detail attention and revision from Opel designers Henry Haga and Georges Gallion.  Pininfarina performed wind tunnel testing on the result.  The 3 liter car was later joined by a stroked 3.9 liter version of the Opel "cam-in-head" inline 6, and this improved the car's appeal in the US.

In 1981 a convertible joined the line, as well as a version of the coupe with all-wheel drive based upon the Ferguson system that had appeared in the Jensen FF.  Only 22 convertibles would be built before the end of production in 1989;  we're not sure how many Ferguson-equipped cars found customers.

Bitter also showed a stretched 4-door version of the SC, but only 5 of these sedans were built, perhaps because an effort to get Buick dealers to carry the Bitter as a competitor to BMW and Mercedes attracted only a few dealers.  488 of the SC series were built during the model run; the production effort had been hampered by the decline of independent coach builders, and maybe sales had been slowed by the perception that the Opel underpinnings were not in the same class as BMW or Mercedes.  In the US, it cannot have helped that the proper pronunciation of Bitter is "beater"... 

The SC series was discontinued after 1989, and Bitter collaborated industrial designer Tom Tjaarda* and Coventry's MGA Developments engineering team to produce a fiberglass prototype for the mid-engined Tasco supercar, which would have been powered by the V10 from Chrysler's Dodge Viper.  This would have been the first engine sourced outside of GM for a Bitter product, but the Tasco, like the Opel CD show car that had kicked off the whole Bitter adventure over two decades earlier, remained a nonfunctional full-size model.

After the early Nineties supercar boom became a supercar bust, Erich Bitter commissioned Opel stylist Hideo Kadama to design new bodywork for the then-new Opel Omega B chassis.  The prototype, again built by MGA in England, was first shown in 1995, and was revised with metallic aqua paint and a sleeker nose design for the '96 show circuit.  Despite plans for a turbocharged, 24-valve 3 liter Opel V6, the car, now called the Bitter Berlina, never entered production.

Bitter's last effort at offering something exclusive and distinctive was not an unmixed success.  The Vero, first shown in 2007 and produced in small numbers in 2008-09, abandoned the idea of a body design exclusive to Bitter, and instead adapted GM's Holden Commodore body shell (offered Stateside for a brief time before GM's Great Recession bankruptcy as the Pontiac G8) offered the small block GM V8 with a supercharger option bumping horsepower up to 550, but styling changes were largely limited to a hood with power bulge and a bland oblong grille with oversized "B" logo.  The high price took care of exclusivity (only 10 cars were sold), but the Vero failed to offer anything like distinctiveness, and Bitter lacked the resources to tool up for something more special.  The Vero was withdrawn after 2012, and after that Bitter cars offered its badge on production model Opels with luxury upgrades.

Footnotes:  Cars and designers denoted with an asterisk were featured in these posts from our archives:

Larry Shinoda and the Corvair Monza GT (3-18-16)  

Frua-bodied BMW and Glas (12-2-18)

Frua-bodied Monteverdi (7-9-19)

Ghia and the Maserati Ghibli (10-31-20)

Tom Tjaarda (4-30-20)

Photo Credits:  
Top:  General Motors
2nd:  viathema.com
3rd:  classiccarcatalogue.com 

4th thru 6th:  Bitter Cars

7th:  Wikimedia

8th:  carrozzieri-italiani.com

9th & 10th:  bittercars.com

11th & 12th:  bitter-parts.com

13th & 14th:  bittercars.com

Bottom:  Wikimedia

The Jetsons in Boulder Part 6: Designs by Tician Papachristou

Born in Athens and educated at Princeton, architect Tician Papachristou arrived in Boulder in 1954, working at James Hunter's practice before going independent in 1956.  Two years later, Papachristou produced the design for this Sampson house in Boulder's Chautauqua neighborhood.  The house, and Papachristou's career, was the product of surging interest in modern architecture in postwar Boulder, which converged with a demand for innovative construction on a budget...

What caused these trends?  Well, for one thing, Boulder's population nearly doubled from 1950 to 1960, from 19,999 to 37,718.  It came close to doubling again by 1970, to nearly 67,000.  Many of the clients who approached architects were starting families and building their first homes. This was possible in an expanding middle class, but it required some innovative thinking by the young architects of their generation. In the Sampson house,  Papachristou exposed the wood structure and roof decking, and allowed space to flow from room to room and level to level, as in this view from the upper level into the two-level living and kitchen space...

