Description
GOODWOOD MEMBERS' MEETING
16 April 2
023, 13:00 BST
Chichester, Goodwood
Contact:using the button below
LOT 84
The ex-Skip Hudson Dan Blocker/ Nickey-Chevrolet Team USRRC Riverside-winningon
1963-64 Cooper-Chevrolet Racing Sports-Prototype
GOODWOOD MEMBERS' MEETING
16 April 2023, 13:00 BST
Chichester, Goodwood
£190, 000 - £220, 000
1963-64 Cooper-Chevrolet Racing Sports-Prototype
Chassis no. CM/ 4/ 63
• Prominent and well-documented period history
• Regular Goodwood Revival participant
• Consistently competitive
• Offered with spares package
• Just one season of racing since last rebuild
During the early 1960s, by far the most financially rewarding sports car races worldwide were the United States' West Coast professional events run at the Kent, Riverside and Laguna Seca circuits. Each year the scene was set for these exceptionally well-funded races by the season-long United States Road Racing Championship. This highly competitive environment saw such imported cars as this magnificently brutish, powerful and extremely fast Cooper-Chevrolet – and Carroll Shelby's famous Ford V8-powered sister 'King Cobras' – confronting such home-grown legends as Jim Hall's works Chaparral-Chevrolets.
As new, this beautifully-presented Cooper-Chevrolet offered here was supplied from the British factory as a rolling chassis – less engine and transmission – in April, 1963. Its chassis serial 'CM/ 4/ 63' is recorded in surviving Cooper Car Company records as having been ordered by American former Jaguar owner/ driver Jack Ensley. It was shipped to US car constructor and preparation specialist Bob McKee to be fitted with a Ford V8 engine and transaxle. However, funding then failed and the project was sold to Jack Stephani's Nickey-Chevrolet dealership team in Chicago, who were to run the car with backing from racing enthusiast and actor Dan Blocker (an international celebrity at the time for his role as Hoss Cartwright in the top-rating TV Western series 'Bonanza'). Ready for the second half of the 1963 US racing season, 'CM/ 4/ 63' offered here was fitted with a 5. 3-litre Chevrolet V8 engine (uprated to 5. 6-litre for the 1964 season and later to 5. 7-litre), driving through a new McKee 4-speed transmission.
This car made its racing debut in Round 6 of the 1963 USRRC series at Continental Divide, Colorado, driven by ex-Scarab team star Chuck Daigh. Despite teething troubles he finished 5th. Since he was unavailable for the final USRRC round, the purple-liveried Cooper-Chevrolet was then entrusted to driver Skip Hudson, who promptly qualified on pole position, only to suffer clutch failure late in qualifying and non-start. Double Indy-winning driver Rodger Ward then drove the car into 2nd place finishes in both heats of the Kent, Washington, professional-series race. An opening-lap collision in the 'Los Angeles Times' Grand Prix at Riverside then ruined his race there. Jack Stephani replaced Ward with Skip Hudson for the Pacific GP at Laguna Seca, and after disappointment there he twice finished 5th in the Bahamas Speed Week at Nassau, behind Roger Penske's renowned centre-seat Zerex Special Cooper-Climax. Hudson actually led the opening lap of the feature Nassau Trophy race before a coolant leak. After three extra pit stops Hudson's 5th place won him the organisers' Sportsmanship Cup.
The Nickey team continued to campaign 'CM/ 4/ 63' into 1964. A tyre failure caused Hudson to crash (with surprisingly little damage) at Daytona, but he finished a fine 2nd to Shelby team star Dave MacDonald's King Cobra at Phoenix, and then won the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix outright at Riverside. At Laguna Seca he disputed the lead with Jim Hall's Chaparral, MacDonald and Penske before being rammed from behind by a back-marker. But during qualifying for the following race at Kent, Bob Holbert's Shelby King Cobra spun into the pit lane, striking the Nickey Cooper and some team members. The car was rebuilt, reappearing at the USRRC Meadowdale round, Hudson then qualifying 6th for the international Canadian GP at Mosport Park. Engine failure in the 'Times' GP back at Riverside, a collision at Laguna Seca and further problems at Nassau ended the Nickey Chevrolet team's season – 'CM/ 4/ 63' being sold into 1965.
In later years the car was used in club racing events, and into the 1980s was eventually registered as a street car in Arizona. Into the 2000s the car returned to the UK where it was restored to full historic racing trim by respected specialists Sid Hoole and Simon Hadfield. Running barely completed and still with its bodywork unpainted, it won the inaugural Whitsun Trophy race at the 2003 Goodwood Revival Meeting, and – with preparation by Steve Farthing – has since performed nobly – and spectacularly – at historic level in the hands of both its current owner and of Steve Farthing himself, winning the FIA Masters pre-1966 Championship in 2019.
As offered here the car is accompanied by a considerable documentation file, detailing its history and that of the Nickey Chevrolet team itself. In its present ownership this Cooper-Chevrolet has never been damaged in racing and at the Goodwood Revival Meeting, for example, it has qualified consistently within the top six and has always featured prominently amongst the leading group. The car is also presented with a comprehensive spares package, including a spare transaxle, suspension parts, bodywork and two sets of spare wheels and tyres.
Its 5. 7-litre Chevrolet V8 engine is believed to deliver some 550 horsepower, and we are advised that it has completed one season since its last rebuild and continues to deliver full power – indeed it was the fastest car through the Lavant Straight speed trap during last year's Whitsun Trophy at the Goodwood Revival, having been clocked at just over 162mph.
This is a proven early-period 'big-banger' sports-racing car of immense presence and charm. It is an historic championship winner, and it has proven itself an attractive proposition for organisers of the world's highest-profile historic racing events. In combining the Cooper Monaco-derived chassis with the historically so-dominant Chevrolet V8 engine, 'CM/ 4/ 63' is offered here as a rare beast indeed – and in capable hands, demonstrably, a ferociously competitive one.
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