Lot details Registration No: AWW870B Chassis No: KA234/488602 Mot Expiry: May 2011
Admittedly the Monte Carlo Rally no longer has the cachet of old, but when Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon won the 1964 event in their Morris Mini Cooper S, registration '33 EJB', both car and crew starred on Sunday Night At The London Palladium and were front page news in all the national newspapers - it was one of the greatest British motorsport stories of all time. Works Cooper Ss won again in '65, '66 and '67 though were controversially disqualified in '66 for a claimed irregularity of the headlamp dimming circuit. So international was the resulting hue and cry that the team probably accrued more publicity than if the victory had stood! The first Mini to bear the name of F1 racing car constructor John Cooper was the Mini Cooper of 1961. The stroke of the standard 848cc engine was lengthened to 997cc which, together with other improvements, raised the power output from 34 to 55bhp. A closer ratio gearbox and front wheel disc brakes completed the package. The engine was replaced by a shorter stroke 998cc unit in 1964. With an eye on the appropriate racing classes, BMC eventually produced a total of three versions of the more powerful Cooper S with 970, 1071 and 1275cc engines respectively.
The 1071cc 1964 Cooper S on offer was turned into an historic rally car for Gordon Currie and David Orrick to contest the Historic RAC Rally of 1991 and subsequently left unused in the care of the vendor. He had the car thoroughly refurbished during 2007/2008, at which time every moving part is said to have been checked or replaced, the bodyshell restored by Moorland Classics, a limited slip differential added and the engine overhauled by Mountune. This almost as-new Mini comes complete with expired FIA papers.
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