1952 Cooper-Bristol Grand Prix F2 single-seater (continuation) John Cooper accepted to build a fourth one because during the 1951 season he had been able to know about Mike Hawthorn's capabilities at the wheel of his pre-war Riley which was slower than John's Cooper-MG. On the 21st of March, 1952, one could read in Autosport that Mike Hawthorn would drive a F2 Cooper Bristol this season. Meanwhile Leslie Cooper managed to gather a good team of mechanics with Hugh Sewell, Joe Bickell and Brit Pearce. The cars were hardly ready on time and the Bristol engine itself was delivered to Mike and Leslie Hawthorn just one week before the Easter Meeting. The price amounted to £ 661, quite a lot of money at the time. It was quickly mounted in the chassis and Mike went on to test-drive his new car on a near-by airfield. Because of lack of time the car was not even painted. In 1951, Mike used to drive in shirt sleeves and tie, but as he often got it in his face at speed he decided for a bow-tie which was to become quite legendary. The big surprise of the week end was the second fastest time obtained in practice by Mike Hawthorn just behind the powerful Thin Wall Special which was in fact a 4.5 litre V12 Ferrari On the Goodwood circuit Mike Hawthorn raced the Cooper-Bristol three times and secured two first places and one second in the Richmond Trophy behind Gonzales at the wheel of the Thin Wall Special. In the second race he had beaten the World Champion Fangio who was driving John Cooper's car similar to Hawthorn's one. For Mike and his father the most arduous moment was the way back to the TT Garage with a stop at every pub on the route. England had got a hero. The next week end Mike added two wins to his record still at the wheel of CB-03 In early May for the Daily Express International Trophyat Silverstone the Cooper Bristol was finally painted. Mike won the qualification race ahead of Jean Behra but had to retire during the final race on gearbox trouble. One week later at Boreham Mike had another victory. At Dundrod in the Ulster Trophy Mike was at the wheel of Archie Bryde's Cooper-Bristol. He finished second to Piero Taruffi and the faster Thin Wall Special entered by Tony Vandervell. Fangio and Moss had to retire with clutch trouble. Two weeks later Mike and his Cooper-Bristol crossed over to the Continent and finished fourth in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, a fantastic achievement for Mike and his small Cooper-Bristol showing that he was as efficient on a difficult circuit like Spa-Francor-champs and under the rain as on the shorter British tracks traced on ex-airfields. Mike loaned another Cooper-Bristol to race in the French GP at Rouen and in the Reims GP. The latter was won by Jean Behra with a Gordini. Mike finished seventh. His car had a 135 mph maximum speed against 165 for the Ferraris. After the Alpine Cup, Mike took over CB-03-52 for the Silverstone GP finishing third behind Ascari's and Taruffi's Ferraris. Two weeks later at Boreham Mike had a third place in a F500 racer too small for him, won the sports-car race with a C-type Jaguar and finished third again in the main race for F2 and F1 cars. On the wet Mike took the lead accumulating up to a 40-second advance but was overtaken by Villoresi during the closing stages of the race on a drying track and lost even the second place. Anyway he was first of the F2 cars and one had never heard such a clamour when he had outpassed Villoresi's Ferrari on the wet. At the Dutch GP at Zandvoort Mike started from the front row with Ascari and Farina, both on Ferraris against which Hawthorn could nothing. He was just as impressed by the Italian cars as Nello Ugolini, the Scuderia's team manager, and engineer Aurelio Lampredi were impressed by the young British driver. Enzo Ferrari should be told about him. See continuation next lot