Ian Nicholls charts the origins and production history of the legendary Mini Cooper.
In doing so, Ian explains: "This article is not meant to be a rehash of the Mini Cooper story, but an attempt to show how the car fitted in with the BMC>Rover story."
The giant-killer
s is well known, when the 34bhp Mini 850 was launched in August 1959 BMC's publicity department lent a car registered YOK 250 to racing car constructor John Cooper of the Cooper Car Company Ltd, which operated out of premises in Surbiton in Surrey. At the time the Cooper team was on the verge of winning the Formula 1 world championship with its revoloutionary mid-engined cars, seeing off the challenge of Stirling Moss in the Rob Walker-entered Cooper, and Tony Brooks in the powerful front-engined Ferrari. Jack Brabham became world champion in 1959 and retained the title in 1960 when he and team mate Bruce McLaren were omnipotent. Cooper were at the cutting edge of development and very soon rival teams moved the engine behind the driver to compete.
Cooper also competed in other formulae, one of them being Formula Junior or FJ. This formula was an Italian idea for a low cost starter series in racing using mass-produced 1-litre engines. Italian FJ cars used Fiat engines but Cooper opted for the BMC 948cc A-series. Cooper was also working on producing a performance version of the rear-engined Renault Dauphine using a Coventry Climax engine. The French tuner Amedee Gordini had already tuned the standard engined version and a Renault Dauphine Gordini won the 1958 Monte Carlo rally. However Cooper aborted this project once he'd driven the Mini. He was so enthralled by the handling of the Mini that he took it to the 1959 Italian Grand Prix held at Monza that September.
Cooper was fond of telling the story of how during the race meeting the Mini was spotted by one Aurelio Lampredi. Lampredi had formerly been the chief designer of Ferrari, and had been responsible for the cars that Alberto Ascari had driven to the F1 world championship in 1952 and 1953. Lampredi was now working for Fiat and asked John Cooper if he could try BMC's new baby. According to Cooper, Lampredi was away for hours and when he came back he announced that the Mini was the car of the future, adding: "If it weren't so ugly I'd shoot myself"!
Although this has become a well known Mini chestnut, what is not generally appreciated is that Aurelio Lampredi improved on the Mini formula. The 1965 Autobianchi Primula and then the 1969 Fiat 128 used a transverse engine driving the front wheels, but instead of the engine being positioned on top of the gearbox using the same oil, the Fiat 128 employed an end-on transmission using a seperate oil reservoir. This has become the universally adopted system for front wheel drive cars. Two years later Fiat introduced the Fiat 127 – the first true supermini – and Lampredi even appeared in a press advert for the car, along with an F1 car he had designed. BMC may have got there first, but it was Fiat who made it reliable and a commercial proposition.
Cooper builds his prototype
The original Mini-Cooper prototype. (Picture: Ian Nicholls)
John Cooper then set about building a fast Mini, probably YOK 250. The work was overseen by long-time Cooper employee Ginger Devlin and featured many components from the FJ engine and allegedly had three times the power of the standard Mini 850 engine, which would be around 100bhp. By 1961 the FJ engine was a 994cc unit developed by Eddie Maher of Morris engines in Coventry.
John Cooper approached his friend and Mini designer Alec Issigonis with his idea for a hot Mini. Issigonis intially rejected the idea, seeing his baby as a people's car. Undeterred, Cooper took his idea to BMC's managing director George Harriman, who drove Cooper's prototype and then gave the go ahead for production of 1000 cars for homologation purposes. Homologation is the key word. Right from its introduction the Mini 850 had been used in competition, and a Cooper Car Co-entered Mini 850 won the 1960 British saloon car championship. George Harriman offered John Cooper a £2 royalty on each car, to be sold as an Austin or Morris Mini Cooper, and BMC took on the development of the production car under the codename ADO50.
The 1961 Formula Junior MK2 protototype pictured alongside YOK 250. Presumably
YOK 250 is also the car Aurelio Lampredi took for his long excursion at Monza
in 1959? (Picture: Ian Nicholls)
Former BMC and Ford competition manager Stuart Turner has since commented that if John Cooper had not come up with the idea of a hot Mini, then someone else would have. The Mini was already a successful competition car in the sub-1-litre category and an MG-badged variant would have been on the cards. As it was, the ADO50 was badged Mini Cooper after the reigning Formula 1 world champions. In 1960 the Cooper Car Co dominated Grand Prix racing leaving the likes of Ferrari and BRM trailing in their wake, so the decision was entirely logical.