Another factor in the explosion of modern innovation in Boulder was the University of Colorado, whose teaching staff was forward-thinking, open to new ideas, and at the same time constrained by limited academic salaries. They were receptive to open plans (fewer walls and doors meant lower costs) with lots of light and space for books, as in the clerestory-lit, book-lined Sampson library above, and the bedroom below. From 1958 to 1962, Tician Papachristou taught design at CU Boulder, so he had a chance to meet people with these shared interests...

The garden walls of concrete masonry units are part of the original scheme.  Use of concrete block is an example of deploying inexpensive materials in a new context; the stacked-bond pattern provided a modern pattern for the humble material. The Sampson house is currently being renovated, and appears to have plenty of life left in it for its present owners... 

In 1958, the same year as the Sampson house, Papachristou collaborated with Charles Haertling* on a house for Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Noble in Boulder's Flagstaff neighborhood.  Their assignment was to provide something out of the ordinary on a very limited budget...

When the Nobles saw a model of the proposed design, which involved linked geometric tepees with the triangular planes of their roofs touching the ground, the couple's reaction was that this was a bit too far out of the ordinary... 

…but it was within the limits of their strict budget, and dealt effectively with other constraints of their site (a stream, variable ground elevations, and woods) so they proceeded.

Today the house remains in its original form, and the growth of the trees and shrubs all but conceals its presence from traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue.  The slant of the roof planes presented a challenge for planning interior space, as well as an opportunity for placement of plants and art in the low-headroom zones...

In 1958 and 1959 Papachristou designed two houses on adjacent sites in the University Hill neighborhood.  The Jesser house was the second of this thematically linked duet, but it's the first house you see as you approach the corner of 6th & Euclid.  Here's how it looks today, a composition of linked cylindrical volumes under sloping roofs...

The photo below shows how the Jesser house looked right after completion.  Note how visible the adjacent Sirotkin house is to the west, before the trees grew to such impressive height. Closer to the street, there's the addition of a privacy fence. And somebody has traded the '54 Loewy Studebaker* in the old photo for a modern Audi A4... 

The interior shows how the curve of the upper level, set inside the two-story glazed wall, creates spatial involvement.  As in other work by this architect, floor to ceiling glazing in the public zones of the house allows the sense of space to flow from the outside in...

The photo below shows how well the simple materials have endured.  These include painted concrete block, concrete, stained wood, and glass block.

Shallow windows tucked under the eaves provide more seclusion to bedroom areas.

The neighboring Sirotkin house designed the previous year, adjacent to the corner lot of the Jesser, features a more rectilinear plan, as evidenced below in a photo taken during construction in 1959. The cantilevered roof shows its scalloped upper and lower surface.  Designed to promote light transmission through the interior, the shallow roof depth must have presented a challenge to the structural engineer.

The completed Sirotkin house, shown below in a photo taken this week, shows how the architect employed curving concrete block landscape walls to anchor the house to the site,  connect interior to exterior space, and link it visually to the exuberantly curved Jesser house, its neighbor. 

In 1960 George Woodman, a professor in CU's Philosophy Department, moved into the Sirotkin house with his family. The photo below, taken in the early Sixties during the family's time there, shows how the scalloped ceilings transmit light across the top of the concrete block wall. 

The Woodmans took the photo below as well; note the careful detailing for the light steel structure supporting the open wood stair treads.  Professor Woodman liked riding his bike to the nearby university, and the Woodmans became lifelong friends with architect Papachristou and his family...

The suspended steel fireplace was becoming a standard feature of modernist houses at midcentury, but this one is suspended over a fire pit recessed into the concrete floor instead of the more common raised hearth.  Note the flat skylights filling the space between the structural beam and the curving concrete block wall.

The house at on Abbey Place in the Chautauqua neighborhood is a couple of blocks from the Sampson house that begins this essay, but it was designed earlier, in 1956, the year Papachristou started his practice.  Deep eaves shade the concealed entry and the windows organized into a horizontal band, while wood siding connects these upper windows with a lower one, making an "L" shape that echoes the simple plan...  

Deeper eaves shade windows that extend to the vaulted ceiling, and supporting beams express the structure within.  The interior was remodeled in 2005, but the exterior facing Abbey Place is as original...

The Bowman house on Sentinel Rock Lane, below, was built to Papachristou's design in 1965; it presides with pagoda-like serenity over the high foothill vistas. The linear plan and expansive, cantilevered deck makes the house seem larger than its area, which is well under 2,000 square feet...

