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Though envisioned strictly as a people’s car, the original Mini morphed into one of the most popular performance machines on the planet during the 1960s.
Its victories extended far beyond its home country of England and they helped define the modern, BMW-designed models sold today. Alec Issigonis earned a knighthood for designing the Mini but names like Cooper, Richmond and Whitmore deserve credit for uncovering its hidden performance genes. Join us as we explore the heyday of the high-performance Mini.
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The Mini’s humble beginnings (1959)
The Mini traces its roots to a major geopolitical incident. In 1956, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. This spawned a chain reaction of events including attacks on Egypt by Britain, France and Israel, pipelines set on fire in Syria, and King Saud of Saudi Arabia enforcing a total oil embargo. Petrol became scarce and expensive in the UK, which gave bubble car sales an unexpected boost.
Prodded by the British government, British Motor Company (BMC) asked engineer Alec Issigonis (pictured) to design a small, affordable and efficient four-seater it could sell as an alternative to bubble cars like the BMW Isetta. He began sketching immediately. His team rushed the Mini from a prototype to a production model in just 27 months.
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The original Mini by the numbers (1959)
The Mini went on sale in August 1959. At launch, the line-up included two models named Morris Mini-Minor and Austin Seven, respectively. They mainly differed in their grille, hubcaps and paint finishes. BMC marketed them as economy cars, not sports cars. Both variants received an 848cc rated at 34hp.
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John Cooper steps in (1959)
John Cooper, the man who forever changed racing with his rear-engined design, knew Issigonis well on a personal level. He noticed the Mini’s tremendous potential after driving a pre-production model and began tuning it as soon as he got his hands on one.
In 1959, he asked pilot Roy Salvadori to drive his first Mini Cooper prototype to the Italian Grand Prix held on the Monza track. The trip across France turned into a race against pilot Reg Parnell, who drove an Aston Martin DB4. Cooper believed his modified Mini could beat the larger Aston. And, to everyone’s surprise, he was correct. The Mini arrived about an hour before the DB4. Note: 1964 model pictured.
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The Mini’s formative influence (1960)
Racing drivers like Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Jim Clark began exploring the Mini’s potential on the Silverstone Formula One track as early as 1960. This was a full year before Cooper launched his now-famous version of the car, but even the fully stock model stood out with remarkably agile handling.
Later on, the Mini’s affordable strand of performance helped several now-famous pilots make a name for themselves. Niki Lauda began his career when he entered a Mini in a hill climb in Linz, Austria, in 1968 and finished second. Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt and James Hunt also got their start behind the wheel of a Mini. Note: 1966 model pictured with John Rhodes at the wheel.
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The Mini goes to the big leagues (1961)
John Whitmore became one of the first pilots to race a Mini during the 1959 Boxing Day race at Brands Hatch. He later bought a used Mini for £400, which was a relatively expensive but hardly unusual purchase at the time. Unlike most owners, he acquired a modified model and won his class in the 1961 British Saloon Car Championship (BSCC), which is the predecessor of the British Touring Car Championship.
John Love won the 1962 BSCC in a Mini and John Whitmore drove his to a first-in-class finish in 1963. The Mini regularly competed in the event during the 1960s. Note: 1966 model pictured.
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The original Mini Cooper (1961)
Cooper sensed a strong demand for a more powerful Mini outside of the tight-knit racing community. Issigonis strongly opposed the idea but ultimately caved in and BMC officials gave Cooper the green light to make 1000 examples of the car. Introduced in 1961, the original Mini Cooper traded the standard car’s 848cc 34hp four-cylinder engine for a 55hp 997cc unit fed with twin carburettors. It could reach a top speed of 80mph and it could stop just as well thanks to disc brakes.
In hindsight, Cooper and Issigonis were a third door away from inventing the hot hatch as we know it today. Note: 1963 model pictured.
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The Downton Mini
The Cooper name lives on today, but dozens of aftermarket companies from England and abroad made the Mini faster during the 1960s. Downton Engineering Works stood out as one of the best-known (and most successful) outfits; its clients included members of The Beatles.