And so BMC set about developing the production Mini Cooper, using a Mini registered as KEL 236 as development car.The standard 850's 34bhp gave it a top speed of 73mph using a final drive of 3.765 to 1. Morris Engines calculated that to propel a Mini to 85mph would need 55bhp, so company head Eddie Maher developed a 997cc engine with a longer stroke than the existing 848cc unit, yet bizarrely a smaller bore. Quite why BMC didn't use the existing 948cc block as found in other BMC small cars is unknown, but over the next five years BMC were to develop a bewildering range of different capacity A-series engines. To stop the car Lockheed provided 7-inch disc brakes, which as it turned out were not that good!
Since this article was originally written, Simon Wheatcroft of
the Mini Cooper Register has provided an alternative view as to the identity
of the prototype Mini Cooper. According to Simon, "The development car
was not registered as and only bore the registration KEL 236 in the photographic
sequence at Goodwood and was actually 126 LWL. 126 LWL was registered on 20th
April 1961 as a Morris despite never being seen with a Morris badge, the car
was Farina Grey with a Black roof.
"126 LWL was present at the Mini Cooper launch (badged as an Austin) and
was subsequently tested by Sports Car Graphic magazine complete with all its
non standard parts such as Morris Minor style 100 mph speedometer and unique
interior trim."
The Mini Cooper was launched in September 1961 and was acclaimed by the motoring press. The car had a maximum speed of around 85mph and a 0-60mph time of 17 to 18 seconds, not fast today but impressive back in 1961. Most of the hike in engine power came from the camshaft, part number C-AEG567, which was the hottest cam fitted to a production A-series until the arrival of the MG Metro in 1982. Other gains in power were realised with a cylinder head with larger inlet valves and twin 1¼ SU carburettors. Tuning guru David Vizard later tested the BMC twin-carburettor inlet manifold on a flowbench and found it to be an appallingly inefficient design...
What this writer finds interesting about the 997cc Mini Cooper is that it previewed two components that were to be found on the ADO16 Morris 1100 launched eleven months later: the remote gearchange which replaced the 850's magic wand and the 12G202 cylinder head which was standard equipment on the 1098cc engine found in Austin/Morris 1100s. John Cooper's desire for a hot Mini was somewhat compromised by the need to productionise the concept and use standard BMC components. However help was soon at hand in deepest Wiltshire.
Downton's magic
Daniel Richmond ran a tuning business called Downton Engineering in the village from which it took its name. He specialised in conversions that provided smooth running at low revs and yet impressive top-end gains. Word got around that he had created a 100mph Mini Cooper and several magazines tested the car. The Downton Mini Cooper featured all the usual tuning modifications and had its capacity increased to 1088cc. With this extra power it could do 0-60mph in 8 seconds and speed on to 108mph, a fantastic performance even today. AUTOCAR magazine journalist Ronald "Steady" Barker rang up Alec Issigonis and told him about the car. Issigonis asked to see the Downton Mini Cooper and Barker drove it up to Longbridge where its creator tested it. Issigonis was impressed and sent for Daniel Richmond who was then made a consultant to BMC.
The first fruits of Daniel Richmond's relationship with BMC was the performance version of the ADO16 saloon, the MG 1100. Like the 997cc Mini Cooper, the MG 1100 had a 55 bhp engine, the difference being how this was achieved. The MG 1100 retained the standard mild camshaft (12G726) that was fitted to its Austin and Morris cousins. The extra power was achieved by a new design of cylinder head, the 12G206 and later 12G295, which featured larger valves, more open combustion chambers and better flowing ports.
The original Mini Cooper had sold well and was again a successful competition car in the 1-litre category. John Cooper again pestered BMC for a more potent version. For the 1962 FJ season the Cooper Car Co had used a 98bhp 1100cc version of the A-series engine and it was suggested that a road version be developed for the Mini Cooper. BMC boss George Harriman was very reluctant to give the go-ahead, citing the extra investment in the required block boring machines as prohibitive. But in the end Harriman relented, giving in to the pressure from John Cooper and BMC's brilliant competitions manager Stuart Turner. Between them the new engine was developed by Downton Engineering and Morris Engines. The engine capacity was 1071cc and the Downton developed cylinder head (12A185, and later AFG163) featured nimonic valves. The engine also featured a nitrided crankshaft, and all these performance goodies resulted in peak power of 70bhp.