The roof scheme stacks two parallel gables, and a linear skylight set into the lower gable casts natural light on an interior of wood, concrete and steel.  Floor-to-ceiling glazing erases the boundary between the interior space and the wood deck beyond, and the cantilevered hearth echoes that deck.  During this period, Papachristou was advising NCAR director Walter Orr Roberts and architect I.M. Pei* on the site location for the National Center for Atmospheric Research*, and Pei suggested that the Boulder architect could broaden his professional horizons in New York City.  Papachristou left for Manhattan the year the Bowman house was finished, taking a job with Marcel Breuer's firm, where he eventually became a partner. The Bowman house turned out to be his final Boulder project, a fitting cap to his involvement in Front Range architecture, and the creation of over a dozen innovative and memorable houses.

*Footnote:  For earlier photo essays on Boulder's Midcentury Modern architecture, see "The Jetsons at Home in Boulder, Colorado (Part One)". featuring Charles Haertling's Menkick and Brenton houses and posted on June 13, 2016, "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 2: Charles Haertling Masterworks", from July 2, 2016, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 3: Charles Haertling at Mid-Century and Beyond", from June 30, 2020, "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 4: Roger Easton's Modest Masterpiece", from October 12, 2020, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 5: Hidden Gems in the Foothills", posted December 8, 2020.  I.M. Pei's National Center for Atmospheric Research is the subject of "Roadside Attraction: National Center for Atmospheric Research", posted on May 26, 2019. And on those Loewy Studebakers, you might visit "Forgotten Classic: 1953-'54 Studebaker Starliner---Sleeping Beauty from South Bend", posted February 20, 2021.

Monochrome Photo Credits:  The Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, CO

Color Photo Credits:  

Top + 4th thru 6th from top:  Sean McIllwain of Mod Boulder

2nd & 3rd + 7th, 8th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th & 20th:  the author

21st & 22nd (Sirotkin living room & stair):  woodmanfoundation.org

16th (Jessor interior) + 23rd (Sirotkin interior):  Lisa Doane Photography

Bottom:  ColoProperty.com

Cooper Cars Followed a Winding Road to the Major Leagues

Back in 1947, when Englishmen Charles Cooper and his son John (left and right, below) founded their garage to make tiny Formula 3 racing cars powered by motorcycle engines,  British cars were just beginning to appear in America as part of Britain's postwar export drive. There would soon be Austins, MGs, Morrises, Sunbeams and Triumphs.  But even by 1950, when the father and son team fashioned the radically streamlined, mid-engined, Norton-powered racer shown above, few Americans had heard of them. It's ironic, then, that their name still appears on a mass-produced English car driven by thousands of Americans, when Austins, MGs and Triumphs have vanished from all but vintage car events...

Prompted by a search for a simple, low-cost solution to winning races in the 500cc Formula 3, the Coopers picked a mid-engined location, not unlike the pre-WW2 Auto Union racers, with the engine right behind the driver.  This produced neutral handling, and low frontal area.  Soon young drivers like Stirling Moss, below at Brands Hatch in 1950, were scoring successes in Coopers... 

The Coopers made a few Formula 2 cars as well, but decided on a front engine location, and because few engines of advanced design were available off the shelf, selected the aging Bristol* six, based on a prewar BMW design.  At the 1952 Goodwood Easter race with drivers lining up below, Mike Hawthorn (foreground) beat Juan Manuel Fangio (in 2nd car from foreground).

The Cooper works built a few handsome Bristol-powered two-seaters during this era as well, and these had some success.  Note how the lines of the alloy-paneled body design follow those of the contemporary Ferraris by Vignale...

Not long after, there were a few front-engined Coopers with Jaguar engines. These were quite fast; the Jaguar was far better suited to competition, though in a larger displacement class.  The model shown below is a T38.

By the mid-Fifties several phenomena came together to change Cooper's fate. One was the availability of the overhead-cam, Coventry Climax four cylinder engine based upon that firm's fire pumps.  In 1,100 cc displacement, it proved a good off-the-shelf racing engine.  Another was the availability of disc brakes pioneered by Jaguar.  Another was the rising popularity of small-displacement road racing cars in America's SCCA.

