"This Cooper Monaco sports-racing prototype that David Murray's Ecurie Ecosse organization entered and ran in the 1960 Le Mans 24-Hour race was their first rear-engined car. While only two coil-spring (as opposed to the earlier transverse leafspring) rear-suspended Type 57 'Mark II' Monaco models were recorded in the factory chassis book as being manufactured in the Cooper Car Company's famous factory in Hollyfield Road, Surbiton, south-west of central London, at least two more were supplied in kit form to respected and capable customers.
The Ecurie Ecosse mechanics, headed by technical celebrity 'Wilkie' Wilkinson, already had extensive car assembly and reconstruction experience with their 'Monzanapolis' single-seat Lister-Jaguar in 1958, and with repairing their Lister-Jaguar sports car after American guest driver Masten Gregory's assorted excitements in 1959. Their brand-new Cooper Monaco was delivered to the team's Merchiston Mews workshop in unassembled kit form and quickly completed and race-prepared there.
It was fitted with a 2½-litre Coventry Climax FPF twin-cam four-cylinder engine and was first UK road-registered on May 5, 1960 – as the original buff logbook records – with its chassis number being recorded as 'DM/773/W'. This does not comply with normal Cooper Car Company chassis number practice and it has been suggested – probably quite correctly – that the 'DM' initials were David Murray's own, apeing the normal Cooper form for these sports car of 'CM', 'Cooper Monaco' and finally the 'W' for 'Wilkinson'. The '773', meanwhile, probably derived from three of the Climax engine's serial number stampings.
The 'Monaco' name itself had been adopted by Charles and John Cooper back in 1959, after Jack Brabham's remarkable performance in winning the Monaco Grand Prix in the Surbiton works team's Formula 1 Type 51 car. As a retort to Cooper's adoption of the Monaco model name, Colin Chapman celebrated the following year's Monaco GP victory by Stirling Moss in Rob Walker's Lotus 18 by naming his new rear-engined Lotus 19 sports car the Lotus 'Monte Carlo'.
The new Ecurie Ecosse Cooper Monaco made its racing debut on May 28, 1960, at Charterhall aerodrome, driven by Tommy Dickson – immediately winning two races. It won again at Goodwood on June 6, and back at Charterhall on July 3 before Dickson failed to finish in the British GP supporting sports car race at Silverstone on July 16.
The car was then shipped across the Atlantic to compete in the 1960 Formule Libre Watkins Glen Grand Prix event in upper New York State. Roy Salvadori drove there, finishing very strongly in third place as the first sports-racing car to finish behind the two Formula 1 cars of Stirling Moss (winning in Rob Walker's Lotus 18) and Jack Brabham (second in the works-entered Cooper-Climax T53 'Lowline').
The Ecosse Cooper Monaco was then flown across the United States to compete in the annual 'Los Angeles Times' Grand Prix for sports cars at Riverside, California. There he finished sixth in the car, after being delayed by a mid-race spin. It was then entrusted to now double-World Champion Driver Jack Brabham for the Pacific Grand Prix race at Laguna Seca near Monterey, but a burst tyre damaged the rear brakes, forcing retirement.
Back in the UK for the 1961 season, diminutive little Tommy Dickson finished third behind the UDT-Laystall team Lotus 19s at Easter Monday Goodwood, then fourth at both Oulton Park and Aintree during the rest of April, 1961. He won at Charterhall on April 23, placed 4th again at Silverstone on May 6.
Tommy Dickson finished third in the Sussex Trophy at Goodwood on Easter Monday, fourth at both the Aintree '200' and Silverstone May meetings, and David Murray then invited former Maserati, Lister and BRM driver Bruce Halford to handle the car in the Whit-Monday Goodwood meeting. Bruce Halford won handsomely and on May 28 he co-drove the car with Dickson in the ADAC 1,000Kms race at the Nurburgring in Germany, only to be sidelined by a suspension failure.
In its 1961 form the car had necessarily been adapted to conform to contemporary FIA Appendix J regulations, which demanded a tall minimum-height windscreen, and mandatory luggage trunk space which was provided in the Cooper Monaco by an unsightly hump provided above the rear engine cover. The car was entered by Ecurie Ecosseat Le Mans on June 10, 1961, again to be co-driven by Bruce Halford/Tommy Dickson. The celebratedly 'difficult' French scrutineers perceived the Cooper Monaco as being a 'two-seat racing car', a cheater rather than a 'proper' sports car and it took all of David Murray's diplomatic skills and special relationship with organizing ACO Secretary Raymond Acat to get the car accepted.
In the race the car was running well until the evening and its 34th lap, when Halford went missing. Unsighted by the mixture of rain, oil film and parallax through the tall regulation windscreen he had crashed heavily under the Dunlop Bridge and had been hurled out onto the road as the Monaco clattered along the safety bank at high speed. Happily Bruce Halford survived to race another day. TheEcosse Cooper Monaco was similarly rebuilt after its Le Mans misfortune and reappeared at Aintree on August 7 – Dickson finishing third. The car's 1961 season was then completed with two further race wins for Dickson at Charterhall on September 24.
