1959 Cooper Monaco-Climax Type 49 Sports-Racing Two-Seater
Registration no. 101 UYR
Chassis no. CM/4/59

It is particularly apt that we offer yet another historic 'Goodwood car' - the rear-engined Cooper Monaco T49 which was entered in the 1959 RAC Tourist Trophy race here by the prominent, highly successful - and in some quarters feared - private entrant John Coombs, the Guildford-based Jaguar dealer.

Having made his name as a highly competitive and competent owner-driver of Cooper, Connaught and Lotus cars, 'Noddy' Coombs fielded this Cooper Monaco in the TT for immensely respected future triple World Champion driver Jack - later Sir Jack - Brabham and his former Cooper works team-mate Roy Salvadori, who was then fresh from his victory (paired with Carroll Shelby) in that year's Le Mans 24-Hour race, driving for Aston Martin.

'Noddy' Coombs insisted upon immaculate preparation and presentation of his cars. He was also renowned for having a personal fuse so short that he once fired on the spot someone he thought was a member of staff at his Guildford distributorship for "loafing around" when the unfortunate fellow was in fact a would-be customer viewing the Jaguars that Coombs had for sale.

Cooper Monaco 'CM/4/59' is recorded within the surviving Cooper Car Company factory records as having been completed in April 1959 for Jack Brabham himself. It was to be delivered (less engine) to Brabham who was described as "Australia – temporary overseas resident", possibly for UK tax reasons. The car was to be prepared by Ken Stratton and run by John Coombs's Guildford garage. It was liveried in the Coombs colours of off-white with blue flashes, and was a sister car to a matching Cooper Monaco also completed by Ken Stratton at Coombs for Roy Salvadori to drive. That sister car used a 4-cylinder 2.5-litre Maserati engine, while 'CM/4/59' for Brabham was first fitted with a 4-cylinder 2-litre Coventry Climax FPF power unit. These non-identical-twin Coombs Monacos of Salvadori and Brabham proved to be the most successful of that British season.

Jack Brabham made his debut in the car at the British Empire Trophy, Oulton Park, meeting on April 11, 1959, finishing third behind the Cooper Monacos of Jim Russell and Roy Salvadori and just ahead of Graham Hill's pole position Lotus 15 while also setting fastest race lap.

One week later, at Aintree, Salvadori won the sports car race in the larger-engined sister Coombs car, with Brabham seventh. The Silverstone May Meeting followed, the Coombs Monacos carrying Roy Salvadori to win from pole position, while Jack Brabham again set fastest lap in 'CM/4/59' after qualifying fourth and finishing sixth.

On May 18, 1959, Jack Brabham contested the Formula 2 Pau GP in France while the Crystal Palace National Open meeting saw 'CM/4/59' driven by 'Palace specialist' Roy Salvadori. Again, the Salvadori/Monaco combination took fastest lap while finishing second behind Innes Ireland's works Lotus.

Into July the British Grand Prix meeting at Aintree, Liverpool, saw the supporting sports car race dominated by the Lotus 15s of Graham Hill and Alan Stacey, with Jack Brabham third. Yet again the Australian star set fastest lap in 'CM/4/59', this time sharing it with Stirling Moss in his new private Cooper Monaco, but it sported a 2.5-litre F1-spec Coventry Climax FPF engine.

A brief Scandinavian tour followed. At Karlskoga, Sweden, on August 9, Brabham finished second to Moss's Monaco, while at Copenhagen's Roskilde Ring in Denmark the following weekend Moss won again, with Brabham third in 'CM/4/59', behind David Piper's second-placed Lotus 15.

Back in England for the 24th RAC Tourist Trophy race, at Goodwood on September 5, Brabham co-drove this Cooper Monaco with his young New Zealander F1 Cooper team-mate Bruce McLaren. For this longest-distance race yet attempted the car was fitted with knock-off hubs borrowed from Rob Walker, carrying wire-spoked wheels in place of its standard Cooper cast-magnesium bolt-on fittings - to speed wheel-change pit stops and perhaps to offer enhanced disc brake cooling. Jack Brabham would recall: "I drove my Coombs-entered Monaco with a 2.5 litre engine fitted in the Goodwood TT but went out early with suspension trouble" - a steering arm bolt had sheared.

Before the year's Formula 1 World Championship-deciding inaugural United States Grand Prix at Sebring, Florida, in December several star drivers ran in the Bahamas Speed Week events at Nassau. On December 4, Jack Brabham drove 'CM/4/59', re-liveried in green and with 2-litre Climax engine, in the Governor's Trophy preliminary race - finishing third despite sustaining a disturbing eye injury inflicted by a flying stone. On medical advice he then non-started in the subsequent Governor's Trophy main event but recovered in time for the Nassau Trophy two days later, winning his class and finishing fourth overall.

Jack Brabham of course clinched his first Formula 1 Drivers' World Championship title at Sebring '59, and on February 28, 1960, he ran 'CM/4/59' yet again, this time in the Cuban GP at Havana, again with a 2.5-litre Climax engine behind his shoulders, only to suffer ignition trouble.

