Epstein's epics

Sir,

Paul Watson’s photo of my friend Jackie Epstein’s Cooper Monaco T61 was indeed at the 1963 Targa Florio. I seem to remember it ran short of fuel at some stage, though had suffered electrical problems during much of the race. I think the Monaco had a Buick V8 fitted when Jackie bought it, but he swapped this with the Climax out of his friend Mike Eyre’s single-seater Cooper, which received a new lease of life with V8 power!

Encouraged by the Monaco’s performance, Jackie returned to Sicily the next year with a Brabham BT8 and it was in this that he hit the scenery, suffering quite severe burns. This put a stop to his plans for racing it at Le Mans fitted with a hard-top. I mention all this in my recently published book [to be reviewed soon — ed].

Tony Goodwin, Warlingham, Surrey