Downton’s hot-rodded cars became so popular that BMC regularly hired founder Daniel Richmond as a consultant and asked him to manufacture aftermarket tuning kits for the Mini starting in 1968. The kits were in hot demand because enthusiasts could install one without voiding the car’s factory warranty.
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Driving the Downton Mini
Autocar tested a Downton-modified Mini in December 1961. Here’s how it compared to a standard Austin Cooper.
“From a standing start the results are even more startling, for 60mph is reached in just over half the time (9.6sec as compared with 18.0) and 80mph in a third—17.3 instead of 50.6. This figure to 80 is considerably quicker than can be achieved by any of the BMC’s production sports cars, and, by way of comparison, it betters the twin-carburettor, Coventry Climax-powered Lotus Elite by over a second.”
“It really is quite remarkable that so much can be done with what is, after all, a stolid little engine produced in huge quantities for ordinary folks,” we added.
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The Mini Cooper S (1963)
Motorists gave the Mini Cooper a hero’s welcome. They unanimously clamoured for more power so Cooper and Issigonis developed a more powerful version of the car named Cooper S. It used a 1071cc engine that made 70hp, twice the output of the base model launched in 1959. The power hike required fitting a brake booster to keep the power in check.
Note: 1968 model pictured.
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The Twini (1963)
Several Minis received a second engine over the rear wheels, including a Moke-based prototype built by Issigonis to tackle tough terrain. Story has it Cooper drove the twin-engined Moke and decided to adopt the layout for a powerful, four-wheel drive race car. The final product used a 1088cc engine with 82hp up front and a 1212cc rated at 96hp out back.
Early tests showed the car had an immense amount of potential, especially on wet roads, but it needed the fine-tuning you'd rightfully expect from such a Frankenstein-esque machine. BMC and Cooper nonetheless started talking about building 1000 examples for homologation. Cooper unfortunately rolled an early prototype on his way to dinner one night and decided to end the project while recovering from his not-insignificant injuries in hospital.
Downton entered its own Twini in the 1963 Targa Florio but the rear engine regularly overheated. Both Downton examples consequently finished the race well behind the winner – and even behind a standard, front-engined Mini. Note: Twini replica pictured.
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The Mini takes Monte Carlo (1964)
BMC entered a modified Mini Cooper S with a 90hp engine in the 1964 edition of the Monte Carlo Rally. After several false starts, the company was determined to finish first. The task must have been daunting: the competition included a Mercedes-Benz 300SE with a straight-six and a V8-powered Ford Falcon.
Paddy Hopkirk famously kept up with the bigger cars and took the lead on the Col de Turini. Bo Ljungfeldt finished second in a Falcon, while Erik Carlsson’s Saab 96 took third.
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The Mini’s second Monte Carlo win (1965)
What wins on Sunday sells on Monday. BMC knew that, and its 1964 victory generated an immense amount of publicity for the Cooper S and for other members of its line-up. It returned to the Monte Carlo Rally in 1965 to defend its title.
Although derived from a production model, the Cooper S placed on the starting grid received important modifications including a 1275cc four-cylinder engine. Finnish pilot Timo Mäkinen soldiered through snow and ice to finish the race in first place with a sizable lead over the second-place Porsche 904. Pat Moss took third in her Saab 96.
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The win that got taken away (1966)
1966 could have been the Mini’s best Monte Carlo run. Pilots Timo Mäkinen, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk got off to a strong start and captured the top three spots in the overall race. Officials contentiously disqualified the three pilots (and the Lotus Cortina that finished fourth) because their lights didn’t conform with official regulations. When the dust settled, Pauli Toivonen became the unexpected winner in his Citroën DS21. Note: Cooper S in the 1966 R.A.C. rally pictured.
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The Mini’s success in America (1966)
Morris and Austin began selling the Mini in America in 1960. Few buyers wanted a small, underpowered car in an era when V8-powered land yachts reigned supreme and Mini sales reflected that well. The Cooper model launched in 1962 sent ripples through the performance car world, though. It gave American enthusiasts a credible alternative to Fiat-Abarth models.
Richard McDaniel raced a 1965 Cooper and won the American Road Race of Champions for three consecutive years. Humourously named the Purple People Eater, his Mini could hit 130mph on straightaways. Note: 1964 Monte Carlo pictured.