The car was stopped with 7.5-inch disc brakes, which were far superior than the 7-inch discs fitted to the standard Mini Cooper. In typical BMC fashion the new brakes were not fitted to the ordinairy Mini Cooper, even though it would have been a logical step. The new ADO50 variant known as the Mini Cooper S was unveiled in April 1963 and was discontinued in August 1964. The 95mph 1071S was an immediate hit and as every Mini fan knows was driven to victory in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon. The returning car and crew were hailed as conquering heroes, and BMC's publicity machine made the most of it, the winning combination even appearing on ITV's top-rated show "Sunday Night At The London Palladium". This is where the Mini's reputation as a giant killer began.
The giant-killing begins
33 EJB, the car that won the 1964 Monte Carlo rally, pictured with (left to right) its crew of Henry Liddon and Paddy Hopkirk, BMC chairman George Harriman and Alec Issigonis.
Whilst this was happening the 997cc Mini Cooper was discontinued. Since 1962 the "posh" Minis, the Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet had used a new A-series engine, the 998cc, which was a short-stroke version of the 1098cc unit used in the ADO16 1100 saloon. In early 1964 the Mini Cooper received a 998cc version of the MG 1100's engine, also rated at 55bhp, which it retained until the cars demise in 1969.
In March 1964 two more Cooper S variants appeared. The 970S was a homologation special, using a shorter block than the 1071S. It was designed to compete in the 1-litre category and used a shorter stroke than the 1071S to attain 65bhp. Just under 1000 were made in a year. Because it had a larger bore than the 997 and 998cc Mini Coopers the 970S could use larger valves.
The other variant was the Mini Cooper 1275S. The legendary Mini Cooper 1275S. The 1275S used a longer stroke than the 1071S. Peak power was 76bhp. Stuart Turner had pushed for a wilder camshaft but was told that the 1275S had to be a car that was capable of being driven by the district nurse! With this potent engine the 1275S could attain 97mph and 0-60mph in 11 seconds. Whole books have been written on this car, and this writer is not going indulge in a detailed disection of this car's development or competition success.
1965 was a BIG year for BMC. It started with the Mini's second Monte Carlo rally win. The brilliant driving of Timo Mäkinen and Paul Easter in a 1275S, combined with Stuart Turner's astute tyre choices, thrashed the opposition with a victory margin measured in minutes. Rally win after rally win came the Mini Cooper 1275S's way, culminating in Rauno Altonen being crowned European Champion. The halo effect of the Mini Cooper 1275S seemed to bless the rest of the BMC range as the company carved out a 35 per cent share of the UK car market, with the ADO16 firmly ensconced as Britain's best selling car. If the Mini was too small for a family, why not buy a bigger version? However, despite its huge sales, BMC's profits were disappointing.
1966 began with controversy. Despite finishing first on the road again, the Mäkinen/Easter 1275S was among several other BMC entries disqualified from the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally for alleged headlight infringements. Many people believe this was because the organisers couldn't accept than a 10-foot long car could defeat more potent opposition. BMC made the most of the furore it caused, and another appearance on "Sunday Night At The London Palladium" followed. 1966 also saw the introduction of the 1275cc A-series engine into the MG Midget, and then the ADO16 in 1967. Although the bore and stroke were the same as in the 1275S, this variant used a different block and cheaper materials. Both blocks must have used the same boring machines and it was the 1275cc engine that was perhaps Sir George Harriman's most enduring legacy, powering cars ranging from the 1966 MG Midget to the 1984 Austin Montego.
1967 arrived and BMC took its revenge in the Monte Carlo Rally. Rauno Altonen and Henry Liddon drove to triumph in the rally of their lives and the mighty Mini again received a hero's welcome on its return to the UK. Meanwhile, John Cooper was recovering from a serious crash on the Kingston bypass when driving his twin-engined, 4X4 "twini-Mini" Cooper. During his convalescence he recieved an offer from Jonathan Sieff, head of the Chipstead Group of car dealers, to buy the Cooper Car Co. John Cooper decided to sell, although he remained in day-to-day charge of things. Cooper were by now a fading force in Grand Prix racing, using a Maserati engine. At the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort the Lotus 49 powered by the Ford-Cosworth DFV dominated and won on its debut.
