Mini Cooper/Mini Cooper S

Introduction & acknowledgements

In the 1960s, tens of thousands of enthusiasts began their motorsport careers inside the cabin of a Mini Cooper. Almost all of them fell in love with the car, either as drivers, or (in rallying) as co-driver/navigators, and never lost their affection for these amazing little machines.

Because the Mini Cooper was so outstanding in so many ways, and because BMC made sure that it became a very specialised competition car, it fell easily into the definition of a ‘Rally Giant’ – for without it, rallying – in particular European rallying – might have evolved in a different, more cumbersome, and altogether less exhilarating way. By comparison with any previous European rally car, the Mini Cooper was so much more effective than its specification promised it would be.

Now that the original generation of Mini has reached its fiftieth birthday, and any number of competitors were launched, grew up, and failed to match its qualities, millions of enthusiasts realise just what an important new car it actually was. Front-wheel-drive was one thing, small size was another, and superb handling was a different factor – but before Alec Issigonis’ engineering team evolved the original Mini, such a beguiling combination of virtues had never before been achieved.

When race car constructor John Cooper inspired the birth of the Mini Coopers – really he had circuit racing in mind, but it wasn’t long before the rallying fraternity realised just what potential he was unlocking for it too – he produced a car which had no all-round peers. Other cars handled well (but none ever handled better), others were certainly faster in a straight line, and others were perhaps more sturdy on loose-surface events, but none had the same combination of virtues.

By the time it matured, the Mini Cooper S had become one of the world’s greatest rally cars, and it was only the appearance of the even more outstanding Ford Escort which saw it eventually matched. Not that the development of this little car was easy, or predictable. In the early days (pre-Mini Cooper, that is) the package was definitely under-powered and fragile, while the original Mini Coopers were still demonstrably making much out of frighteningly little, in a rather fingers-crossed manner. It was only when the definitive engine – the now world-famous S-Type – came along in 1963, and Abingdon learned how to make the little car very strong for specific duties, that all was well.

The Mini Cooper’s career developed in several phases, each logically progressing from one to the next. Even so, it took several frustrating years – effectively from 1959 to 1964 – for the ‘good idea’ to become mature. The first Mini (the 848cc-engined variety, that is) was effectively forced upon Abingdon because BMC bosses wanted to see one of their smallest cars performing with honour, but it was always hopelessly under-powered, and was a real ‘bottom-dragger’ which often battered itself into retirement on loose-surface events.

The Mini Cooper which followed in 1962-1963 was an altogether better proposition. Not only did it have a much more powerful little engine, built close to the class capacity limit, but the disc brakes, though tiny, were a real improvement on the original drums. Furthermore, Abingdon was learning to add ‘beef’ to the chassis, and the ‘works’ cars soon proved their pace, especially on loose surfaces.

Complete with its much more specialised engine – a bigger bore/altogether more tuneable derivative of the original A-Series – the Mini Cooper S which followed also had bigger and better wheels and tyres, and was a much sturdier example than before. Once two different engine sizes – 970cc and 1275cc – became available, there seemed to be a Mini for almost all occasions.

For the next five years – 1964 to 1968 – the Mini Cooper S, particularly the ‘works’ variety, was formidable beyond all expectations – so much so that in many back-to-back conditions it could match the performance of its stable-mate, the Austin-Healey 3000. The only limits to its development were those of its front-wheel-drive traction and durability, and those of the engine itself. With the eight-port cylinder heads, and fuel-injection, more power, torque and straight line speed could still be achieved, but in the end the front tyres struggled for traction, and the chassis for balance.

If the new owner, British Leyland, had backed further work, instead of demanding victory from every outing (which was quite unreasonable), the Mini Cooper S might have gained even more honours, but by 1969 the glory days were really all over. It’s only now, forty years on, that some of us realize just what an outstanding job it had always done.

Acknowledgements

Amazingly, when I settled down to write this book, I was sure that I already had all the necessary facts and images to hand. I was wrong. Accordingly, I needed a lot of help from other Mini Cooper specialists to make this a complete package.

Over the years, many have helped, and many continue to do so. When I recall that I first rallied in a Mini in 1960, first visited Abingdon in 1962, and have met the most amazing personalities, managers, historians and enthusiasts during the life time of the Mini, the miracle is that I even have space to thank them all.

In particular, it was Stuart Turner, Peter Browning, Bill Price and Basil Wales who led me behind the scenes so often. Not forgetting, of course, John Cooper, Ginger Devlin, Daniel Richmond and Jack Daniels …

Top mechanics like Doug Watts, Robin Vokins and Bryan Moylan explained much of the engineering. Star ‘works’ competitors like the ‘Famous Five’ [Pat Moss, Rauno Aaltonen, Tony Fall, Paddy Hopkirk and Timo Makinen], along with Paul Easter, the late and much-missed Henry Liddon, and Mike Wood all provided much information about the way in which BMC went rallying.

When it came to gathering and choosing illustrations for this book, I not only drew on my own archive, but also gained permission to use some invaluable images from MINI, the BMW-owned subsidiary which appreciates the heritage that it inherited when it was developing the model range. Peter Browning and Bill Price dug deep into their precious stocks, while Basil Wales added to the them, and I should mention that it was also Basil who led me gently through the various homologation papers.