The 1955 Cooper T39 Bobtail was at the intersection of all these streams.  Cooper mounted the Climax FWA forward of a transaxle from a front-drive Citroen, a clever, cost effective use of two off-the-shelf components. The alloy body's front and rear sections lifted to allow easy access for race mechanics. And the Kamm-inspired tail was predictive of race car aerodynamics half a decade into the future. The car was a success on the track, and prompted lots of orders from privateer racers. 

During 1956 Jack Brabham modified a Cooper T40 Formula 2 car with fully-enclosed bodywork to take a Bristol engine.  Unlike the early Cooper Bristols, the engine sat behind the driver.  It was a prescient choice for the engine location, but the Bristol, a 20-year old BMW design with pushrods instead of overhead cams, was the wrong engine.  The car was pretty, but unsuccessful.  Brabham would need to wait a bit more for his breakthrough in a Cooper.  

Cooper's T43 Formula 2 car from 1957 was quite a bit more successful. Weighing only 1,060 lb., the 91 inch wheelbase open wheel single-seater got 180 hp from the 1,960 cc Coventry Climax twin cam four.  Stirling Moss signaled the coming mid-engine revolution by winning the Argentine GP (which was, after all, a Formula 1 race) by refusing to pit for new tires, beating eventual World Champion Mike Hawthorn on bald tires.  Moss had won four F1 races that year to Hawthorn's one, and by protesting Hawthorn's disqualification on a technicality in Argentina, he allowed Hawthorn, who had driven a front-engined Ferrari, to win the '58 Championship  by one point...

Motor racing journalists praised Moss for his exemplary sportsmanship.  While the Italians had dismissed the Cooper as a crude device made by blacksmiths and with the engine at the wrong end, it had beaten their finest cars.  Moss, driving a Cooper for privateer Rob Walker's team, had announced the coming mid-engine revolution for anyone who was listening...

Here is the space where Stirling Moss worked.

For enclosed-wheel road racing, Cooper made the Monaco with a 2.5 liter Climax engine, 2 seats, and purposeful alloy bodywork.  The car was introduced late in 1958, and continued production into the early Sixties.  Today it's a favorite at vintage race events...

After releasing the Monaco, Cooper followed their almost-victory in the 1958 F1 Championship with a new car, the T51.  The engine was a larger version of the Formula 2 Climax, and the alloy body on its tubular chassis was a bit more aerodynamic, with a fin at the rear.  Compared to its rivals from Ferrari, Aston Martin, and BRM*, it was lighter and with lower frontal area.  And it was the only one of these with a mid-engined layout.  The T51 below, was one of 3 purchased by the Yeoman Credit Team, run by Ken Gregory and Alfred Moss, the father of Stirling Moss, and displays the team colors.  The cars were delivered after Jack Brabham won the '59 Championship.

That the team could afford to buy three of these is perhaps a tribute to the simplicity of the Cooper designs compared with its Italian competitors.

The cockpit shows the tight confines occupied by the driver.  During the 1960 F1 season, the Yeoman team's best performances were a 2nd and 4th in the French GP.  Drivers included Tony Brooks and Dan Gurney.  The tail of the Yeoman car shows off its fin...

The T51 was also seen in traditional British Racing Green, with white stripes and tail fin, and it was showing these colors when Jack Brabham won back-to-back World Championships in 1959 and 1960... 

Cooper's T51 was powered by a Coventry Climax inline four with dual overhead cams and 2 valves per cylinder.  The 2.5 liter engine made 239 hp at 6,750 rpm, less than rivals from Ferrari and BRM, but the engine was reliable and the car was light at 1,175 pounds.  Along with his Driver's Championships, Jack Brabham won the Constructor's Championship for Cooper in '59 and '60.  By then Cooper made more racing cars per year than any other manufacturer.  Not bad for a bunch of blacksmiths...

The Cooper team's T51s had a more restrained tail fin than the Yeoman Credit T51. This tidy, rounded tail was the view most competitors got of the blacksmith's handiwork...

In late summer of 1959, the year of Cooper's first F1 Championship, the British Motor Company released its Mini twins, the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven.  Chief engineer Alec Issigonis had designed the 10 foot long, transverse front-engined front-drive 4 passenger runabouts as the car for the working man. Soon enough, however, the  little shoeboxes became a lifestyle accessory for fashionable types in Swinging London. John Cooper modified the car with disc brakes, increased the 848cc displacement to 997, installed bigger valves, and twin carburetors in September 1961, and added the Cooper S in 1963, in 970, 1,0071 and 1,275cc displacements. Cooper got a royalty of 2 British pounds per car; BMC sold thousands.  In January 1964, Paddy Hopkirk won the Monte Carlo Rally in a Mini Cooper  S.  This example from the REVS Institute was built in that year; Mini Coopers would also win in 1965 and 1967.

