On April 17, 2025, the Conservatoire National de Véhicules Historiques (CNVH) successfully completed a test run of its historic Cooper 500 Mk5 on the karting track in Mondercange – despite the rainy conditions. The test marks an important milestone with regard to the upcoming participation in the Silverstone Festival 2025, where the CNVH will officially start in August.

The Cooper 500 Mk5 is a vehicle of great historical significance: it won the Grand Prix de Luxembourg in 1951, while its sister car won the Silverstone Grand Prix in the same year – the second Grand Prix ever officially held there. The legendary race track celebrates its 75th Grand Prix anniversary in 2025 – a symbolic occasion at which we, as a museum, see it as our duty to present the winning vehicle from 1951 on British soil and thus make a significant chapter of Luxembourg motorsport history visible.

The board of the CNVH thanks everyone involved who has made a great contribution to the repair of the vehicle – especially our long-standing association and founding member Paul Galles, whose technical expertise is invaluable for the project.

Among other things, Paul checked the compression of the engine, checked and renewed important attachments and accompanied the re-use of the car with valuable technical information. The historical engine world of Luxembourg can consider itself fortunate to have such an engineer in its ranks.

At the Silverstone Festival, Dr. Stefan Jacobs, treasurer of the CNVH, will be behind the wheel of the Cooper 500 Mk5. He will be technically supported by Jean Hansen and Tom Sauber, who not only coordinated the test in Mondercange, but also significantly promotes the implementation of the new Mise en Scène for the Grand Prix de Luxembourg in the CNVH Museum.

Special thanks to the Automobile Club du Luxembourg (ACL) for the friendly provision of the karting track in Mondercange and to the team on site for the warm welcome and support.

Anyone who would like to support the CNVH on this special occasion is cordially invited to visit us as part of the Silverstone Festival 2025 on site.
👉 More information about the event: https://www.silverstone.co.uk/events/silverstone-festival

Note: For organizational reasons, the CNVH cannot offer a joint trip. However, we welcome every member and supporter whom we can welcome to Silverstone.

Finally, we would like to emphasize:
All the work around this project – as well as the ongoing museum operations – is carried out by the board of the CNVH with a lot of passion and completely voluntarily in their spare time. This makes us all the more pleased to be able to represent Luxembourg and our museum worthily at the Silverstone Festival.