1071cc Transverse 4 cylinder
4 speed Manual
Front Engined Front Wheel Drive
Hydraulic Front Disc Brakes, Rear Drum Brakes
70 bhp 62 ft-lb
Exterior
White with Black Roof
Interior
Red
When the British Motor Corporation launched the Mini in 1959, this supercompact car, at exactly 10 feet long, bumper to bumper revolutionized the automotive world. It was the brainchild of Alec Issigonis, who had already designed the very successful Morris Minor and was the first car to utilize the tranverse engine layout, allowing 80 percent of the floorpa to be dedicated to passengers making it an incredibly efficient compact package. To keep dimensions down the engine and gearbox were incorporated into the same package, sharing an oilpan. Suspension was fully independent, and simple, with motion controlled by means of using progressive rate rubber cones to replace the springs and provide some of the damping. At the same time the wheels were pushed as far to the corners of the diminutive car as possible giving it incredibly good stability and excellent handling. Built to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle on price the Mini was cheap, inexpensive to run, drove and handled very well, and was practical. Although designed to be a practical city car, at the same time, the light weight, good handling and excellent stability proved to be ideal for rally racing and in 1961 John Cooper partnered with BMC to debut the first Mini Cooper, with upgrades to the engine, gearbox, and the fitting of disc brakes turning the pedestrian city car into a high performance vehicle. The second more powerful version received the added “S” badge and was a 1071cc variant with even larger servo assisted brakes, strengthened bottom end, and other changes to improve its ability to serve on the track.
Afterwards additional variants of the “S” were made with both larger and smaller displacements to participate in specific racing classes, with the 1275cc and 970cc. On its introduction to racing, the Mini Cooper S absolutely dominated rally racing, turning the sport entirely on its head, as the Mini Cooper S won the Montecarlo Rally outright in 1964, 1965, and 1967, after being disqualified from winning in 1966 due to a pure technicality based on the headlamps used. Off the rally circuit it also initially dominated saloon car racing, where its light weight and excellent handling shone. This Mini was sold new in Portugal in December 1963 to Maria Graça Moura Relvas. She immediately took it out to race it and won the Grande Rally Benfica outright in 1965 in this car, becoming the first woman to win any stage of the Portuguese national rally. She continued to race the car taking other positions in other races, and at the end of 1966 sold this Mini to upgrade to a 1275 based Cooper S. It was sold to Nelson De Moura who manufactured De Moura steering wheels, and thus has one of his wheels fitted to the car. It is still a largely stock, original car with some restoration work carried out but enough patina to not make it look new. Aside from the steering wheel and the driving lights, the rest of the car is largely as it was when produced. As I’m a taller driver, I’ve added extended seat brackets, and to keep up with the driving lights, I’ve replaced the original generator with an alternator in a generator body.
