One of motorsports legendary sports cars, the Bruce McLaren 1964 Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile ‘Jolly Green Giant’ – which became something of a long-lost ‘Holy Grail’ – has been unearthed and returned to British soil for the first time in 57 years.
Regarded by many as the genesis of the modern McLaren marque , this famous machine achieved top level success in the hands of a trio of mid-century motor sport legends: not only Bruce McLaren but also Roger Penske and, previously, Briggs Cunningham’s team driver Walt Hansgen.
Starting life in 1961 as a 1 ½ -litre Formula 1 Cooper with Coventry Climax engine, the car was entered by America’s most revered team patron, millionaire Briggs Cunningham, for driver Walt Hansgen in the 1961 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.
Following Hansgen’s crash there, the car was sold by Cunningham (for $1,250) to fast-rising American star driver Roger Penske, today the multiple motor racing title winner and billionaire head of the international Penske Corporation. The forward-thinking and ingenious Penske had the Formula 1 car repaired and rebuilt as a lightweight ‘Grand Prix car in sports car clothing’.
Penske kept its central driving position within a sleek streamlined wheel-enveloping body. The ‘Zerex Special’, so-called after the anti-freeze brand sponsor, in Roger Penske’s hands promptly dominated America’s most important (and best-paying) sports car races, winning the 1962 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside Raceway, the Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna Seca and the Puerto Rican Grand Prix at Caguas.
However, it was in the ownership of Bruce McLaren that the car then cemented its legendary status. The then Cooper Car Company works Formula 1 team leader had long admired this Penske Cooper-Zerex and bought it for 1964. In between Grand Prix races for Cooper, Bruce would campaign it at sports car level under his new personal team ‘McLaren Motor Racing Team’ banner.
Using a similar 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Climax engine to Penske’s, Bruce drove it to victory in British international sports car races at Aintree and Silverstone, before having the car converted to use a 3.5-litre Traco-modified Oldsmobile V8 engine. Upon completion, the modified chassis was hastily finished in the only paint the team could find available on an English Sunday: garden-gate green, earning its nickname The Jolly Green Giant.
The Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile immediately notched up further race wins in the international Player’s ‘200’ race at Mosport Park, Toronto and, powered by an uprated 3.9-litre Oldsmobile engine, the international Guards Trophy race at Brands Hatch in 1964; the car’s second consecutive victory there after Roger Penske’s the previous year.
Fittingly, Bruce McLaren’s final race appearance in this Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile was at Goodwood where he started from pole position in the world-class 1964 RAC Tourist Trophy race, leading World Champion drivers Jim Clark and Graham Hill in their rival Lotus and Ferrari cars and setting the fastest lap before being forced out by clutch failure.
After being replaced in September 1964 by the prototype, entirely McLaren-built, M1 sports car, the Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile passed through three subsequent owners before being acquired by the vendor’s father in South America.
Having effectively vanished in the late 1960s, this treasure was found in a dormant, dismantled state, buried away in an obscure South American storage unit. Following a six-week voyage via the USA and Europe, the Jolly Green Giant arrived on British soil last weekend, before being brought to Goodwood for its first public appearance in more than five decades where it will be put up for auction at the Goodwood Revival auction on September 17th.
