30 replies to this topic

[nuromancer]

Another one from my fathers collection. This one is in the paddock with the first "puddle jumper" with Ian in the front and my father Jeff Elmes (Ians mechanic) behind with Ians car and trailer in the background.

Edited by nuromancer, 05 August 2011 - 04:15.

[Barry Boor]

Not wishing to be picky, Mr. Mancer, but wouldn't it be a better plan to have a thread called something like 'Jeff Elmes - mechanic" and put all these lovely images in one place?

It would be much easier for we plebs to see them all together.

[Tim Murray]

Agreed

[David McKinney]

This one is in the paddock with the first "puddle jumper"

I think Raby's earlier one-off IER had also been called Puddle-Jumper

[Eric Dunsdon]

I think Raby's earlier one-off IER had also been called Puddle-Jumper

The IER Midget. Reputedly named 'Puddle Jumper' because of its low ground clearance. Its really nice to see these early images of Ian.

[HiRich]

How nice. I believe this is Ian's debut with the car (a Cooper Mk VIII), Brands, 1st May 1955.

I have heard that the Puddle Jumper name may even predate the IER, perhaps on a trials car?

[nuromancer]

Not wishing to be picky, Mr. Mancer, but wouldn't it be a better plan to have a thread called something like 'Jeff Elmes - mechanic" and put all these lovely images in one place?

It would be much easier for we plebs to see them all together.

Yes it would but unfortunately I don't have sufficient knowledge of photoshop and experiance with posting to be able to do that

[Tim Murray]

Chris, you've done the hard part - loading your photos into Imageshack and getting the links. After that it's straightforward - if you want more than one photo in a post just cut and paste the relevant Imageshack links into that post. Alternatively you can put each photo up as a separate post in the same thread, as you did in another thread. It is a bit confusing to have all these separate threads on the same theme.

[Tim Murray]

I'm really not sure what you're doing wrong Chris, apart from the redundant http:// and [/img] tags that you can get rid of. Click on 'Reply' at the bottom right of my post to see how the photo links should be formatted. Hope this helps.

[nuromancer]

Good lord Tim it seems I've managed it after your tutorial, anyway heres "puddle jumper"in the paddock and Ian out to play at another race

Edited by nuromancer, 04 August 2011 - 21:49.

[Alan Cox]

Well done, Chris. There are always people on here who are happy to set you on the right path, as you have discovered

[Tim Murray]

Good lord it Tim seems I've managed it after your tutorial, anyway heres "puddle jumper"in the paddock and Ian out to play at another race

Looking forward to seeing more of these fascinating photos.

[nuromancer]

How nice. I believe this is Ian's debut with the car (a Cooper Mk VIII), Brands, 1st May 1955.

I have heard that the Puddle Jumper name may even predate the IER, perhaps on a trials car?

The top photo of Ian was marked on the back that it was taken at Brands Hatch during the 1955 season. As far as I can recall from conversations with my father Ian acquired the IER in mid 1956, however this was not a marriage made in heaven and Ian got rid of it at the end of the season. In addition Ian had been offered and accepted a place with the Cooper car co as a team driver along with Jack Brabham for the 1957 Le Mans 24hr race, this may have been an influence for Ian s decision. Ian and Jack came in fifteenth overall and third in their class. Ian then went on to a sports car (Coventry climax ?)also called "puddle jumper" reg XPG 2 and then a(I believe) formula 2 car. The following photos show two of Ians later cars.

[David McKinney]

The IER was raced in 1954, before he raced the Cooper 500 in your pictures

Top three photos in the last batch are of the bob-tailed Cooper-Climax sportscar, bottom one of his Formula Junior Cooper at Monaco in 1961. The F2 Hume-Cooper came between

[Bauble]

I don't know if the reason Ian called his cars 'Puddle Jumper' has ever been established, but I like to think it is probably from his childhood. I can just imagine a young Ian jumping over (and into puddles) as a little boy, and being called Puddle Jumper by his Mum, and using the name on his cars. I can vaguely recall as a very small boy my Mum refering to Mr Musty. I do not know if that was me or some mythical character, but I suspect it was aimed at me in my small mac and cap.

