{"id":459441,"date":"2001-03-01T06:30:30","date_gmt":"2001-03-01T14:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=120008"},"modified":"2024-02-13T15:04:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T15:04:18","slug":"the-brilliant-blacksmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brilliant Blacksmith"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Conception, a friend of mine used to say, \u201cis the biggest word in the English language.\u201d His aphorism came to mind when I learned of the recent passing of John Cooper. It was never my privilege to meet Cooper, but the cars he and his father, Charles, created were central to the motorsports landscape of my youth and lie at the very core of our concept of racing cars today.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Had the Cooper team not existed, would the great mid-engined revolution of the 1950s-1960s still have happened? Most probably, eventually. But the historical fact is, it was this tiny, unlikely band of \u201cblacksmiths\u201d (as they were sometimes derisively called) that did transform the shape of world auto racing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conception, a friend of mine used to say, \u201cis the biggest word in the English language.\u201d His aphorism came to mind when I learned of the recent passing of John Cooper. It was never my privilege to meet Cooper, but the cars he and his father, Charles, created were central to the motorsports landscape of my youth and lie at the very core of our concept of racing cars today. Had the Cooper team not existed, would the great mid-engined [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":814019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11272,261,18207],"tags":[18322,17152,17140,548,11614,17143,17204],"class_list":["post-459441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","tag-2000s-all","tag-car-culture","tag-members-only","tag-motorsport","tag-john-cooper","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-fast-lines"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Brilliant Blacksmith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pete Lyons looks at John Cooper\u2019s tremendous legacy to motor racing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Brilliant Blacksmith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pete Lyons looks at John Cooper\u2019s tremendous legacy to motor racing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2001-03-01T14:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-13T15:04:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2001\/03\/FL200103-p1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete Lyons\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pete Lyons\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pete Lyons\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dee0dc3e0ea3204e52a659a117d5f67f\"},\"headline\":\"The Brilliant Blacksmith\",\"datePublished\":\"2001-03-01T14:30:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-13T15:04:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1149,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/the-brilliant-blacksmith\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2001\\\/03\\\/FL200103-p1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2000s All\",\"Car Culture\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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