The ‘swingin ’60’s…
This fashion shot is from a photo site, I have no caption details, the chassis and engine are of no interest to these folks of course! Clearly the babe is a Cooper fan, my ‘educated guess’ of car is a 1963 T67 BMC Formula Junior, twin SU’s are unlikely on the rival Ford engine of the day?
So, one for you Cooper experts, it would be interesting to know the Who, What, Where and When of this photo.
Autosport Article on the Cooper T65/67 and its ‘Hydrolastic Suspension’ referred to in the response by Ken Collins/Peter Jackson below…
Credits…
‘Photo Is Art’, Theo Page cutaway drawing, Stephen Dalton Collection for the Autosport article
Finito…
I asked Peter Jackson, Cooper Car Club Registrar, and this is his reply:
“Actually the car is an immaterial stage prop ~~ it’s all about Jill Kennington modelling a Dior leather coat, photo by Hon Patrick Litchfield, Belgravia 1964.
The car is a 1963 Mk4 Formula Junior T67 running in Formula 3 1000cc spec (regs stipulated single carb with restrictor).
The nomenclature of this model can confuse ~~ Mk3A, Mk4, T65 & T67 all featured at some stage in period but T67 has become the accepted norm.
The prototype T65 was built with Hydrolastic suspension which testing revealed to have poor (peculiar) response & handling so it was changed to coil springs which was the standard arrangement for all the subsequent production cars.
The Hydro-Proto (now coil spring) car was raced as part of the 1963 Works (Tyrrell) three car Team and was refreshed & changed to F3 spec by the factory at the end of the season and given chassis plate FJ/15/63.
It still exists racing regularly and for the sake of simplicity & avoidance of doubt I regard it as the only T65 and all the others as T67s.
Cheers,
Peter.
Cooper Car Club, Registrar”
Sensational Ken! A more comprehensive response than I could have wished for! The hydrolastic experiment is a new one on me, I learned to drive in a Morris 1100 so equipped, great in a road car, at least. Many thanks, Mark.
Strange how MG Rover failed to learn from the inconsistent handling provided by Hydra-Gas on the MGF cars. I modified a Trophy 160 with coil springs and gas shock absorbers and it was far nicer to drive.