It all started with a city car
In the second half of the 1950s the management of BMC (British Motor Corporation) he decided that the nice Austin A35 had now had its day and it was necessary to design a new little car capable of replacing it.
He was put in charge of the project, called ADO 15 (Austin Drawing Office project number 15) the engineer of Greek origin Alec Issigonis who invented an extremely innovative formula that would set a precedent: transverse front layout of the engine, gearbox mounted under it and a single oil sump, front-wheel drive and wheels mounted at the four corners of the bodywork.
In this way the passenger compartment surface occupied 80% of the space of the car so four people and some luggage could fit comfortably in a car only 3 meters and 3 centimeters long.
Instrumentation reduced to a minimum
To keep costs down, the standard equipment and instrumentation were reduced to a minimum, the door hinges and welds were visible and the tank was placed in the trunk. In the 1959 the car was placed on the market.
The new born, thanks to the small 10-inch independent wheels and the fairly flat stance, proved to be effective not only in city traffic, but also on outdoor routes and demonstrated its versatility even on competition fields.
John Cooper’s intuition
Among those who immediately noticed the potential of the car there was also a friend of Issigonis, John Cooper, owner of the Cooper Car Companydesigner and manufacturer of some Formula 1, 2 and 3 cars. At the beginning Issigonis was quite reluctant to the idea of transforming his creation into a particularly high-performance car but then Cooper convinced the BMC managers and they both worked together to create the Mini Coopers.
The first appeared in 1961, the da 848 cubic cm 970 cubic cm was increased and the power was increased from 34 to 55 horsepower thanks to the use of double SU carburettors, the gear ratios were shorter and the front disc brakes were completely new on small city cars.
Only one thousand copies
A first production of 1000 copies to obtain homologation in group 2, special tourism, and in 1962 the Rhodesian driver John Love became the first non-English driver to win the British Touring Car Championship driving a Mini Cooper.
In 1963 the Mini Coopers it was further developed and the “S” model was born, equipped with a 1071 cubic cm engine, with the steel crankshaft already set to allow further and subsequent modifications and the disc brakes were servo-assisted. As many as 4030 of these cars were produced until August 1964.
The “Giant Killer” is born
In 1964 Cooper produced two different “S” models specifically for circuit racing: the first with a 970 cubic cm engine and 65 HP to run in the class up to one liter of displacement and the second with an engine of 1275 cubic cm and 76 HP to compete in the class up to 1,300 cc, but was also successful at an absolute level, so much so that it earned the nickname “Giant Killer”.
Its weight of 635 kg gave it an extremely competitive weight/power ratio of 88 kW/ton and in line with direct rivals such as the Ford Cortina GT500 (77 kW/ton) and the Renault R8 Gordini (90 kW/ton).
Three times queen of the Monte Carlo rally
The three overall victories at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967, which would have been even four if, in the 1966 edition, the three Mini Cooper Ss which reached the first three places overall in the final classification had not been disqualified for a dubious irregularity in the headlights, confirmed the enormous potential of that small city car which had not become the protagonist only in rallies but on tracks all over the world.
From 1966 the models were equipped with a double tank and the Cooper S 1275 remained in production until 1971, becoming one of the most successful cars in history.
by PIETRO SILVA
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