This engine was the future of Formula 1, and although Lotus had exclusive use of the engine for 1967, it would be available to all-comers the following year. The problem for Cooper was that the Cosworth DFV was Ford-financed, so because of their link with BMC, Cooper could not use it. Some within Cooper argued for terminating the BMC royalty agreement but to no avail. 1968 saw the last works Cooper Grand Prix season on a stage they had once been able to call their own. It could be said that Cooper created the hot Mini, but the Mini Cooper ultimately killed the Cooper Car Co.
Around 1967/1968 BMC Introduced a new cylinder head, the 12G940, designed by Daniel Richmond. This new casting was fitted to all 1275cc engines, only differing in inlet valve sizes. The version fitted to the 1275S was similar to that fitted to the ADO16 MG 1300 and 1300GT, and the later MG Metro. The original 1275S cylinder head (the AFG163) was prone to cracking between the valves, so the 12G940 employed smaller exhaust valves which cost around 2-3 bhp, although BMC continued to claim 76bhp in their publicity brochures. The 12G940 was an open chamber design like the 12G295 fitted to the 998cc Cooper/MG1100.
Daniel Richmond was an enthusiastic fisherman and bought a stretch of riverbank with the fee he earned from developing the 12G940. Downton Engineering was the BMC-approved tuner, and cars came straight from the factory to be modified. Peter Sellers and The Beatles all had Downton-tuned Minis, and the firm also built the engines that Cooper used in saloon car races and modified the cylinder heads for the works rally cars. At the end of 1967 the MK2 Mini was introduced with a larger rear window. BMC were starting to rationalise the car and many external trim parts were now common to both Austin and Morris versions. However the good times were about to come to an end.
1968 came and the Mini Cooper's winning streak ended as more sporting cars gained the ascendancy. No more Monte Carlo wins. Also the British Leyland merger brought with it new management determined to cut costs: BLMC had no need for consultants. John Cooper later recalled Sir Donald Stokes saying: "We employ 150,000 people here, what do we want consultants for?"
The end of an era
On another occasion, Stokes asked Cooper: "What do you do"? Cooper replied: "I come here once a fortnight and wind Issigonis up..."! According to Cooper, "I don't think he liked that very much."
New chief engineer Harry Webster (who had replaced Alec Issigonis in this post following the formation of BLMC) is reputed to have told Daniel Richmond that he believed him (Richmond) to be the person responsible for all the Cooper S warranty claims and that his services were no longer required. Before Richmond departed the scene he developed the 1800S engine, and worked on the stillborn 9X project and the E-series engine for the forthcoming Austin Maxi. BLMC's dismissal of Daniel Richmond was a shoddy reward for someone who had increased the efficiency of the company's engines and whose legacy to the organisation would still be considered competitive in the early 1980s when the 1.3-litre A-series was fitted to the Metro, Maestro and Montego. Richmond died in 1974 aged only 50, and Downton Engineering closed down soon afterwords. The first engine British Leyland developed without Daniel Richmond's input was the 1978 O-series and that was considered disappointing...
Also in the summer of 1968 filming began of a motion picture that would cement the Mini Cooper's iconic status: Paramount's 1969 release "The Italian Job".
By the time filming began, the merger that formed BLMC had already taken place and Longbridge was full of ex-Triumph men, including the aforementioned Harry Webster. Webster later commented that those first few months were spent "rushing round, turning off all the expenditure taps. Money was rushing out of Longbridge, and we had nothing to show for it – it was quite terrifying". This might explain what happened when producer Michael Deeley approached BLMC for help in what was to prove the Mini's best ever advert. In Mathew Field's book "The Making Of The Italian Job", Michael Deeley commented: "They [BLMC] were completely uninterested".
Eventually BLMC sold the production company six Minis at trade price, and another thirty cars at retail price. Michael Deeley also remembers: "My association with BMC was sadly very limited. There was a very nice man who was head of PR who was blind. He had been blinded dismantling a bomb on Brighton pier at the end of the war. Very sweet and nice but he didn't seem to have much clout". Star Michael Caine (who didn't actually hold a driving licence at the time of filming) was more caustic: "That's why the company no longer exists and thats the problem with British industry: no foresight, you know? We hated British Leyland." This contrasts with Ford, who bent over backwards to lend the producers of the low budget and mediocre "Carry On Cabby" a fleet of Cortina Mk1s.
