You could say it sparked the launch of Team McLaren.
for the first time since its eponymous driver bested Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Denny Hulme in the 1964 RAC Tourist Trophy race, setting the fastest lap in the process. It’s rare to discover such a significant barn find as the Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile, which spent more than half a century in storage; starting out stateside from 1965 to 1966 and then on to South America from 1967 until 2022.
Rebuilt in 1962 for West Coast sports-car races, it was acquired by Roger Penske and fitted with a 2.7-liter inline-four Climax FPF engine, a covered-wheel body, a center seat and a vestigial “passenger seat” on its left-side to meet racing regulations. Penske’s red “Zerex Special” went on to win professional sports car races at Riverside, Laguna Seca and Caguas that year.
in early 1964, the car, retaining its 2.7-liter Climax engine, was repainted green with a silver stripe. That year, driven by McLaren himself, it achieved victories at Aintree and Silverstone. The vehicle was rebuilt in June that year with a 3.5-liter Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile V-8 engine, using a new straight-tube-chassis center section and reusing the original F1 Cooper end frames.
The historic race car will be offered without reserve, though Bonhams estimates it could fetch close to $690,000. The race car’s seventh and final iteration came in the 1965/1966 season after it was bought by Dave Morgan, an amateur driver from Texas who fitted it with a curious “anteater-nose” body, repainted it red and raced it in SCCA South-Western Region events and in the Bahamas Speed Week.
As one of the initial sparks to Bruce McLaren’s racing legacy and the marque that bears his name, the Cooper-Zerex-Oldsmobile, as it exists today, represents the foundation of a dynasty whose enormous impact on the automotive world is one its builder likely never would have imagined. Although it will be offered without reserve, it could fetch upward of nearly $690,000 according to Bonhams representatives.
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