1953 Porsche Racing Special

American Gordon 'Tippy' Lipe purchased the fifth Cooper Mark 7 produced. The car was raced by Lipe on atleast one occasion, where he scored a first-in-class trophy at the Giant's Despair hillclimb in Wilkes-Barre, PA, in July 1953. Later, Lipe re-engineered his Cooper and installed a larger Porsche 1500cc engine. He was assisted by Robert Harbinson and Bill Llyod, a cousin of Briggs Cunningham. The modifications were made to the vehicle so that it could compete in the F-Modified class.

Another Cooper-Porsche, of the same period, was built and raced by Pete Lovely. The vehicle was comprised of an aluminum-bodied Cooper MKVIII(R) chassis and fitted with a Porsche engine. This car is known as 'The Lovely Pooper.' Lovely won the SCCA F-Modified national championship with the 'Pooper' in 1955.

The body for Lipe's 'Pooper' came from Robert Harbinson. He had built a one-off aluminum sports car body and installed it on a Singer Nine Bantam chassis. The Harbinson Special was featured in the January 1954 issue of Britain's MotorSport magazine. After reading the article, Tippy Lipe commissioned Harbinson to build a sports car body for his vehicle. The body was designed to comply with SCCA rules for the Modified sports car class. Thus, it was given a passenger seat, horn, lights, and other necessary items.

In one of the earliest races for the Tippy Lipe 'Pooper,' the car would show tremendous promise but would retire from the race. This was in September of 1954 at Thompson Raceway in Connecticut. This was followed a short time later with a race at Watkins Glen. The cars most successful outing was on May 15th of 1955 at Cumberland, Maryland, where it won first place. Lipe finished first in class and sixth overall in the Mt. Equinox hillclimb. Lipe finished first-in-class at The Tea Party Trophy Race in Beverly, Massachusetts.

In 1957, the Cooper Special was sold to Ed Walsh (but without the engine). Walsh fitted the car with an OSCA 750cc engine and went racing in the H-Modified (500-750cc) class.

At the close of 1961, Walsh sold the Cooper-OSCA to Mack Barlow. Barlow raced the car on several occasions until 1969, when it went into storage in Wichita, Kansas. It would remain there until August of 1991, when Mr. Waddle of Hutchinson, Kansas, purchased the car from Mack's widow. In December 1991, the car was purchased by John Muller, who commissioned a professional restoration back to its original configuration. The car was then raced by Mr. Muller between 1993 and 1999.

A frame-off restoration was completed in early 2001. In August of that year, the current owner purchased the car and has raced it in vintage competition.

by Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2011