The stunts in "The Italian Job" were performed by the Frenchman Rémy Julienne's (pictured, right) team, and involved the famous car chase through the subways, shopping arcades and sewers of Turin. Some sources claim BLMC did help to a certain degree. It has been claimed that BLMC built a Mini fitted with an ADO17 Landcrab 1798cc engine and gearbox. This was to enable the car to have enough torque to climb steps. Also the Mini Cooper 1275S engines were prepared by Broadspeed in Birmingham by a former Downton Engineering employee known to this writer. Has anyone any more information about this?
1969 also brought big changes for the entire Mini range, with the announcement of the ADO20 Mini in October that year. This redesign encompassed the introduction of wind-up windows and concealed door-hinges, along with a new variant: the Mini Clubman. The Clubman-based 1275GT replaced the 998cc Mini Cooper, which was the first victim of BLMC's cull of cars linked with out-of-favour BMC consultants. Austin-Healey would be next. Quite frankly the 1275GT was a better car: it was better equipped, had the superior 7.5-inch disc brakes from the 1275S and the single-carburettor, 59bhp 1275cc engine from the ADO16 1300 saloon which gave more torque and improved acceleration. The only surprise was why BMC had not fitted this power unit to the Mini Cooper earlier in the interests of rationalisation.
Re-birth?
The Cooper 1275S continued in production, and from March 1970 it made the transition to Mk3 ADO20 form, although sales of this variant were down on the car's 1960s heyday. It's difficult to ascertain whether this was due to lack of promotion on BLMC's part or the fact that the Cooper 1275S had simply gone out of fashion. The car was no longer competitive in motorsport, an arena that was to be dominated by the Ford Escort with Escorts winning the RAC Rally every year from 1972 to 1979! BLMC had closed down their competition department in 1970, and Stuart Turner was now plying his trade as competitions manager with Ford. Lord Stokes may not have believed that competition sold cars, but Ford most certainly did. The last Mini Cooper 1275S came off the Longbridge production line in June 1971.
| UK Production | |
|---|---|
| 997/998cc Cooper | 80,920 |
| Cooper S | 27,206 |
| Total | 108,126 |
But that was not the end of the Mini Cooper story because production continued in BLMC's European factories at Seneffe in Belgium and Pamplona in Spain (Authi), and also at the Innocenti factory at Milan in Italy. As is documented in the Innocenti section of this site, the company entered a period of decline following the death in 1966 of founder Ferdinando Innocenti, and in 1972 and his family decided to sell the business to British Leyland. BLMC sent out future politician and millionaire Geoffrey Robinson to run their new aquisition. Robinson decided to expand Innocenti's sales throughout continental Europe and one of the cars he sold was the Mini Cooper 1300 Export. This was basically a disc-braked Mini fitted with a UK-built engine from the ADO16 1300GT saloon, developing some 71bhp. It was also the best equipped and best built Mini Cooper. The reputation of Italians as great car stylists was well justified with this car, particuarly in terms of the interior. However BLMC's financial collapse at the end of 1974 resulted in the termination of car production in both Spain and Italy. Innocenti was sold to Alejandro de Tomaso, and while production of the Bertone-styled Mini 90 and 120 hatchback continued for many years, the last Mini Cooper rolled off the Innocenti production line in 1976. The Mini Cooper was dead. For now...
In 1980 the Metro was launched with great fanfare and it wasted little time in usurping the Mini as Britain's favourite small car. Many specialists jumped on the bandwagon, applying knowledge gained from tuning Minis to the new car. One of them was John Cooper Garages of Ferring in Sussex. Following the Chipstead Group's decision to close the Cooper Car Company in 1969, John Cooper had opened a British Leyland dealership in Ferring in 1970. The Chipstead Group retained the rights to the Cooper name and for many years it adorned their chain of BMW dealerships. How ironic! When announced, John Cooper Garages' hot version of BL's new supermini was called the Metro Cooper and featured a Janspeed-modified 80bhp twin-carburettor engine. Autocar magazine tested the car and acheived a top speed of 101mph and a 0 to 60mph time of 11.6 seconds. However BL declined to honour the warranty on this modified car, while legal wranglings over the use of the Cooper name resulted in the car being marketed as the Metro Monaco.
