Hemmings Finds of the Day – Cooper-Monaco and Ginetta

At first, brief glance, the photos of these two cars currently for sale on Hemmings.com make you think you’ve seen double – both red cars with swoopy bodywork, pictured from about the same angle. But the 1959 Cooper-Monaco and the 1961 Ginetta G4 couldn’t be more different. Both do have documented race history, but as said about the $225,000 mid-engined Cooper-Monaco:

Chassis Number – CM-5-59 Engine Number – 430/270 #1249 This racer was originally a Serenissima owned car on behalf of Maserati with a 200 SI engine. Campaigned by Colin Davis, Carroll Smith and Gianni Balzarini; number 5 won 1st place Grand Prix of Messina and raced 1960 Targa Florio. There is documented history that Carroll Smith converted it to coil over suspension and current body format in period. Sold to Bob Akin, who converted the engine to Coventry Climax 2.5 litre FPF and Hewland FT 200.

Versus the $36,500 front-engine Ginetta G4:

An early round tube car with a well designed space frame chassis, later fitted with more attractive Series II rear bodywork, tallblock pre crossflow 1600 Cosworth modified Ford engine, steel crank, heavy duty main caps, twin cam rods, A6 camshaft, lightened flywheel, dry sump, steel rocker posts, twin 45 DCOE Webers, 2000E close ratio trans, scattershield, Salisbury LSD, hardened axle shafts with double bearing rear hubs, dual circuit brakes with balance bar, fuel cell, Minilite type alloy wheels, Avon race tires, adjustable ride height shocks/springs, racing radiator with twin thermostatically controlled fans, large racing thermostatically controlled oil cooler………..remarkably also fitted for road use as an incredible, fast, exotic road car. For road: twin seats with racing belts, removable forward roll bar strut, removable windshield, working wiper, lights, new alternator, air horns, handbrake, speedo, and even a beautiful stitched leather covered dashboard.

So which would you take?

By the way, not the same 1959 Cooper-Monaco that Legends Automotive had for sale back in September. This one’s missing that awesome mustache.