NOTICE: Sorry, no more registrations are being accepted for this sale.
£14,500 - £15,500
Manufacturer: Austin
Model: Mini Cooper MKII
First Registered: 1969
Registration No: RegNo
Engine No: 9FSA3752
Chassis No: CAS2B-1269520
MOT: May 2013
Colour: Red
Details:
Designated by Leonard Lord as project ADO15 (Austin Drawing Office project number 15) the Mini actually came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis. Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of large cars slumped, and the market for German bubble cars boomed. Lord, the somewhat dictatorial head of BMC, reportedly detested these cars so much that he vowed to rid the streets of them and design a 'proper miniature car'. He laid down some basic design requirements: the car should be contained within a box that measured 10 × 4 × 4 ft (3 × 1.2 × 1.2 m); and the passenger accommodation should occupy 6 ft (1.8 m) of the 10 ft (3 m) length; and the engine, for reasons of cost, should be an existing BMC unit. Alec Issigonis, who had been working for Alvis, had been enticed back to BMC in 1955 and, with his skills in designing small cars, was a natural for the task. The team that designed the Mini was remarkably small: as well as Issigonis, there was Jack Daniels (who had worked with him on the Morris Minor), Chris Kingham (who had been with him at Alvis), two engineering students and four draughtsmen. Together, by October 1957, they had designed and built the original prototype.
The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series, four-cylinder engine but it departed from tradition by having it mounting it transversely. the four-speed transmission was lubricated by the engine-oil-in the sump. This layout allowed front-wheel drive and despite meeting the stringent dimensional constraints of Leonard Lord, passenger room was impressive. The radiator was mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but with reversed pitch so that it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front wing.
John Cooper owner of the Cooper Car Company, designer and builder of Formula One and rally cars, and a friend of Issigonis, saw the potential of the Mini for competition. Issigonis was initially reluctant to see the Mini in the role of a performance car, but after John Cooper appealed to BMC management, the two men collaborated to create the Mini Cooper, a nimble, economical and inexpensive car. The Austin Mini Cooper and Morris Mini Cooper debuted in 1961. The rest is history.
The example offered her is a MKII Cooper of 1969 Vintage, which has been the subject of a nut and bolt rebuild into a new, 1980's, BMC shell, in 2004/2005. Since that rebuild the car has only been used for showing and driven on the road when going for MoT tests.
Finished in red with a black roof and black interior trim, the car was rebuilt using the following original parts Glass - Rear Seat - Doors - Dash + Clocks - Gearbox - Sub-Frame - Radius Arms - 998cc Engine (now rebuilt to + 30 and 1028cc) - Original Cooper S 7.5 Discs and Calipers - Original Carbs (rebuilt) - Unleaded head conversion - Gearbox (rebuilt). All other parts used were new.
This Mini Cooper is presented in better than new condition. Since the rebuild the car has never seen rain or bright sunlight. It has not been used as a means of transport but only as a show car. Always dry stored and pampered is has benefited from a few period modifications away from the original specification, in so far as it has a remote gear change mechanism (Morris 1100) and Hydrolastic suspension.
Said, by the vendor, to be one of the finest examples of its type available today.
Fees apply to the hammer price:
Flat Fee Registration
12.00% inc VAT*
