A Cooper T39 Bobtail, racing in the Stirling Moss Trophy for Pre'61 Sports cars at the Silverstone Classic, 2015.

The Cooper Car Company was founded in 1946 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles' small garage in Surbiton, Surrey, UK in 1946. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, they reached auto racing's highest levels as their rear-engined, single-seat cars altered the face of Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and their Mini Cooper dominated rally racing. Due in part to Cooper's legacy, Britain remains the home of a thriving racing industry, and the Cooper name lives on in the Cooper versions of the Mini production cars that are still built in England, but are now owned and marketed by BMW. During the years of 1954 through 1957 the Cooper Car Company in Surbiton, England designed and constructed a new series of rear-engine sports racers designated the 'Cooper Bobtail.' The early cars (Type 39 of 1954 and 1955) were equipped with alloy bodies and Coventry Climax FWA (1100cc) engines. These cars shared some components with the early Formula III cars, such as the 15-inch artillery style wheel with integral brake drums, cross leaf springs suspension, and driver seated on the centerline. Other advance features included the radiator air exiting from the top of the car as well as the bottom and the body with a chopped tail. These features contributed to the high-speed stability of the design. Later the cars were equipped with Coventry Climax FWB (1500cc) engines and one was built with a 2-liter Bristol engine. The chassis was strong and light lending racers to modify cars with various engines, including Volvo, light-weight V8s, Porsche, and Corvair. Since the car was a center-seater some cars were modified to open wheel racecars. One of the more famous modified cars was Peter Lovely's 'Pooper.' The original build records were lost and some of the cars were modified therefore, there is not a good count of the total number of Bobtails constructed.