The Mini Cooper Reborn

There have been two major revivals of the Mini Cooper line. The first happened shortly after its original abandonment in 1973, when the design was licensed to the Innocenti Company in Italy. They proceeded to produce a 1300cc version of the Cooper, which failed to achieve much success as a consumer vehicle and was discontinued several years later.

In 1990, the Mini Cooper was once again brought forward as a production vehicle, badged by Rover Specialty Products. It featured slightly lower performance than its original counterparts, but never the less, became immensely popular. This prompted Rover to re-design the production model and an increased performance version was made available in 1992, featuring a fuel injected induction system and a 1275cc engine. The design was updated again in 1997, and added a multi-point fuel injection system, along with various safety improvements and a upgraded cooling system, This particular model of the Mini Cooper is possibly the most high performance model ever built, although true aficionados will tell you that Rover merely re-created and already successful design that was left in prototype form by BMC in the late part of the 1970s, this has never been proven, although it is known that there were many prototype version of the Cooper produced, including a four wheel drive version, and a convertible. It is highly unlikely due to the fact that fuel injection technology was very much in its infancy during the 1970s.