Note: Another motorcycle post by my friend, Lee Wilcox. -TK
A while back, I came across a little story that explained why Triton/Norvin motorcycles became so popular in the ’50s and what started the movement to rear-engined race cars. If you are like me, you might have never thought much about what you would do to power a race car, especially when the engine size was limited to 500cc. It must be even harder if you are stuck in a situation where there are more shortages than anything else. Into this situation comes John Cooper in war ravaged post WW2 England. He’s smart and he wants to go racing. There is a major shortage of cars, but there are some choices.
Charles Cooper founded the Cooper Car Company. He did this with his son, the aforementioned John and his son’s boyhood friend Eric Brandon. They began building racing cars in 1946. The first cars built by the Coopers were single seat 500cc Formula 3 cars that were driven by John and Eric.