Other invaluable information came from the BP Archive (BP now owns Castrol, which supported the ‘works’ Minis in the 1960s), from Bryan Moylan, and from Robert and Lesley Young of the Mini Cooper Register.

In closing, I want to repeat, once again, that none of we so-called historians could possibly do a competent job connected with Mini Coopers if Peter Browning and Bill Price had not already laid the foundations. Without them, the depths of the complex subject of re-born rally cars, cloned identities and outright fakery might still be unclear.

They, and those already mentioned above, have made the compilation of this latest volume in the Rally Giants series even more enjoyable than expected.

Graham Robson

The car and the team

Inspiration

By 1960, the British Motor Corporation (BMC) had built up a formidable motorsport operation, based at the MG assembly plant at Abingdon, a few miles south of Oxford. Managed by Marcus Chambers, ‘Comps’ had developed from a very amateurish ‘good chaps’ team of 1955 into a very professional outfit. Having assessed every car in the sprawling BMC empire, the team had begun to concentrate on the Austin-Healey 3000 and MGA sports cars as front-line models, while starting development work on the new-fangled front-wheel-drive Minis which had been launched in 1959.

Although BMC would have loved to start winning races and rallies with the new Mini, which handled magnificently, here was a car which was let down by its lack of power (34bhp from 848cc was a derisory figure, after all …), limited performance and its initial lack of reliability. There was also the worrying fact that no-one in the team – management, technicians or rally drivers – seemed to like the car.

As ever, it was that wise owl, Marcus Chambers, who put his finger on the problem. As he later wrote in the book BMC Competitions Department Secrets:

A Mini 850 was delivered … It stayed in the car park for several days, nobody rushed to drive it. Indeed, Dougie Watts recalled that one lunchtime he needed to pop into town, and looked around for a car. Dougie walked over to the Mini … and then changed his mind. He took a Healey instead …

Nevertheless, with image-building in mind, top management insisted that the 850 Mini should be developed, and used in motorsport wherever possible. Yet with only 848cc, it was not remotely likely to be turned into a winner – especially as it found itself in the same class as the recently-launched Saab 96, whose lead driver, the amazingly talented Erik Carlsson added to the problem.

Alec Issigonis conceived the original Mini in 1957, and wouldn’t have known what a great little competition car he was about to unleash.

Because FIA homologation rules meant that the single-SU carburettor and cast manifolds had to be retained, even though Weslake (and later Don Moore) modified heads could be employed, it was difficult to extract much more than 50bhp from the engine, but this was often enough to chew up oil seals and clutches. With tiny Dunlop racing tyres fitted to standard wheels on race circuits, it was soon obvious that the front wheels were not strong enough, and could crack up around the studs, and this duly happened in full view of the public in the 750 Motor Club’s Six-Hour Relay race of 1960!

The first ‘works’ rally entry was by Marcus Chambers (a large man in a small car!) in the Norwegian Viking Rally of 1959, where it finished 51st, the first home win was by Pat Moss/Stuart Turner in the Knowldale CC Mini Miglia Rally (an event where pinpoint navigation was more important than car performance), and it took time even to gain class wins at international level.

The real inspiration, though, came from racing car constructor John Cooper, who not only got hold of an early Mini 850 – and found that several of his contemporaries, and the race drivers he hired, were impressed – but also that larger versions of the engine (948cc power units were used in the Austin-Healey/Sprite of the period) could be super-tuned.

It wasn’t long before Cooper’s first BMC-powered single-seater Formula Junior car was put on sale, after which he began developing a special version of the Mini: initially he proposed to sell conversions, as a private venture, but as everyone now knows, a lot of lobbying with Alec Issigonis and BMC managing director Sir George Harriman led to the launch of the Mini Cooper road car. Part of the deal which encompassed Cooper’s name being used was that his company should be paid £2 per car – which must have been the biggest royalty bargain that BMC ever had.

Every picture tells the story. In 1961 when the Mini Cooper was announced, BMC posed this car alongside the Cooper-BMC Formula Junior car, which used the same type of A-Series engine.

John Cooper started by building rear-engined race cars, but inspired the birth of the very first Mini Cooper of 1961.

The Mini Cooper’s importance in rallying – and its home ground

When the Mini Cooper was launched in 1961, almost all British rallies were still of the overnight/navigational/twisty roads type, where nimble fast cars, preferably of small dimensions, were much more suitable than other types, and where the navigator (not, in those days, merely a co-driver) was a very important part of the team.

Until 1961, sports cars like the Austin-Healey Sprite and the Triumph TR3A were very popular and very successful in British rallying, and, if specific event regulations allowed, modified cars like big-engined Ford Anglias and 850 Minis were also making their mark. The 850 Mini, however, was not always fast enough to be competitive.

The original 997cc Mini Cooper changed all that. It was significantly faster ‘in the lanes’ than its rivals, though bitter (and expensive) experience soon showed that it needed to be made much stronger to be competitive in the new breed of loose-surface/special-stage rallies which were springing up all around the country. Even so, on events like the Circuit of Ireland, where tests were usually located on tarmac