Regular readers of this column will know that I delight in the obscure, so imagine my joy when at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, I finally came face to face with a 1955 Abarth 207. This was an achingly pretty Fiat-engined 1100 cc sports racer built with SCCA racing in mind. It seemed to have all the right ingredients but, even as the first one was made, so Lotus was making the Mk XI and Cooper was putting the finishing touches to the T39 ‘Manx Tail’.
It has become fashionable to call the Cooper T39 the ‘Bob Tail’, but in period it was always the Manx Tail, after the Manx cat, indigenous to the Isle of Man, which has no tail. The Lone Pedant Rides Again, but there is more to come on the tail.
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