The Mini Cooper Has Rockstar Status

came out in 1959 and instantly became a big success it was originally designed as a car to do with the gas crisis of the time in Britain and so it was an economy car and that's what people originally used it for and everyone bought one you know from the mom who wanted to just go pick up groceries all the way up to the rock stars I mean even a few members of the Beatles had minis and so it was exciting for people to have a car that their idols had and it was accessible was the every man's car but it was also you know rock star status at the same time my name is Sumner Norman and I Drive a 1971 Morris mini it wasn't too long after that people started seeing a potential racing application and immediately started stuffing larger engines in it with the Cooper S models with the 1275 like this car has and the car was almost instantly successful in races really famous races like the Monte Carlo Rally and the British Touring Car Championship BTCC this many has an original four-cylinder but it has the 1275 from the Cooper s rather than the original 998 that came in it it has the original rubber cone suspension as well but the upgraded Cooper s disc brakes in the front so helps a little bit with braking it only has 28,000 original miles and almost all of those were from the original owner who bought the car in Surrey in England new in 1970 the Cooper S model had the hydro suspension which was prone to failure and kind of a little bit fiddly for most people and so a lot of people would actually backdate that to the rubber cone suspension especially for street applications so that's what we kept in this car the car originally came with about 35 horsepower at the original engine but with this upgraded 1275 that should see about 76 horsepower when you consider the car only weighs about 1500 pounds the power-to-weight ratio really holds up even by modern standards and it's not too slow in traffic but where it really picks up is in the bends and it's really fun to throw it into a corner as fast as you can because it's extremely forgiving you really can't do much wrong by a minute even if you are completely you know irresponsible with your speed and do a corner here and there and that really gives you the confidence to push into corners that normally wouldn't be as confident if the time these cars were built they were all basically built by the same company you know the British Motor Corporation of British Leyland under that umbrella kind of came several company names including Austin and Morris the car was also built in other countries under the name of innocent e in Italy so you have an eclectic mix of different countries selling essentially what was the same car one of the fun things about this car is that nothing is quite perfect on it you might notice the media that the door jams don't quite meet with the unibody or that the badges aren't quite placed the same from left to right or even the the badge right on the front isn't quite centered with the centre of the hood and it's immediately obvious because there's that really nice stripe there the pin that kind of goes right down the middle of the hood that's bumped up in the sheet metal and then off to the right is the mini emblem but that's exciting you know to have a truly hand-built car and this was the mini was unique and it was hand-built and in such a large scale the interior has really remained untouched since 1970 when the car was built and so I hesitate to change anything in there it has an original school bus style steering wheel that's really quite large and a little bit cumbersome especially in tight corners where the mini is so good but they don't want to ruin any of that originality even if it takes a little bit away from the driving experience when you look at it from the outside its you never forget how small it is but when you get on the inside it's very easy to forget just how small it is it's a surprisingly spacious one of the biggest questions that I get with the car and everywhere I go is first is it legal to drive right hand drive and yes it is second is it difficult to get used to driving isn't difficult on the right hand side it takes a few days to kind of get used to it and you you might bump your arm into the door a few times reaching for the gear lever and before you remember oh it's it's on the left side but the pattern is the same and the pedals are the same so it's not too difficult to get used to the car does go British once in a while it likes to be a little bit finicky when it starts occasionally and sometimes it likes to stop when it feels like it's a good time it might be a good time for the car it's not always a good time for me but but in the end it's been pretty reliable all in all I've only have you know probably once every six months I'll have some issue that strands me and people's response in general - this car is amazing everywhere I go if I stop for more than a couple seconds someone has a question there someone's given me a thumbs up or a smile or a wave or you know cheering me on it's and it's one of my favorite things about the car because it doesn't matter what kind of day you're having there's always that one-stop solution of if you want to be in a better mood just take the mini for a short drive somebody's going to be cheering you along along the way and you can't help but smile back at those people and so by the time you're home it's you're always going to be in a better mood

Channel: Petrolicious

Views: 513,953

Keywords: classic cars, vintage cars, MINI Cooper (Automobile Model)

Id: RuW1f6FI18g

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 09 2014