John Cooper

British constructor whose rear engined Cooper cars won the world championship in 1959 and 1960

John Cooper left school at 15 to train as a toolmaker and served as an instrument maker in the Royal Air Force during the war. Afterward he and his father Charles built simple, inexpensive single seaters from war surplus parts, and demand was such that in 1948 they founded a company to make more.

Their cars used motorcycle engines, so the engine sat behind the driver and turned the wheels by chain. Cooper always insisted this was simple convenience, which is a wonderfully British way to describe a revolution. In nine years Cooper took 16 Grand Prix wins and the titles of 1959 and 1960 with Jack Brabham, and a Cooper test at Indianapolis in 1960 helped end the era of front engined roadsters there too. He died on the 24th of December 2000.

Teams led

• Cooper Car Company, 1950 to 1968