Ex-Fangio Cooper back at Goodwood for the Revival

Fangio wasn’t actually supposed to drive the Cooper on its debut at Goodwood in 1952, but he liked it so much he asked if he could race it. Mechanical problems meant he didn’t complete the race, but he nonetheless left the car with a provenance that resonates all these decades later. In another race on the same day, the Coopers had a 1-2-3 finish for an impressive first outing.

We asked Thompson how his Revival test session felt, driving the same car Fangio had: “It was hugely emotional, it was surreal.” He also has a Lotus Cortina that he has raced at Members’ Meeting, but being at the wheel of the very car Fangio drove at the same venue had even greater meaning. “I love the history. It has something to do with motor racing that's older than me.”

Cooper made four of these cars, three of which were raced and one was a spare. This one was primarily driven by Alan Brown, who scored Cooper’s first ever World Champion points in Switzerland — despite using the Formula 2 car in a Formula 1 race. The team eventually developed purpose-made F1 cars which left the T20s with no job. That was when they were rebodied as sportscars.

They were actually later converted back to F2 spec, and then back to a sportscar again, so the body has been on and off a few times. Remarkably, though, the shell fitted today is the original, which means Thompson has no temptation to turn it back into a single-seater. “Because it was done in 1954, that’s kind of it for me,” he says. “That’s how it has to stay, it should be how it was the last time it left the works factory.”

Originality is a recurring theme here, even down to the period-correct tyre compound that made for an interesting drive during a wet test session. “They’re brand new, but they have no grip at all,” Thompson shared. “It’s quite scary, as you can imagine.” 

Setting lap times isn’t really the aim, though. With such a historically significant car, and one which won’t be on the pace with the front-runners, the aim at Revival will be to relive history. Thompson’s aim is simply “to enjoy the race and not crash the car. I’m going to enjoy the occasion rather than try and win the race, which the car’s not capable of anyway. I’ll drive it at eight tenths rather than ten tenths.”

After Goodwood, the next outing will be at the Monaco Historic in 2026, which is the event Thompson specifically bought the car for. “There very few cars you can buy that are eligible for that particular sportscar race, and I particularly want to race in the historic but not in a Formula 1 car because I promised my wife I wouldn’t go too fast!”

But right now, the focus is on the Goodwood Revival. “I’m so excited about it, and to drive it in the Friday night race is awesome.”

That race is the Freddie March Memorial Trophy, and you can see this ex-Fangio Cooper Bristol T20 racing into the dusk with its fellow 1950s sportscars in this hour-long endurance contest, that gets the action at Revival underway at 18:30 on Friday.

Tickets for the Goodwood Revival are limited! Only Sunday tickets remain, so secure yours now to avoid missing out on the world's best historic motorsport event.

Main image courtesy of Getty Images.

Goodwood photography by Joe Harding.