mk1-forum.net

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNBekmexzyA

A3 Kingston by pass, fantastic.

Amazing find, thanks for posting! Yet another historic film among the Pathe Film clips recently uploaded to YouTube, showing John Cooper "testing" an early Cooper single-seater on public roads including the A3 Kingston By-Pass near Tolworth, Surrey. The Cooper garage was at 243 Ewell Road, Surbiton, Surrey.
If you look carefully at the last few frames of video you will recognise the corner shop showroom and steps leading up to the Cooper flat above as seen in the photos below and in my earlier thread on the Cooper Works in Surbiton.
The Cooper Works later The Traffic Police Garage In Surbiton:-
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7193

Photos of Cooper's Garage in Surbiton, Surrey 1962 and today.......


See Page 257 of Nye 'Cooper Cars' (World Champions series) Osprey.
Photo says 1962, and inset of Cooper special 1936.
Corner showroom window says "The Austin Super" and a weird squiggle... "Austin for Luxury"
Full caption of the picture:-
"The Cooper empire after 25 years’ effort, depicted in this montage promotional photo ; Charles and John supposedly blocking Hollyfield Road with their Mini-Coopers, No 243 Ewell Road on the corner with the family flat above where first Mr & Mrs Cooper Snr then Mr & Mrs Jr lived before buying properties elsewhere ; the corner showroom where Stirling Moss spotted his first Cooper 500, where Owen Maddock studied the ThinWall Special and from where Ian Burgess and Andrew Ferguson used to run the Drivers’ School. In the background is the rebuilt production factory, now with the drawing office housed in the penthouse extension, while Major Owens had taken over the old drawing office behind the ‘Esso’ sign. Inset, the Cooper Spl ‘TI’, John up, in the Brooklands paddock."

When was the above colour photo taken Martin ? Such a shame when (what I consider to be) historic buildings get run down but at least his building are still there I suppose, unlike so many others.

Pete wrote:When was the above colour photo taken Martin ? Such a shame when (what I consider to be) historic buildings get run down but at least his building are still there I suppose, unlike so many others.

"Run down"? it looks in pretty decent nick to me? The Kingston bypass was a great place to go fast in the 70's still, a bit more crowded maybe but as a Tester for Jack Barclay we used it for high speed runs for Rolls-Royce and Bentley's after service. I got stopped for doing 115MPH in a Flying spur early one morning............

And like Mr cooper the Racer's engines used to get tested on the A3 fitted in one of our road cars! Oh those were the days.......................................

Colour photo is not that old but the windows blanked out make the buildings look worse in the photo than they are, the corner shop has changed hands and is now a Healthcare shop for mobility aids if you take a look on Google Streetview. Not sure if the Police are still using the Cooper workshop behind as a garage but it has not changed much in years to look at.....the site itself is only about 10 minutes away from me.

2019 Update to this thread: The old Cooper Works is now a Porsche Garage:-
Ivey House, Hollyfield Rd, Surbiton KT5 9AL
http://www.charlesivey.com/

minimans wrote: The Kingston bypass was a great place to go fast .

Not in a Twini Mini it wasn't!

mab01uk wrote:Colour photo is not that old but the windows blanked out make the buildings look worse in the photo than they are, .

You're right, they do and OK it's not Windsor Castle but it'd be nice to see the site well preserved and used as first intended. But we don't live in an ideal world!

Pete wrote:

minimans wrote: The Kingston bypass was a great place to go fast .

Not in a Twini Mini it wasn't!

Nor in a race modded XJS but I don't want to talk about it still.......................................

Great Paul,
Notice the footage of the car on the motorway was taken from a WW2 jeep (left hand drive). The corner of the windscreen frame caught my eye.

Al

Some screenshots from the film:



















The corner showroom shop.....(compare with modern photo above)


A3 - Kingston-By-Pass, Surrey near Tolworth

Pete wrote:

mab01uk wrote:Colour photo is not that old but the windows blanked out make the buildings look worse in the photo than they are, .

You're right, they do and OK it's not Windsor Castle but it'd be nice to see the site well preserved and used as first intended. But we don't live in an ideal world!

Update:
Mike Cooper was being interviewed about the Cooper building at the L2B this morning. Apparently it's still owned by the family, and now the police have ended their lease there are plans to turn it into a combined museum of Cooper memorabilia and a shop selling Cooper goodies.

I was led to believe that a fair amount of photos and paper work remained in the building whilst being rented by the police.
It would be fantastic to be used as a museum.

Hope that it does become a museum,I can see a photo opportunity for a group of us with
those dark green and white motors.

A picture from the original launch of the Mini Cooper in the showroom in Surbiton.
L-R
Bruce McClaren, Roy Salvidori, Mayor & Mayoress of Surbiton (Mr & Mrs Greenwood) & John Cooper.

Apparently scenes from the 1966 MGM film "Grand Prix" were shot inside the Cooper building.

"For those who remember it, the scene where Pete Aron signs to drive for Yamura and is photographed shaking hands was in the drawing office, and the characters then go downstairs to the race-shop floor for a seat-fitting."
However all the cars visible were Lotus, not Cooper! Either Lotus 25/33 or Lotus 20, all disguised as 'Yamuras'.
http://tentenths.com/forum/showpost.php ... stcount=15