Meanwhile BL – or the Austin Rover Group, as the car division was known – pressed ahead with their own plans for a fast Metro. In the spring of 1982 ARG unveiled the 100mph MG Metro. ARG's engineers wanted to find the power to propel a Metro to 100mph without having to resort to the extra expense of twin carburettors, which were more likely to go out of tune and cause warranty problems. This was achieved by using the big-valve version of the 12G940 cylinder head as used on the last Cooper 1275S cars and the ADO16 1300GT. In addition to this the MG Metro employed seperate inlet and exhaust manifolds and the wildest camshaft ever seen in an A-series engine, part number CAM6648. Some sources have suggested this was originally a Downton Engineering-developed camshaft profile. The clever part about the MG Metro engine was the carburation. As related earlier, the BMC twin-carburettor manifold was woefully inefficient. By 1982 the latest version of the SU 1¾-inch carburettor was the HIF44 which actually flowed better than the two 1=¼ SU carbs fitted to the 1960s Mini Coopers. By using an SU HIF44 mated to an alloy inlet manifold ARG were able to get the required performance on a budget. When all added up the MG Metro engine pushed out an impressive 72bhp. Many a decrepit MG Metro has since donated its engine to an underpowered Mini! Although the MG Metro Turbo came later, concerns about how much power the basically 1959-designed transmission could take resulted in the blown Metro having the standard car's camshaft and valve sizes.
This writer's first car was a Mini and I remember asking a salesman on the ARG stand at the 1983 Motorfair if it would be a good idea to re-introduce the Mini Cooper. I was told that the Mini Cooper belonged to yesteryear. One person who disagreed was John Cooper himself, who never gave up on the idea of resurrecting the Mini Cooper. In Japan in the 1980s the Mini became a cult car, particuarly the Cooper version and many 1960s examples were imported into the country. Austin Rover Japan were selling around 3000 Minis a year and its head Cedric Talbot approached John Cooper to ask whether it was possible to put an MG Metro engine into a Mini. Technically this was no problem but the men at Austin Rover were not interested, citing problems with getting type approval in the UK and Japan. Type approval for a 1275cc Mini, a combination that won the 1965 European Rally championship? Undaunted John Cooper fitted a Mini Mayfair with an MG Metro engine and sent it to the Land of the Rising Sun, where according to Cooper, "they loved it". Austin Rover Japan asked ARG to make 1000 new-generation Mini Coopers, but chairman Harold Musgrove refused. To be fair, Musgrove had a point. The Mini was a product of a bygone era and there had been a strong commercial case for killing the car on the Metro's launch in 1980. For the time being the Mini had been kept in production as a budget economy car to compete with cars as the Citroën 2CV, Fiat 126 and Renault 4. The Metro was the small car of the moment and a new generation Mini Cooper may well have detracted from the MG Metro's sales.
Japanese renaissance
The Japanese were not to be defeated and the editor of a major Japanese car magazine suggested to John Cooper that if they couldn't get the car, they could at least have a tuning kit. John Cooper obliged and was soon exporting a Janspeed-designed kit comprising a modified cylinder head, twin carburettors, performance air filters and exhaust system.This boosted the 998cc Mini from 40bhp to a more impressive 64bhp. Incidentally, Janspeed was founded by Hungarian refugee Jan Odor after he left Downton Engineering in 1962.
In 1986 John Cooper Garages (JCG) switched from being an Austin Rover dealership to a Honda one. Officially it was because of ARG dealer rationalisation, but its also possible that ARG thought they were ridding themselves of a troublesome pest...
Also in 1986 Harold Musgrove was ousted, to be replaced by Graham Day who was out to sell all the cars he could. If people wanted to pay good money to drive around in a 1959 design then he would satisfy the demand. In 1989 the newly renamed Rover Group and John Cooper Garages began talking to each other and soon the JCG conversion kits were available for fitment to 998cc Minis from Rover dealers with full factory warranty. While this was happening Rover gave semi-approval to the ERA Mini, a conversion using the 93bhp MG Metro turbo engine. John Cooper and his son Michael met with Rover management to discuss the next step. John Cooper suggested putting the 1275cc engine in the Mini. There were again mutterings about type approval, but these problems were soon resolved.Rover Special Projects (RSP) handled the development of the new car with input from the Coopers. The new-generation Mini Cooper RSP was launched in July 1990 to mixed reviews. One staunch defender of the car was veteran scribe LJK Setright who praised "the staunch independence that makes the Mini as refreshing as it always was,and makes it impossible for the others to bear comparison with it".