I will stick with little Ian and the puddles!

bauble.

Edited by Bauble, 05 August 2011 - 13:30.

[nuromancer]

The IER was raced in 1954, before he raced the Cooper 500 in your pictures

Top three photos in the last batch are of the bob-tailed Cooper-Climax sportscar, bottom one of his Formula Junior Cooper at Monaco in 1961. The F2 Hume-Cooper came between

Thanks for that info David, my recollection on this must be faulty and sadly my father is no longer with us, so I can no longer turn to him as the ultimate authority whenever I'm unsure about details.

[HiRich]

This photo is very interesting, as it solves a problem that has been hanging for some years. It's Ian in his new Cooper Mk XI at Druids, Brands Hatch, 22nd April 1957. What's strange is that it is his second and final appearance in the car - it seems strange to have ordered a brand new car and then ditch it in a couple of months. It would appear he spent some time with the Bobtail, and perhaps focussed on his new business (I believe he left the Car Exchange about this time). When he returned to Formula III at the Plum Pudding meeting at the end of 1957, he was driving Albert Zain's car, and thereafter would drive that and various other cars going through the business.

By July 1957, this Cooper had arrived on the East Coast of the USA, driven by Willie Gadwa. It kept the livery, and Willie's team branded themselves the Puddle Jumpers. He ran the car well into the 1960s. By the mid-1980s it was back in the UK, hillclimbed by Mark Higgins and Barry Brant, and has been owned for many years by Paul Hewes.

What this photo has confirmed is that Ian did actually own and race the car that appears in the Cooper order book, and with a couple of other photos prove that the same car pretty quickly transferred to the USA.

[Doug Nye]

It was quite common at the time for well-connected dealers to gain a place in the Cooper order book, take delivery and quickly sell the car on to someone unknown by Cooper who could not get a place in the queue. A GI serving in Britain is quite likely to have filled that bill. And the dollar was strong...

DCN

[HiRich]

I had pondered that, Doug. But someone's written a really good book on Cooper Cars and it doesn't quite ...

Seriously, several of the nineteen officially recorded Mk XIs went directly to US owners, some of whom would (like Willie Gadwa) have been unknown to Pa Cooper. The Car Exchange brand was already known as Ian was advertising cars in Road & Track. Perhaps Willie had been rebuffed or just felt more comfortable dealing with Ian, or maybe had enquired about a secondhand car and Ian had pitched "I'm a works driver, I can blag you a brand new one for only a few dollars more". It's certainly a valid theory.

We'll probably never know, whether Ian decided to quit 500s after a couple of races or was shaking down the car for Willie. But the good news is that we can bolt down the first year history for that car.

[David McKinney]

Perhaps he pulled the same trick in 1958, when he again raced a Cooper 500 a few times

[HiRich]

1958 was mainly in Albert Zains' Flash Special (Albert having injured himself, I believe). But there are also some appearances in unidentified Coopers in 1959 as well.

With Chris/nuromancer's photos and some titbits from here, I've redrafted the page for the 500 Owners website with a lot more information. So when that's up, we'll have something considerably more complete.

[David McKinney]

He actually "joined the FJ circus" in 1959, with Moorland and Gemini, then produced his own Envoy cars for 1960

[nuromancer]

These three seem to be from the same meeting and they're all seem to be being moved by the works team at Coopers,might be one of Ians cars but I'm not sure.

