John Cooper
John Newton Cooper (July 17, 1923 – December 24, 2000) was a co-founder, with his father Charles Cooper, of the Cooper Car Company. John Cooper was Born in Kingston, Surrey, England.
Charles Cooper ran a small garage in Surbiton that specialised in maintaining racing cars. His son John left school at age 15 to become an apprentice toolmaker and served in the Royal Air Force as an instrument maker in World War II. When he returned after the war, he and his father began building simple, inexpensive single-seat racers for privateers, often from surplus military hardware. The cars were extremely successful and quickly in high demand, and in 1948 they founded their own company to build more.
Cooper's development of the British Motor Corporation Mini -- the Mini Cooper -- was adored by both rally racers and ordinary road drivers. Before John Cooper's death, the Cooper name was licenced to BMW for the higher performance versions of the cars, inspired by the original Mini, sold as the MINI. John, along with his son Mike Cooper, served in an advisory role to BMW and Rover's New MINI design team.
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