During the year this Cooper Monaco's ownership title had been transferred to Ecurie Ecosse's long-time supporter and benefactor Major Gordon Thompson. In 1962 the car lay unused after its Climax FPF engine had been removed and installed instead in the team's new Tojeiro Coupe – see Lot 10.
During 1963 – as American V8 engines were preferred for the team's two Tojeiro Coupes – the elderly Monaco was revived for use in Ecurie Ecosse's home-events race programme. Bruce Halford finished 6th in the Silverstone May Meeting, before Jimmy Blumer took three third places and a 9th in four June-July events at Ouston aerodrome, Charterhall, Snetterton and Oulton Park.
David Murray then entrusted the car to a young newcomer from Dumbarton named Jackie Stewart, younger brother of erstwhile Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar and Cooper-Bristol driver Jimmy Stewart. He promptly won his first six races in a row, at Snetterton on August 5, 1963, Oulton park on August 31, Goodwood September 21 and Charterhall on September 29.
These startling performances in the ageing Cooper Monaco famously prompted Goodwood track manager Robin McKay to recommend Jackie Stewart's potential to Ken Tyrrell and John Cooper. They gave him a test drive back at Goodwood for their embryo 1964 1-litre Formula 3 racing team, and Stewart was immediately signed-up by them – launching his career as a full-time professional racer, and ultimately three-time Formula 1 World Champion Driver...standard-setter of his era.
Between May 1960 and April 1964 then, the Ecurie Ecosse Cooper Monaco contested no fewer than 32 races, of which it won 16. But at Oulton Park on 11 April, 1964, Jackie Stewart was driving during practice when he lost control on cold tyres and hit a trackside tree. He was wracked with remorse for having damaged the Cooper "...for it was a wonderful car, and I had won a lot of races with it...".
Ecurie Ecosse then made the most of the opportunity to rebuild the damaged – but self-evidently far obsolescent – sports-racing car as an open-wheeled Formule Libre single-seater. As the 'Ecosse-Climax' it then proved sensationally successful in the hands of another promising Scottish driver, Bill Stein. Competing in Scottish and northern English circuit events he achieved nine race wins and three fourth places and at the end of 1966 the car was retired into Major Thompson's private collection.
There it remained until August 27, 1970, when it was sold by auction - amongst other Thompson Collection cars - at the Gleneagles Hotel. Amongst the audience was a holidaying American family with a 9-year old son named Todd Jenkins. He was entranced by the Ecosse-Climax and convinced his father that he should bid for it. The hammer fell in his favour at £1,160, and the Jenkins family emerged as Ecosse/Cooper owners.
The car was promptly shipped to the United States where it remained until 1995 when its now adult owner Todd Jenkins decided to have it fully restored to its original 1960 sports-racing configuration. Beginning in 1995 Akin Motorsports of Ossining, New York, restored the car, Bob Akin having owned and raced his own Cooper Monaco since 1972. All surviving components were either restored or replaced by matching-specification as-original items. New aluminium bodywork and fuel tanks were crafted by Steve Hall's Panel Shoppe of Stratford, Connecticut, using templates taken from an unrestored original Cooper Monaco.
Ted Wenz rebuilt the car's original Coventry Climax FPF engine and Cooper-Knight 'C5S' five-speed and reverse transaxle-type gearbox. The bodywork was finished in original-style Ecurie Ecosse Flag Metallic Blue paintwork, and Todd Jenkins – who had been competing in Porsche cars for several years – gave the restored Ecosse Cooper Monaco a fine debut when he qualified it on pole position and won his race at the 1998 Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival meeting. The car also won its class at the Lime Rock Concours, and into 2000 the car again qualified on the front row of the starting grid and won overall at the SVRA Virginia Beach Air Base races.
It was acquired by Mr Dick Skipworth for his Ecurie Ecosse Collection and it has been raced since in selected Historic events – including the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca in both 2002 and 2006 by Barrie Williams. The car was demonstrated in the Sir Jack Brabham Tribute parade at the Goodwood Revival Meeting in 2005, and again – by Dick Skipworth - in the 2007 Revival Meeting's Roy Salvadori Tribute.
The car's overall racing record through its Ecurie Ecossecareer as the original sports-racing Cooper Monaco accumulated no fewer than 17 first places, one 2nd, five 3rds and 28 top-ten placings overall – against only five retirements – from a total of 34 race starts.
As the open-wheeler Ecosse-Climax in 1965-66 it then contested a further 15 races, driven 12 times by Bill Stein and in three final events by Bill Dryden. Bill Stein scored no fewer than nine wins in the car – at Ingliston, Croft and Rufforth - plus one fourth place, and posted only two retirements, while Bill Dryden achieved two further fourth places and only failed to finish once – all at Ingliston outside Edinburgh.
So here we offer a potentially highly competitive coil-spring rear-suspended late-series Cooper Monaco with full 2½-litre Climax FPF engine plus great pedigree and well-established provenance, including the Le Mans 24-Hours and the Nurburgring 1,000 Kilometre race. Above all it has been preserved and campaigned for many years now as the unique Ecurie Ecosse car – ex-Sir Jack Brabham, ex-Roy Salvadori...and ex-Sir Jackie Stewart for whom it proved to be 'The King Maker', no less..."