[Bjorn Kjer]

Very interesting pictures. I did write a bit on Raby on the other threads ( why do we have to have so many on Raby ?). As a transporter man I especially liked the one with a small boxed trailer , but certainly also these very latest , here I have some detective work again.
The sportscar at Roskilde Ring is very good too.
Car no. 33 in the above latest pictures could be Silverstone Int.Trophy 14/9 1957 for Ian Burgess (Formula 2) ?
Perhaps you cuold help me read the names on the Fordson with the windows right under the roof line in the background (first picture of last 3) ?

Thanks very much for showing !

Bjørn Kjer

Edited by Bjørn Kjer, 07 August 2011 - 13:29.

[nuromancer]

Very interesting pictures. I did write a bit on Raby on the other threads ( why do we have to have so many on Raby ?). As a transporter man I especially liked the one with a small boxed trailer , but certainly also these very latest , here I have some detective work again.
The sportscar at Roskilde Ring is very good too.
Car no. 33 in the above latest pictures could be Silverstone Int.Trophy 14/9 1957 for Ian Burgess (Formula 2) ?
Perhaps you cuold help me read the names on the Fordson with the windows right under the roof line in the background (first picture of last 3) ?

Thanks very much for showing !

Bjørn Kjer

Bjorn I'm sorry I can't help you there the picture is over fifty years old (cerca 1955-56) and is not clear enough to read, all I can say for certain is the transporter in two of the three is the one used by the cooper car co works team. Discovering what variant of Cooper is in the photo might help tie down the date and venue and perhaps go from there. With regard to car No 33 I am uncertain as to the driver but it is one supported by the works team ( the mechanic in dark overalls with esso on the back is my father) Ian Raby was heavily involved with Cooper both as a driver and car retailer, my father did a lot of work on Ian's cars in the years 1955-1960-61 so there is a strong possability this is one Ian owned/was loaned. Hopefully some of the other posters on this thread will have another look to see the later posts and be able to help.

PS one of the reasons there a lot of threads on Ian is my Fault( read comments above), my inexperience (incompetence) in posting photos meant that I was starting a new thread to post each picture. Fortunately Tim gave me a quick tutorial and suddenly it all clicked and solved the problem.

Edited by nuromancer, 07 August 2011 - 15:01.

[David McKinney]

The car's a 1960 T52 Junior

The Cooper factory didn't run an FJ team, but supported Ken Tyrrell's team, and may have supplied the transporter

At a quick glance, I couldn't find any Cooper numbered 33 in a 1960 FJ race. Didn't look at 1961 (when the factory would clearly not have been directly involved with a last year's car)

[Bjorn Kjer]

Thanks Chris ...lets wait and see.

Edited by Bjørn Kjer, 07 August 2011 - 17:30.

[Tomas Karlsson]

This one is from Roskilde in 1957. The Copenhagen Cup in June 2nd I think, where Raby was second behind Julius Voigt-Nielsen's Porsche. The car to the right in the background is Jon Fast's blue and yellow Osca.

[nuromancer]

Two more of Ian, I belive the driver of the No 26 car in the second photo is Jacques Maglia.

[RichardBrant]

By July 1957, this Cooper had arrived on the East Coast of the USA, driven by Willie Gadwa. It kept the livery, and Willie's team branded themselves the Puddle Jumpers. He ran the car well into the 1960s. By the mid-1980s it was back in the UK, hillclimbed by Mark Higgins and Barry Brant, and has been owned for many years by Paul Hewes.

What this photo has confirmed is that Ian did actually own and race the car that appears in the Cooper order book, and with a couple of other photos prove that the same car pretty quickly transferred to the USA.

 

Sorry to bump a 4 year old thread but recently be looking into finding out where my Fathers (Barry Brant) Cooper Mk10 currently is, and I came across this post.

Here me at the tender age of 3 and a half at Prescott leaning on the rear wheel of Marks Higgins Cooper with Dad fiddling with something on the engine.

I have loads more photos if anyone is interested.

 

 

Edited by RichardBrant, 17 June 2014 - 14:10.

[cedricselzer]

Driver of number 26 car is Chris Andrews