18 replies to this topic

[piperp2]

I am looking for photos or any information on this car, was it driven by Chris Bristow? does it still exist? does anyone know any information about Ronald Wrenn or John Langton who both drove it? Any help would be very much appreciated.

[sieb]

Mmmm, strange nobody replied on this one.
And that with all that knowledge floating around on this Forum.

I will check Mike Lawrence book, I#m sure there is something in it

[D-Type]

From A to Z of Grand Prix cars by David Hodges:

"Hume
This British 'special' was a conversion of driver Chris Bristow's Cooper T39 [Bobtail] sports-racing car by John Hume, whose name it carried in entry lists. it was intended for Formula 2 at the end of the 1950s, and still with a Coventry Climax FPF engine it became a Formula 1 car in 1961. It was hopefully started in three non-championship races and was predictably far from competitive in 'real' F1 company - its best finish being last"


On page 198 of Grand Prix Reflections from the 2 1/2 litre Formula 1 era 1954-60 by Anthony Pritchard there is a picture of the car captioned:

"A distinctly ugly - and unsuccessful - Cooper derivative was the Hume-Cooper. Here, driven by ian Raby in the Gold Cup race at Oulton Park in 1959, it leads the Cooper-Climax of Stanley Hart. "

The text describes it thus:

"Hume-Cooper
Yet another variation on the Cooper theme, this was still Climax-powered, but was distinguished by a bulky squarish Porsche-style body and was driven by Ian Raby. Needless to say it achieved nothing in the way of success."

The photo confirms this description and the car looks bigger and bulkier than the conventional T43 following it

Edited by D-Type, 02 August 2010 - 10:52.

[Doug Nye]

The Hume Cooper was built by John 'Boots' Hume - a former works Cooper Car Company mechanic. He was nicknamed after his habit of wearing old Army boots or hefty industrial boots of broadly similar style. He prepared Chris Bristow's Bobtail Cooper sports car which took three first, four second and five third places in British events during the 1957 season.

With Roy Golding and Albert Zains he spent some time building Azum karts in Epsom, Surrey, and in late-1958/1959 he built the Hume Cooper F2 car for Tom Payne's Bradstock Motors company - a much-modified Cooper Bobtail/Mark II all-leafspring suspension chassis frame with bulbous bodywork designed to fill "more of the space" between the exposed and always drag-inducing open wheels of the single-seat standard Cooper design. In this feature it was similare to the new Porsche F2 prototypes.

After Chris Bristow had been given a quasi-works BRP F2 team drive, Ian Raby drove the car, ending the 1959 season.

DCN

[piperp2]

Many thanks for the replies guys, any pictures would be very much appreciated. Does anyone know about the 3 F1 1961 non-championship events it competed in. It was entered by
Team Salvatore Evangelista, the events were:

March 26 1961, II Lombank Trophy, Snetterton driven by John Langton? but qualified by Ronald Wrenn, the car DNF, event won by Jack Brabham.

April 16 1961, II Grosser Preis von Wien, Flughafen, Aspern, Vienna, Austria, driven by Ronald Wrenn and finished 7th, event won by Stirling Moss.

May 23, 1961, IX LondonTrophy, Crystal Palace Circuit, London driven by John Langton, finished 11th, event won by Roy Salvadori.

Does any one know anything about Team Salvatore Evangelista? who was John Langton? Ronald Wrenn had some success in a Lotus 11 and Lotus 17 in Denmark in 1960/1961 does anyone remember him? Lastly does the Hume Cooper still exist?

