Ex-Ken Wharton
1951 Cooper-JAP Mark V 500cc Formula 3 Single-Seater

• Exceptionally original condition
• In-period competition history
• Eligible for many prestigious Historic events
• Former Goodwood competitor

Chassis number 'MKV/19/51' was ordered new by Ken Wharton and delivered with alternative Norton and JAP engine mounts for £465 on 12th January 1951. Already a seasoned campaigner, Wharton had competed in off-road trials, hill climbs, rallies and circuit races, and
began racing in the new Formula 3 category in his own 'special' before acquiring this Cooper. Formula 3 had been recognised by the FIA in 1950 and Wharton made his World Championship Grand Prix debut at the 1952 Swiss GP where he started 13th on the grid and finished 4th. He participated in a total of 15 World Championship Grands Prix and won the British Hill Climb Championship every year from 1951 to 1954. He remains the only driver to have won four successive BHCC titles.

Other successes included winning the Brighton Speed Trials in 1954, 1955 and 1956, and the Tulip Rally in 1949, 1950 and 1952; somehow he also found the time to become British Trials Champion. Wharton was also a works driver for Jaguar, winning the 1954 Rheims 12-hour race in the famous D-Type 'OKV 3', co-driven by Peter Whitehead. In 1957 Wharton was fatally injured when his Ferrari Monza crashed in a sports car race at the Ardmore circuit in Auckland, New Zealand.

Following his untimely death, the Cooper was sold by Wharton's father to fellow competitor Tommy Norton. Subsequently the car was sold to Wally Cuff, then to a Dr Flanagan and next to Harry Heathcote (in the late 1960s). It was then laid up for two decades before being acquired by Ken Edwards. During Edwards' ownership the Cooper was lovingly refreshed while retaining the patina of years of racing. The substantial history file contains an RAC competition logbook and a VSCC eligibility document recording the car's races throughout the 1990s and at Goodwood in 2001.

In 2013, the Cooper was acquired for the immediately preceding owner's prominent private collection, remaining there for the next three years before its sale to the current vendor at UK auction in June 2016. Unusually for an elderly competition car, the Cooper retains its wonderfully patinated original aluminium panels, while power is provided by a 500cc JAP engine mated to a Norton gearbox. Cockpit features include a red vinyl seat, centrally mounted rev counter, and hand-painted starting instructions on the dashboard. Presented in exceptionally original condition, the ex-Wharton Cooper boasts plentiful in-period race history and, of course, is Goodwood eligible.