Jock Walkem and his mate ponder changes to their Cooper and it’s moody Jap ‘V-twin’ engine before the next run…another of those ‘just so period’ shots…
Lots of interesting details to grab the eye…the gear lever for the ‘positive stop’ motor cyle ‘box, mirror mounted on the transverse leaf, equipe logo on the cars side, i wonder whose it is? Relaxed look and feel of the event and the formal clothing of the kids on a Tasmanian Sunday compared with today…
Penguin is a tiny village on the North-West Coast of Tasmania, the Hillclimb still holds race meetings.
Cooper MkV/41/51 is significant in the pantheon of the many air-cooled Coopers which came to Australia in the 1950’s. Perhaps the most successful, it was owned and raced by Tom Hawkes and ‘Gold Star’ (Australias’ national drivers championship) winners Stan Jones and Bill Patterson earlier in their careers.
An interesting article about this particular car is in the magazine ‘Loose Fillings’, which specialises in these air-cooled racers.
Click to access LooseFillings-44Print.pdf
F3 racing in the UK provided both the training ground for some of Britains Champions of the 1950’s…Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Stuart Lewis-Evans being good examples, and also for engineers. The class also accelerated the growth of the infrastructure of subcontractors which formed one of the bases of Britains global dominance as a manufacturer of racing cars which continues today.
Those with an interest in these cars should check out the ‘500 Owners Association’
http://www.500race.org/index.htm
Technical details…
Chassis is box-sections, with transverse leaf springs and wishbones front and rear. Burman steering, Lockheed hydraulic drums front and rear provide the stopping power. Chain drive. Circa 520Lb in weight. Cast alloy wheels 4 or 5 X 15 inch diameter wheels. (Vic Berris)
The Walkem MkV was fitted with a ‘JAP’ 8/80 V Twin, 996cc, pushrod OHV, engine. Circa 76.5 bhp@6300rpm. The 500cc ‘ JAP’ single produced around 40bhp, both engines used compression ratios of 14:1 and used alcohol fuel provided by Amal carb(s)
Etcetera…
Photo Credits…
Check out the archive of oldracephotos
http://www.oldracephotos.com/content/home/
Vic Berris cutaway drawing, MotorSport Magazine
Finito…
primotipo... 