The engine of the RSP Mini Cooper was a detuned MG Metro engine. In 1989 the A-series engine had been converted to run on unleaded petrol, and all the 1275cc engines now used the same sized inlet valves, which in the MG Metro probably cost around 4-5 bhp. When this engine was fitted to the Mini it used a catalytic converter. Whereas the factory quoted the 1982 MG Metro as having 72bhp, the Mini Cooper RSP now only had 61bhp, but it was still good for 90mph. The RSP Cooper was a limited edition and soon sold out. Of course one could be cynical and suggest that perhaps it started as a marketing exercise to offload 1650 surplus MG Metro engines now that the Metro was powered by the K-series engine. But from September 1990 the Mini Cooper became a mainstream production car and soon around a third of all Minis were Coopers. Who was buying them? The standard Mini had been aimed at female drivers; perhaps the Cooper was bought by men who would otherwise have bought motorcycles to relive their youth?
For those who thought the standard Rover Mini Cooper with its 61bhp a little gutless, help was at hand. In March 1991, with Rover's approval, John Cooper Garages began selling the first of several Janspeed "S" packs: tuning kits to turn one's Mini into something more potent. At first any Rover dealership could fit the kits, but later this task would be entrusted solely to JCG in Ferring (and later at their new Mini-only facility at East Preston). The first JCG "S" pack boosted power to 78bhp and when tested by AUTOCAR AND MOTOR magazine in May 1991 it acheived uncannily similar results to the 1275S AUTOCAR had tested back in 1964. The magazine pasted the car for all its usual faults: noise, lack of refinement, etc, and then added:
"But in one respect at least the Mini succeeds brilliantly. It's a magnificent car to drive, responsive in a way that nothing for a comparable price can equal, never mind surpass. You don't take the Cooper S to work, you drive it, and if you've forgotten the fun that can be had from driving then you need a car like this to remind you."
As the 1990s progressed, the JCG packs would eventually offer 90bhp. In late 1991 the Mini Cooper said goodbye to the SU carburettor as it adopted single-point fuel injection and then in 1997 it went over to twin-point fuel injection to meet ever-tightening EU emission regulations. In 1994 BMW took over the Rover group and soon made it clear that they wanted a new-generation Mini, and that the Cooper name would be an integral part of the new project, with John and Michael Cooper acting as consultants to the new project. BMW invested heavily to keep the old Mini in production to tide it over until the new project came on stream. Also in 1994 the Mini Cooper returned to the Monte Carlo Rally with the 1960s pairing of Paddy Hopkirk and Ron Crellin, who performed valiantly, cheered on by the crowds, until a broken fanbelt forced their retirement. It was a brilliant PR exercise. In May 2000 BMW sold off Rover at Longbridge and took the new MINI to Cowley. MG Rover were allowed to continue building the old Mini until 4 October 2000. On that day an era ended as production line supervisor Geoff Powell drove the last of 5,378,776 Minis, a Cooper Sport 500, off the production line with singer Lulu in the passenger seat. Many Mini personalities were there that day, but John Cooper was too ill to attend, he died not long after, in December 2000.
Although the Mini Cooper was just one of many cars BMC>Rover built, I argue that its impact was greater than the sum total of its production. The desire for a faster Mini galvanised BMC into developing components that were later used on more mundane cars. It had such a halo effect on the rest of the Mini range that BMW viewed it as a desirable brand that contributed significantly to the Bavarian firm's decision to buy Rover in 1994. The Cooper name is now an important part of the new MINI, with the well-respected 115bhp Cooper and 163bhp Cooper S models, and JCG are the only official BMW-approved tuners for the new Mini. Lord Stokes and Harold Musgrove may not have had much time for the Mini Cooper, but I am sure MG Rover would love to sell a car as popular as the new MINI Cooper.
Thanks to Ian Nicholls for contributiing this story.
Proofed by Declan Berridge