Garrie Cooper

Who was Garrie Cooper?

Garrie Clifford Cooper was the founder of the highly successful Elfin Sports Cars and a competitive racing driver in his own right, winning the 1968 Singapore Grand Prix, the 1968 Australian 1½ Litre Championship, and the 1975 Australian Sports Car Championship - all in Elfin cars of his own design.

With the help of his father Cliff Cooper, Garrie established Elfin Sports Cars in 1957 at the age of 22, with his first car being the Elfin Streamliner, a front engined sports car which first appeared in 1959, and began racing under the Elfin banner in 1962.

During the 1978 Australian Grand Prix at the fast Sandown Raceway in Melbourne, he suffered a broken leg in a high-speed crash while driving his own Elfin MR8 Formula 5000. The car was destroyed after leaving the track and crashing into the horse track rails on the back straight at over 250 km/h. Cooper's explanation for the high speed crash was that something broke on the car which sent him spearing into the fence.

In 1980, Cooper designed and built the first open wheel car in Australia to use Ground effect aerodynamics, the Elfin MR9.