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1964 Cooper-Maserati Type 61(M) V8 Monaco 'Mark V'

A Sale of Important Sports, Competition and Collectors' Motor Cars and Fine Automobilia
Goodwood Revival, Chichester, Sussex, 1 Sep 2006 Bonhams
Lot No: 224
The Ex-Roy Salvadori/C.T. 'Tommy' Atkins
1964 Cooper-Maserati Type 61(M) V8 Monaco 'Mark V' Sports-Racing Two-Seater
Chassis no. 151-010 (see text)
Engine no. 151-010

Sold for £166,500 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

This imposing rear-engined sports-racing car is the fabulous 5-litre Maserati V8-engined Cooper Monaco in which Roy Salvadori drove the last full season of his renowned professional career. It is a stupendous pre-CanAm racing unlimited-capacity ‘big-banger’ sports car ideal for such events as this wonderful weekend’s very own Goodwood Revival.

Roy Salvadori had enjoyed a long racing relationship with pre-war Brooklands driver and lifelong racing enthusiast Mr C. T. ‘Tommy’ Atkins who ran High Efficiency Motors Ltd at Tolworth and Chessington in Surrey, close to the Cooper Car Company’s factory in Hollyfield Road, Surbiton. Roy Salvadori had built a shining reputation for himself as a professional racing driver of great renown. He had come to the fore in Frazer Nash and Connaught cars before becoming established as a works driver for Aston Martin, Vanwall, BRM and ultimately the pioneering Cooper company with their new breed of rear-engined ‘Bobtail’ sports cars of 1955, from which were developed the prototype open-wheeled single-seat Cooper-Climax Formula 2 projectiles of 1956-60.

Roy Salvadori absolutely shone in the brand-new lightweight Coopers with their water-cooled Coventry Climax 4-cylinder engines mounted behind the cockpit (but within the wheelbase). In 1959 Cooper introduced their Monaco sports-racing model – so-named in honour of team leader Jack Brabham’s maiden World Championship Grand Prix victory that year at Monte Carlo – and Roy Salvadori immediately achieved considerable success in these cars, conducting one entered by John Coombs.

During that same season, Salvadori was driving a single-seat Formula 1 Cooper Type 45 owned and entered by ‘Tommy’ Atkins and equipped with a 4-cylinder Maserati 4-cylinder racing engine – since supplies of the latest 2½-litre Climax power unit were strictly limited, while the Italian power unit of comparable capacity was in contrast readily available. In fact Mr Atkins became a great proponent of the Modenese marque’s capabilities, and Roy Salvadori qualified their car on the front row of the starting grid here at Goodwood for the Glover Trophy, and placed 4th in the Oulton Park Gold Cup race.

Maserati 4-cylinder engines were also fitted in Monaco sports-racing cars, and after the prodigious speed of the latest Maserati Tipo 151 V8-engined Coupes was demonstrated by the Cunningham team cars at Le Mans in 1962, ‘Tommy’ Atkins developed an ambition to fit one of those engines in a suitable Cooper Monaco chassis for his pal Roy to drive in home sports-racing International events.

Through 1963 the duo ran a 2.7-litre Climax FPF 4-cylinder engined Monaco T61M which was built-up for them from Cooper factory parts by master mechanic Harry Pearce – who would later became an integral character within Bruce McLaren’s embryo works racing team. This Cooper Monaco was finished in Atkins’s much-respected pale metallic-green and white livery, and with Salvadori behind the wheel it became virtually unbeatable, humbling even the UDT-Laystall Lotus 19s at May Silverstone where Innes Ireland drove his heart out in the Lotus…yet Roy Salvadori won at record speed in the Atkins Cooper Monaco. At Reims a 25-lap sports car race preceded the French Grand Prix, and there Salvadori fought wheel-to-wheel with a Ferrari Testa Rossa in the Atkins Monaco until the Climax engine failed. Roy then won handsomely at the British GP meeting. At Brands Hatch for the International Guards Trophy race – Roger Penske’s remodeled Cooper Zerex Special won outright, with Salvadori and Tim Mayer’s visiting Monaco Mark III second and third – a Cooper 1-2-3 triumph which had become a rarity by 1963. Salvadori set fastest race lap at 91.73mph as a testimony to the Atkins Monaco’s handling capabilities around the acrobatic Brands Hatch circuit.

