 The Mini Cooper is arguably the most well known, British built sporting care ever manufactured. With a long heritage going back some six decades to 1961. The original design was collaboration between the British Motor Company, the producers of the standard Mini models, and the Cooper Car Company, owned by John Cooper. Initially, several BMC executives opposed the creation of a Mini based performance car, although once the initial designs were presented, full co-operation was received from BMC, and the resulting Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper S, went on to become one of the most successful performance car designs ever.
The Mini Cooper dominated rally events for almost ten years, without a doubt, a great combination of good performance within a cheap and easy to maintain design, made the car an absolute favourite with amateur and professional drivers alike.
The car continued to sell well, and the design was kept in production far longer than had initially been envisaged, the story of the Mini Cooper is an intriguing oddity, in the fact that what was originally designed to be a cheap to build, low priced town car for the masses, was re-developed into one of the most successful performance cars ever. Truly an example of British engineering ingenuity at its best.
Who can forget the Mini Cooper, displaying its obvious prowess in the blockbuster movie “The Italian job” starring Michael Caine? Many people attribute the beginning of the success of the Cooper as a consumer product to this single movie.
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