(B Hardy)
Sales promotion of the Mini Cooper early-sixties style…
The shot above is by Bert Hardy, the extraordinary photographer of the UK’s Picture Post by then plying his trade in advertising. See here for more about Hardy; 1947 JCC Jersey Road Race… | primotipo… The photos below are via other agencies working on the BMC account.
It’s a decade before my time but are very much of the time aren’t they?
The caption for the opening shot, ‘Mini Rally at Brands Hatch’ is dated January 6, 1965. Touring car racing was never quite the same again when the Minis joined in on the fun, the magic little cars punched above their weight, as often as not being outright contenders in addition to inevitable class wins.
Click here for my Cooper S articles; https://primotipo.com/2015/09/29/monte-carlo-rally-1967-morris-cooper-s/ and here; Cooper S… | primotipo…
Bruce McLaren is at left in the shot above, taken at Goodwood in 1961, and again at far left in the one below..
Partially hidden behind the attractive babes (I don’t spose I’m allowed to make that kind of factual, complimentary observation these days) is, my friend and Cooper Historian Stephen Dalton tells me Jack Brabham’s 1961 Indy 500 spare car, a Cooper T53 Climax 2.7 FPF. See here for a feature on Coper’s Indy adventure; Jack’s Indy Cooper T54 Climax… | primotipo…
It is it a real-test day, John Cooper is tending to the engine in the similar shot above, “they tested a Cooper T55 that day too.”
Stephen comments further, “KEL 236 is a numberplate borrowed from a motorbike and fitted to the 997 Cooper prototype. The brochure cover image has the grille and bonnet badge touched in by a graphic artist.”
“It’s totally different to the colour shots, as they were still developing stuff for the car when these April 1961 photos were taken. No production 997s existed until July 1961.”
“They also did Austin Healey Sprite Mk2 press photos in similar scenes to this on the same day, neither BMC car was officially released at the time.”
Credits…
Bert Hardy, Getty Images, Stephen Dalton
Finito…
primotipo... 