During that year, in America, the Ford V8-engined Cooper ‘King Cobra’ sports-racing cars had appeared, and early in 1964 Mr Atkins’s mechanics at Chessington began putting together the latest ‘Tommy’ Atkins Anglo-Italian hybrid sports car for Roy Salvadori to drive – the Cooper-Maserati V8 Monaco we are now offering right here.

As Doug Nye wrote in his book ‘Cooper Cars’ (Osprey, 1987): “This Atkins car was the ultimate Cooper Monaco. It had a tube frame reinforced with stressed 20-gauge steel sheet undertray riveted and welded in place. Its independent coil-and-wishbone suspension followed contemporary F1 practice save for outboard rather than inboard front coil/damper mounts. The Maserati V8 engine had bore and stroke of 94 x 89mm, displacing 4941cc, and produced around 430bhp at 7,000rpm. It was a mighty lump and drove through a hefty Colotti Type 37 gearbox with Mercedes SL-derived half-shafts. A giant radiator resided in the nose, ahead of the regulation useable size spare wheel, which necessitated a 3-inch higher-than-normal profile humped into the nose body panelling. The car made its race debut unpainted at Silverstone, and soon after won its first race at Whitsun Goodwood…”.

Overall the car was one of the great attractions of the 1964 British sports car season, shining in the Guards Trophy when a great drive by Salvadori saw it soaring up the leader board before a mechanical problem caused his retirement. This was the great British racing driver’s final season before he retired from active participation on-track to serve as Cooper’s Formula 1 team manager instead.

In later years the Atkins Cooper-Maserati Monaco V8 passed into the ownership of enthusiast Toby St John Matthews before being acquired by Historic racer Chris Stewart. In the documentation file accompanying this Lot there is a copy letter dated January 7, 1980, from Mr Stewart to Peter Kaus in Germany, confirming details of their agreed sale of ‘Cooper Maserati Type 151/10 Ex Roy Salvadori – Tommy Atkins’.

A contemporary copy FIA Historic Vehicle Identity Form is also included within this file, citing date of manufacture as ‘December 1963’ and ‘151-10’ as both the chassis and engine numbers. In fact this serial relates to the Maserati Tipo 151 power unit, not to the Cooper Monaco chassis. However, it was not at all uncommon for such valued Cooper customers as ‘Tommy’ Atkins simply to purchase an effective kit of parts from the factory’s Hollyfield Road stores, which he would then have assembled – as in this case – in his own premises by his own mechanics. The resultant car did not feature in the contemporary Cooper Car Company chassis register, nor did it need a formal chassis plate so long as it was not used on the public road or shipped abroad. Therefore the adoption of the Maserati chassis/engine serial for this car is perfectly understandable – and acceptable - set against the standard motor racing practices of the period… Also featured in the file is a copy of a description of the new car published in the August 1964 issue of the American monthly magazine ‘Road & Track’.

This magnificent ‘ultimate Cooper Monaco’ is offered here as preserved within its last long-term ownership for some 26 years. It is equipped with the 5-litre Maserati 151 V8 engine, driving via a Colotti Type 37 five-speed transaxle. During its long period of museum display it has seen very little use and as offered here it will self-evidently require detail mechanical inspection and preparation before any serious attempt be made to run it in earnest.

It is an Historic sports-racing car whose provenance, specification and charisma is certain to attract interest from leading event organisers around the world. It is a unique sports-racing car, nothing less than an Anglo-Italian ‘King Cobra’ – and it is a memorial to that great racing enthusiast ‘Tommy’ Atkins who backed and promoted its creation, and for many young motor racing enthusiasts from that period it is an enduringly iconic car – the Cooper Monaco which in effect provided the platform for that charismatic racing driver Roy Salvadori’s last hurrah!