38 replies to this topic

[minilester]

i do love a good story.. any more uncle cooperman?.. and yes between us we will make that name stick...

[Deathrow]

i do love a good story.. any more uncle cooperman?.. and yes between us we will make that name stick...

It'll stick now .

I'll remove it if he doesn't like it though .

[Cooperman]

I love it! It's better than Grandad Cooperman after all.
More true Mini stories later my friends. After 50 years playing with the little darlings there are lots of anecdotes to come.

[minilester]

I love it! It's better than Grandad Cooperman after all.
More true Mini stories later my friends. After 50 years playing with the little darlings there are lots of anecdotes to come.

.. YEY!.. i love a war story.. i mean mini story.. hehe. i'll wait til the next installment uncle cooperman

[ChrisG10]

LOL for both stories

[JustSteve]

I think we can all agree, Cooperman and his stories are by far the best thing on this forum... possibly the web!



Keep them coming Cooperman!

[minilester]

I think we can all agree, Cooperman and his stories are by far the best thing on this forum... possibly the web!



Keep them coming Cooperman!

...thats uncle cooperman to you ... sonny! lol

[mab01uk]

Cooperman, I recently saw a very faded sticker on an old Mk2 Mini bootlid which read "Mendham Converted - Watford Herts'
Was this his garage on the left seen behind the pub?

Photo of the pub.........where he was running his tuning business from the garage behind his parents pub in Watford as mentioned in the 'Mini Racing Story' book:
http://www.google.co...d=0CDcQnwIoADAD

Edited by mab01uk, 18 July 2011 - 10:54 PM.

[Cooperman]

I think we can all agree, Cooperman and his stories are by far the best thing on this forum... possibly the web!



Keep them coming Cooperman!

I navigated in the well-known works-prepared 850 Mini 16BOJ for Peter Gilbert on a regional championship rally back in late 1962. It was quite a navigational event, but with very tight timing and to do well the navigator had to plot map references and work out the route whilst the driver was driving as fast as he could receiving only instructions when he approached the next junction or feature. Anyway, to confirm the correct route it was necessary to note down the letters and numbers displayed on large code boards placed on the route by the organisers. I was right in the middle of plotting some references when Peter said 'Code Board'. I asked him to just remember it for a minute or two until I had got the next map ref plotted. So I did this, but he had forgotten the letters & numbers. Now, this represented a large penalty, equal to about 10 minutes.
However, at that time I helped run a motor club and as a map plotting board I had a rectangular piece of hardboard which had been used as a 'control board' on one of my rallies and it had the word 'CONTROL' in reflective letters on one side. During the following section there was a 'neutral section' which passed ar reduced average speed with no lateness penalty through a village. It was a wet and cold nasty night so we stopped in the neutral and set up our own control using my 'control board' The next car came along, saw the control and two marshals standing there in rally jackets with the hoods pulled right up. Our 'control board/map board' was covering our number plate. I took the other competitors time card, read the code board from it, signed the bottom of his card with a squiggle and off he went. We climbed back in, drove the few miles to the end of the neutral section in plenty of time, clocked in on time and off we went, our route records intact and correct. The other guy was confused as to why he was the only crew to get a signature at the 'special control' in the neutral section and, surprisingly, no-one ever twigged. Thus our dear little Mini finished a strong second overall! Peter and I never mentioned it for many, many years after.
I called it 'Rallymanship'. Peter thought it was very astute.

[minilester]

brilliant.. thinking on your feet sir goes along way and as the saying goes "no ones ever questions some one with a clipboard..."

i like these they're nice and short and the last one had a little "lesson" init.. lol

[yousmeg]

Great stories Cooperman

[89mini-boy]

The guy was a legend.

I'll say so .

Brilliant HAHAHAHA

Edited by 89mini-boy, 19 July 2011 - 05:35 AM.

[89mini-boy]

I think we can all agree, Cooperman and his stories are by far the best thing on this forum... possibly the web!



Keep them coming Cooperman!

+1

[89mini-boy]

I'm at work which is why im on so early, but reading the thread and stories.... wow. This is a brilliant start to a morning Uncle cooperman LOVE THESE STORIES amazing haha so far favorite has got to be the rally one!!!! with 850 mini 16BOJ.

as everyone asks, Keep them coming.

Ashley.

[Cooperman]

Cooperman, I recently saw a very faded sticker on an old Mk2 Mini bootlid which read "Mendham Converted - Watford Herts'
Was this his garage on the left seen behind the pub?

Photo of the pub.........where he was running his tuning business from the garage behind his parents pub in Watford as mentioned in the 'Mini Racing Story' book:
http://www.google.co...d=0CDcQnwIoADAD

Yes, that's the place. His workshop was behind the pub, of which his long-suffering Mum was the landlady. I've spent lots of time both in that workshop and the pub.
When we were apprentices at de Havilland Aircraft in Hatfield, Mo was building his first racing car which was a TVR Grantura Mk.1. He discovered that the Watford bus garage had the same type of clocking-in machine as at de Havillands, so quite often he would take his clock card home and clock in a the bus garage, then go home and work on his car all day, going back to clock out in the evening. If anyone came looking for him at work, like the shop foreman, one of us would call Mo and he could be there within 20 minutes. His excuse would that he had gone to the stores to get some tool or had been to the apprentice office, etc. He never got caught and that's how he built his TVR. It was after he crashed the TVR at Mallory (from memory) that he decided the steel shell of the Mini was a better bet. He actually said that after the crash he was sitting there with bits of fibreglass up his ar*e!