The Cooper Bobtail T39 is a mid-engined sports racer with a 4-cyl single-overhead-cam Coventry-Climax engine of 1,460 cc. designed and developed by Owen Maddock at Cooper Cars, for sports car racing in 1955. The car debuted in active racing competition at the Easter race in Thruxton in 1955, being driven by Ivor Bueb, and was later entered into the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, being driven by John Brown and Edgar Wadsworth, but was unfortunately not classified, because even though the car managed to complete 207 laps around the 8.4-mile Le Mans circuit, it didn’t manage to finish within 70% of the winners’ race distance. However, between 1956 and 1962, it did manage to rack up and tally an incredible streak of domination and competitiveness, scoring 91 total wins and clinching 236 podiums finishes; an incredible record. Two of these cars raced at Pebble Beach in 1956.
Charles McCabe races Bobtail in the UK and USA, including at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion (at Laguna Seca Raceway), the CSRG David Love Vintage Races, and the Sonoma Raceway historic meets. McCabe’s Cooper launched the motor racing career of Tim Parnell, briefly a F1 driver and then team manager, son of Reg Parnell.
