1967 Morris Mini Cooper S Works Car

Lot details
Registration No: LRX827E
Chassis No: KA254956685
Mot Expiry: 01.02.2003

The Mini turned the motor industry on its head when it was launched although it was really a case of lateral thinking. It went on to become probably the most popular British car of all time and from a Motorsport sense it was simply outstanding - and still is.
LRX827E is an original Cooper 'S', built in February 1967 and dispatched to the B.M.C. Competitions Department at Abingdon in March of that year. It was the last Works Cooper 'S' to win an international rally and arguably has the most successful rally pedigree of all these cars, having had two wins and one second place in just the three international rallies. In April 1967 it came second in the Tulip rally with Timo Makinen and Paul Easter; in June of that year it won the Geneva rally (Criterium) with Tony Fore and Mike Wood; and later on that year, September, it won the extremely prestigious and tough Alpine rally with Paddy Hopkirk and Ron Crellin. Indeed a better history than that is almost hard to conceive.
As with all Works Minis it probably did its share of 'wrekkies' on other events, but in 1969 the B.M.C. Competitions Department left the rallying scene and went circuit racing both at home and in Europe. This meant that LRX827E, GRX310D, LBO666D were fitted for Mark II Cooper 'S' races for the 1969 season so that they could get through international customs control. The registration number LRX827E was eventually returned to the Licensing Authorities.
The provenance of this car is very interesting. The complete rolling body-shell-car, and countless other parts for this car, were purchased by the Abingdon employee Norman Beck in April 1968 and the original bills and sales receipt for the purchase are available from the present owner. This was
at a time when the B.M.C. Competitions Department were running with the new Mark II Cooper 'S' models and, as detailed in Peter Browning's book 'Works Minis', where this car features well, it was normal practice when the Works cars were sold to employees, works drivers and the like, that they were sold as 'scrap' to justify the discounted price. In fairness most went on to having a hard rally life in private hands.
Norman kept the vehicle for some twenty years before using it for his daughters 850 Mini, the body shell of which had expired, and in 1988 the complete car was purchased by fellow ex-works enthusiast Guy Smith. It was he who got the number returned and re-allocated following a thorough investigation and the Mini Cooper Register's support. The present owner bought it from Guy in April 1997.
It has been sympathetically restored to its 1967 Alpine Rally group six specification, as per the works build sheet that is to a lightweight specification with a full race engine. At this point though one would have to read the specification in the history file because there is far too much information to list here. It is finished in its original red with the white roof and it has only completed 8000 kilometres since the restoration and the present owner does believe that this is the most original ex-works Cooper 'S' on the road in Britain today.
What a car; what a provenance and what a record - an automatic entry to every event on the planet!