Michael Devlin

Michael "Ginger" Devlin was born in 1930 and joined Coopers Garage in 1945 after being laid off by the aircraft contractor he'd worked for during the war. His aviation standard training was useful to Coopers and he became Eric Brandon's mechanic, although Charlie Cooper would fire him on a weekly basis! After two years national service, he re-joined Eric at the Ecurie Richmond team. As the team was wound down, Ginger helped build a modified Mk VII to Eric's specification. Michael did much of the construction work on Eric's Halseylec sports car during 1955 which, unsurprisingly, featured a number of Cooper ideas. He later retuned to Cooper and played an important part in the development of the Mini Cooper.

This interview was published in Iota in February 1953

Ginger tests one of the Cooper Driving School cars. Photo courtesy Lisa Devlin