Into April 1960 'Black Jack' finished sixth in the car at Riverside, California, immediately selling it to former USAF pilot-turned car dealer and amateur racer Sam Weiss, who promptly won and set fastest lap in it at Cotati, San Francisco, on April 24. A second place followed at Vaca Valley, but in practice at Laguna Seca poor Weiss overturned the car after a collision and lost his life. Weiss had bought the car on an instalment-payment basis, but Jack Brabham deemed it inappropriate to pursue his estate for completion.

Damage to the car proved relatively minor, and it reappeared in the October 15, 1961, Riverside 200 Miles, entered by Van Housen Motors for driver George Grinzewitsch, but failed to finish. Bob Drake then drove 'CM/4/59' at Laguna Seca, the race dominated by latest-model Cooper Monaco T57s and Lotus 19s driven by visiting Formula 1 stars, including Brabham, McLaren, Moss and Dan Gurney.

Van Housen Motors continued to campaign the car into 1962-63 with George Grinzewitsch winning at Cotati in May '62 followed by a fourth at Laguna. A full listing of Grinzewitsch's exploits with the car accompanies this Lot.

By 1970, 'CM/4/59' had been acquired by Cooper enthusiast and collector Ken Moore, back in England. He had it road registered and drove it frequently on the public road until 1975 when the car passed to dealer/racer Rodney Leach, for whom it was maintained and prepared by respected Cooper marque specialist Sid Hoole at Kimbolton, in whose care it would remain through many subsequent ownerships.

By 1981 it had been acquired by leading German racer Thomas Bscher, sometime chairman of the modern Bugatti company, who retained it until 1991, when it passed to prominent Historic racer Peter Hannen. It was then in David Pennell's hands by 1996, who obtained FIA registration papers dated 20th April 1996 under number 96/1892. In June 1997, it was then acquired by Marshall Bailey who raced the car frequently before selling to Roy Walzer in 2002.

In 2005, 'CM/4/59' was purchased by Julio Gargallo in Spain, acquiring its newly-required Historic Technical Passport on May 8, 2007, number E5026. In March 2012 the car returned to England and its familiar home, the Sid Hoole workshop.

The car's latest owner made his debut in it, appropriately, at the Bahamas Speed Week Revival of December 2012, since when it has competed regularly in Historic sports car racing and in other tours and events, including the Queen's 90th birthday celebration at Buckingham Palace in 2016, at the invitation of the All-Party Parliamentary Motor Group, and the Vernasca Silver Flag in 2017 where the car won the sports car trophy.

As well as racing at Silverstone, Donington, Portimao and Spa Francorchamps, recent years have seen several racing appearances at Goodwood, the scene of its 1959 TT outing. These include the 73rd Members' Meeting in 2015 and the Revival's Sussex Trophy in 2016 and 2017. During the 2016 Revival, the car also featured in the Jack Brabham tribute, driven by members of the Brabham family.

More recently, 'CM/4/59' competed in the Revival's Sussex Trophy in 2019. Significantly that year also saw the car appear in a celebration of the 1959 Tourist Trophy race, as well as featuring in a video which has just been released by Goodwood. In 2020's Goodwood Speedweek the car raced in the Lavant Cup and earlier this year saw 'CM/4/59' in the Robert Brooks' trophy at the Members' Meeting.

As presented today 'CM/4/59' features rear body panelling long-since returned to its original, quite distinctive, TT tail shape, and it is fitted with centre-lock wire wheels as raced in that event. It has a lovely Historic patina and the engine is a Hoole-built 2-litre Coventry Climax FPF unit offering around 180-190bhp as original. This engine was completed in 2018 and has run only in its three Goodwood outings since.

Extensive files and history papers accompany the car including features in magazines such as Classic Cars and Sweden's Teknikens Varld.

This Cooper Monaco with its connections to triple-World Champion Sir Jack Brabham, to Le Mans 24-Hour race-winning driver Roy Salvadori, and of course to the great, marque-creating Bruce McLaren is a very special sports-racing car indeed. With such a well-known and continuous provenance, together with being in fully-operational condition, we have no hesitation recommending it for the closest consideration.

Note: It is an indication of this car's fine repute that a tribute car exists and this blue tribute car may appear in the results of internet searches concerning 'CM/4/59'. In 1993 a car complying with the technical specification of a Cooper T49 Monaco was presented to the FIA for the issue of a Historic Vehicle Identity Form. The car was of unknown provenance or identity and was issued with an identity in the form of a chassis number allocated by the Royal Automobile Club, chassis RAC/107/59/ACP. At that time there seems to have been no suggestion that the car was related to CM/4/59. In 2008, application was made to the FIA for the issue of a Historic Technical Passport for T49 chassis RAC/107/59/ACP. This application came to include a request that the resulting HTP make reference to chassis number of CM/4/59. That car has since come to display a plate referring to CM/4/59 alongside a plate referring to chassis RAC/107/59/ACP.