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If Loose Fillings had a ‘To Do List’ we would surely have on it the writing of the history of ‘big-twin’ engined Coopers in Australia. We have already published an account of these in New Zealand but for Australia there still needs to be a certain amount of sifting of fact from fiction before the full story can be written.  We hope to do this in the next year or two in a new edition of our book Power Without Glory: Racing the Big-Twin Cooper.

Typical of the currently incomplete Australian stories is that of an initially South Australian Cooper twin with a long history, laterly with four-cylinder engines. The story as we currently have it begins with the possibly incomplete Cooper factory records published by Doug Nye in his book Cooper Cars (published 1983 and 2003) where it is listed in Appendix 5 as follows: Mk.V/4/51 – (sic) – John Crouch – 1100cc- unpainted with black, set 500cc mountings and exhaust, Norton 500cc. As most readers will know, John Crouch was the early Sydney-based Cooper importer. An Australian account such as in John Blanden’s book Historic Racing Cars in Australia describes the car slightly differently as MkVL/4/51.

The subtle difference in the numeration given in these two sources cannot be checked against a chassis plate or other documents because we cannot currently make contact with the current owner. Be that as it may,some new information and photographs have recently come to us about the car from Ian Steele, the son of one of the early Adelaide owners, Don Steele, and there are more to be found in several editions of John Blanden’s book.

Various sources tell us that the car was painted gold when it was first sold to Bill Craig, and one of its first outings was at Bathurst Easter 1952 in the Australian Grand Prix. No less than 6 Cooper twins started the race but only one finished and it wasn’t the immaculate Craig car which dropped out after just 6 laps – Blanden tells us the problem lay with unequal cylinder head stud tightening but that is all we know.

The Bill Craig Cooper at Bathurst for the Australian Grand Prix Easter 1952. AGP history author Author Graham Howard suggested that the crew’s body language reflected the difficulties of racing such a car at Mt Panorama.

Craig crashed spectacularly suffering concussion and back injuries at the opening Port Wakefield meeting in January 1953. The car was advertised for sale in Australian Motor Sport of November 1953 and it was eventually bought by the Glenburn Road, Firle, Adelaide, garage owner Don Steele. It is from Don’s son Ian (seen at the wheel in the first photo below), that our latest information and the following photographs have come.

A young Ian Steele at the wheel of his dad’s Cooper with a JAP single now installed and Don, below, at his Caltex garage on the Glenburn Road.

Off the line at Collingrove hillclimb and further up the hill (below).

It seems that Don Steele did not, or rarely, competed himself, but others drove the car for him, especially Jack Johnson, Neil O’Brien, DL Harrison and maybe Bill Pile. The car was obviously repaired after its Port Wakefield crash and was apparently then painted white. It regularly ran with a 500cc JAP single instead of the twin engine.

We are not sure of the exact dates the car moved on to its next owner, Bill Pile, who bought the car about 1960 and later fitted a Coventry Climax FWA engine with a Volkswagen gearbox. A succession of owners followed until the car was last heard of with in the hands of Alan Tidbury who we have not been able to contact for more information. If and when it becomes available we will update this story.

In the meantime, enjoy the new photographs with thanks to Ian Steele. If you can provide any more information about the pictures please let us know.