Vintage Minis, and especially Mini Coopers, were a popular attraction at this past autumn's Colorado English Motoring Conclave.* 

By 1965 Innocenti* was making a version of the Mini Cooper under license in Italy.  It joined Italian-styled versions of BMC's Austin Healey Sprite, and quickly became popular.  This version is from the early 70s.  The roll-down windows with vent panes are a clue... 

The next year, 1966, Cooper would collaborate with Maserati to launch the T81, its first monocoque chassis design, for the new 3.0 liter Formula 1.  Maserati's 3.0 liter V12 was a bored-out version of the 2.5 liter V12 they'd produced for the final versions of their 250F, originally a 6-cylinder GP car. That year, Ferrari and BRM* were slow to make their new engines ready, and the Cosworth Ford was a year in the future.  While the Brabham team's GM-based Repco V8 proved reliable enough to win the Championship for Brabham as driver and manufacturer, John Surtees won the last race of 1966 in Mexico with a T81, and Pedro Rodriguez won the first race of 1967, the South African GP, in a T81. 

The photo below shows Surtees in Mexico; note how the front radiator opening has been enlarged from that shown on Jo Bonnier's T81, shown in Swiss colors above.

The T81 was not quite the last GP car from Cooper.  After BRM* abandoned their expensive and complex H-16, they came up with a V12, and Cooper tried this in their revised T86, shown below, after phasing out the Maserati.  They also tried an Alfa Romeo Type 33 V8, but 1968 was the last year for Cooper's Formula 1 efforts. 

While Cooper's Formula One days were over, the Mini Cooper seemed to go on and on.  The last original-style Mini, a red Cooper Sport, rolled out of the Rover factory in fall of 2000. In 2001, five years after buying the Rover Group and rights to the Mini and Cooper names, the BMW team introduced the new Mini 2-door hatchback, with a modern,16-valve engine mounted transversely and driving the front wheels in classic Mini style.  Unlike the original Mini, neither the 5-speed manual nor the automatic transmissions needed to share their oil with the engine...

There were coupe and roadster versions for awhile, but the convertible and hatchbacks sold better...

BMW-built Mini Coopers are now available in a great profusion of models, including an all-electric Mini, a convertible, and 4-door, and all-wheel drive versions.  Unless you think Jaguars are mass-produced, they are the only British-built mass produced cars (Range Rover SUVs somehow don't count) offered in the American market.  

*Footnote:  We took a look at Bristol's automotive efforts and their rare racing cars in "Forgotten Classic: Muddling Through with Bristol", posted here on Sept. 22, 2016.  You can find it in the archives for that year. Innocenti's BMC-based two-seaters and their stillborn Ferrari-engined GT coupes are surveyed in "The Etceterini Files, Part 4: Innocenti 186GT", posted here on Feb. 3, 2016.  BRM history received a picture essay in "The BRM Saga: Learning From History , Or Not", posted Oct. 15, 2018.  We visited the 2021 Colorado English Motoring Conclave and posted picture essays on Oct. 2, 2021 ("Part 1: Rarities and Curiosities on 2, 3 and 4 Wheels") and Nov. 6, 2021 ("Part 2: Production Cars and Fast Plastic").

Photo Credits:  

Top:  Cooper Cars, reprinted by S. McKelvie

2nd:  goodwood.com

3rd & 4th:  nationalmotormuseum.org.uk

5th:  classicdriver.com

6th:  classiccars.com

7th thru 9th (Cooper T39):  bonhams.com

10th (Cooper T40):  classicdriver.com

11th thru 14th (Cooper T43): Ian Avery-DeWitt

15th & 16th (Cooper Monaco):  the author

17th thru 19th (Cooper T51, lt. green & red):  Ian Avery-DeWitt

20th thru 22nd (Cooper T51, BRG & white):  bonhams.com

23rd (1964 Mini Cooper):  Ian Avery-DeWitt

24th & 25th (Mini Coopers):  the author

26th (Cooper Maserati T81):  Wikimedia

27th (Cooper T81 with John Surtees):  Motorsport Images

28th (Cooper BRM T86):  Wikimedia

29th thru 31st (Modern Mini Coopers):  the author