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Peel Viking Sport (1966)
The Mini’s unibody construction prevented it from spawning a truly diverse catalogue of off-shoots like body-on-frame models such as the Renault 4 and the Volkswagen Beetle. The Peel Viking Sport remains one of the most interesting derivatives. It kept the Mini’s front and rear sub-frames but added a glassfibre monocoque with a sporty, fastback-like design.
Isle of Man-based Peel sold only the body, meaning buyers needed to source the rest of the parts from a donor Mini. The firm made 27 cars, according to the Lane Motor Museum, and approximately seven remain.
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The Mini’s last Monte Carlo win (1967)
The Mini team signed up for the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally with vengeance in mind. The competition proved more difficult to beat and Aaltonen won the race in his Cooper S with only 12 seconds to spare. This time, the victory was undisputed and legitimate. It would also be Mini’s last at the event. Aaltonen returned the following year with a Cooper S but finished third behind a pair of Porsche 911s.
Note: 1968 race pictured.
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Beyond the Monte Carlo
The Mini Cooper’s Monte Carlo victories are well-known but its success in motorsport goes much further. It won over 30 events between 1960 and 1972 including the Rally Sweden, the 1000 Lakes Rally, the International Madagascar Rally and the Acropolis Rally. It also participated in countless local and regional events all around the world.
Note: 1965 race pictured.
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The 1275 GT (1969)
British Leyland cancelled Issigonis’ planned Mini successor in 1968. It made several important changes to the Mini the following year. The list of modifications included replacing the sliding door windows with more conventional wind-down ones and hiding the door hinges beneath the sheet metal.
1969 also marked the end of the original Cooper model after an eight-year production run. It was replaced by the 1275 GT (pictured on the left), which used a 1275cc four-cylinder originally rated at 59hp. Designers gave it a more modern-looking chiselled front end that didn’t sit well with many Mini fans.
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The Cooper bows out (1971)
British Leyland sold the 1275 GT and the Cooper S concurrently until August 1971, when the agreement with John Cooper ended. Cooper’s contract entitled him to £2 (around US$5 at the time) for every car built. All was not well at British Leyland, and the brand lost money on every single Cooper it made, so officials opted not to renew the partnership in a bid to stop haemorrhaging cash.
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The Italian Cooper (1976)
British Leyland-owned Innocenti made its own take on the Cooper with minor market-specific differences. In 1974, it turned the Mini into the 90L and the 120L with a little bit of help from Bertone. De Tomaso purchased the firm following BL’s bankruptcy and immediately set out to put a new spin on the idea of a high-performance Mini.
Introduced in 1976, the Innocenti Mini de Tomaso offered a 71hp evolution of the 1275cc and several model-specific design cues including plastic bumpers on both ends. It competed in the same segment as the Autobianchi A112 Abarth, a model remembered as the world’s first true hot hatch.
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Streamlining the Mini (1980s and beyond)
Demand for the Mini fell sharply during the 1980s, especially in export markets. Mini consequently streamlined the line-up by stopping production of models like the Clubman and keeping only the original two-door body style with the round front end. It used a 1.0-litre four-cylinder engine with 40hp on tap.
England’s icon had come full circle and returned to its original vocation of providing cheap, basic transportation for the masses. Officials commissioned countless limited-edition models (including the Chelsea, the Park Lane and the Red Hot) in a bid to keep 1980s buyers interested in a design from 1959.
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The born-again Cooper (1990)
Popular demand in England and abroad convinced Rover to re-launch the Cooper and re-license the name from John Cooper (pictured) in July 1990. Initially sold as a limited-edition model, it came with a Metro-sourced 1.3-litre engine rated at 61hp and an interior borrowed from the commemorative Mini 30. Rover made 1050 examples for the UK market and 600 for overseas markets, including Japan. The firm later added the Cooper to its portfolio as regular-production model.
The Cooper's return represented the lifeline Rover needed to keep production going until 2000. John Cooper himself died in December 2000, aged 77 - but not before he re-licensed his name to BMW and also advised it on the all-new Mini, first unveiled just before he died.
Cooper's name lives on Minis today, including high-performance versions named John Cooper Works. Note: Mini Cooper Grand Prix pictured.
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