[bradbury west]

Looking at the grid and report for the Grand Prix des Auvergnes in 1959, (Autosport report 14.8.59 pp202/3) it seems, perhaps, that John Campbell-Jones raced the Hume Cooper as a Hume Climax, possibly being seen as a different marque ensured a start and better start money. The report indicates that he finished 7th. He was also there in his Lotus, presumably Eleven, in the sports car event. Jabby Crombac did the report.
Roger Lund

[piperp2]

It seems Ronald Wrenn after his unsuccessful racing non championship F1 experience in the Hume Cooper in 1961 kept the car until at least 1963. It has now come to light that Wrenn started a company call Stadium Promotions and promoted Stock car racing between 1962 and 1964 mainly at Penny Cross, Plymouth and Firs, Norwich. The Hume Cooper was often used at Plymouth as a pace car. At one such event pioneer champion Stock Car driver Pete Tucker was given a chance to try the car at Penny Cross. The picture below shows Pete Tucker exciting the car at Penny Cross August 1962 after having a go. Apparently Wrenn was suitably impressed and offered Tucker a go at Brands Hatch on the club circuit. After a couple of harmless spins Tucker set a very respectable lap time. The history of the car then goes a bit fuzzy, a B.G. Ford owned the car in 1964 and it was raced at Mallory Park in April 1964. The subsequent history then goes blank, does anyone know if the car still exists and has anybody heard of B.G Ford?

[piperp2]

I have also added this picture to the sledge hammers and nuts thread!

[Bjorn Kjer]

Thanks for that , very interesting , and nice with pictures !

[piperp2]

I am still trying to trace the whereabouts or discover whatever happened to this car. In this day and age of stratospheric values of old racing cars/barn finds etc; I am surprised that this car seems to have completely vanished. Does anyone have any memories of the car post 1961?

[Ted Walker]

Was it not (or still) owned by Ean Pugh.??????

[piperp2]

Ted

Do you have any contact details for Ean Pugh?

[Peter Morley]

Was it not (or still) owned by Ean Pugh.??????

Ean has the Louise Bryden-Browne Anglo-American Aiden-Cooper (or whatever its official title was) is that the car you are thinking of?

Edited by Peter Morley, 17 May 2012 - 09:24.

[piperp2]

Many thanks for the replys, I have contacted Ean Pugh and it is not this car that he owns. The Hume Cooper started life as T39 Bobtail Cooper but was converted by John Hume (John Cooper's chief mechanic) to an open wheeled single seater F2 car and renamed the Hume Cooper. The car was raced successfully by both Chris Bristow and Ian Raby. I beleive Ron Wrenn purchased the car from Ian Raby in late 1960 and with the help of Johnny Langton converted it to the new 1500cc F1 spec.

The car was raced in 3 1961 non championship F1 events, two in the UK and one at Aspern Austria 1961. Ron certainly owned the car until 1963 because I have found an article that states he let stock car champion Pete Tucker test it at Brands Hatch in March 1963.

Since then the car seems to have completely disappeared, if anyone doe come across anything I would be most grateful of any help.

[Barry Boor]

Look at this video - http://tv.telecomita...automobilistico at just about one minute in a great shot of the Hume.

Now I'm cursing that it's not a colour video.

[raceannouncer2003]

Look at this video - http://tv.telecomita...automobilistico at just about one minute in a great shot of the Hume.

Now I'm cursing that it's not a colour video.

If you go to this site:

http://tv.telecomita...lismogranpremi/

and type in Automobilismo, a lot of videos of racing and rallying come up.

Vince H.

[Adrian Beese]

I may have seen something similar being climbed at prescott a few years ago early late 1990's early 2000 ?

[piperp2]

Does anyone else recall what Adrian posted above? this car is proving to be a real mystery post 1963!

Edited by piperp2, 21 October 2013 - 15:38.

[rudi]

Looking at the grid and report for the Grand Prix des Auvergnes in 1959, (Autosport report 14.8.59 pp202/3) it seems, perhaps, that John Campbell-Jones raced the Hume Cooper as a Hume Climax, possibly being seen as a different marque ensured a start and better start money. The report indicates that he finished 7th. He was also there in his Lotus, presumably Eleven, in the sports car event. Jabby Crombac did the report.
Roger Lund

Very good images of the car on the 1959 Charade film (YouTube topic).