Swift Cooper

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Swift was formed in 1983 in the USA, and within a year had won the Formula Ford SCCA National Championship with its first racing car.

In 1986, Frank Bradley bought the British rights to the name, and set up the company at Snetterton race course in Norfolk. From there, the classic Swift racing car design began to emerge.

The nineties were a period of great success, with cars being built each year from 1992 to 1999. Wins in the British Championship from 1993 to 1995 were matched with equal reward on the continent, where Swift teamed up with champion team Geva Racing, to provide wins at the Benelux Championship from 1996 to 1998. The company was purchased from Brian Holmes (formerly the founder of Auto Windscreens in the UK) in late 1995 by Ex Formula 3 racer Gavin Wills and ex-Reynard Racing Cars Sales manager, James Linton, who had originally met 14 years earlier when kart racing. The two moved the manufacturing operation and the race team from its Chesterfield, Yorkshire base to Plymouth, UK and employed a team of 21 people to design, manufacture and service the Formula Ford single seater race cars. Over a period of three years (1996, 1997 & 1998) the company manufactured 75 cars for race teams and won 27 championships worldwide. A great decade was capped with another win, at the Finnish Championship in 1999.

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Change was in the air however, and in 1998, the company moved to its new and present home at the Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire and was sold to Alan Cooper to become Swift Cooper. The first car under the new banner was soon taking shape, and a striking new direction was revealed with the launch of the SC2000Z, eventually driven by Ollie Kaurala in the 2000 Championship.

Using cutting-edge CAD and CAM techniques, Swift Cooper continued the refinement of the new design with another car produced for the British Formula Ford Championship in 2004, and again in 2006, in preparation for the 2007 season.

• Swift Engineering

• Swift Cooper
• British Formula Ford Series