1970 Morris Mini Cooper S Saloon

Description

The Mini is so much more than just a car - it has become a cult object, a phenomenon and a piece of Twentieth Century industrial design revered around the world. Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, the Mini was perhaps the first truly successful small car and the marvellous packaging endowed it with truly amazing load-carrying abilities. However, the Mini had other talents, not least of which was excellent handling and roadholding, two factors exploited by John Cooper, legendary builder of racing cars and the man who helped Sir Jack Brabham win his first World Championship. Cooper took a standard Mini and installed a more powerful Formula Junior engine along with front disc brakes and created a high performance variant - naturally enough called the Mini Cooper - in 1961 that was easily recognisable thanks to the distinctive two-tone paintwork. Early Mini Coopers ran 997 or 998 A-Series engines but the ultimate variant was the 'S' using the 1275cc version of the motor with 76bhp on tap. The Mk II version with an all-synchromesh gearbox and numerous other refinements followed in 1968 and these models are sought after for their additional refinement over the Series I cars.