The British are usually all for the underdog and just love a giant killer. Well, they certainly got their money’s worth with the cheeky little Mini Cooper S, 10-ft long, 4-ft 5-ins high and powered by a zesty transverse, 4-cylinder, 1,275-cc engine. This tiny car, which was originally designed to sound the death knell for the bubble cars that infested Europe at the time, went on to dominate international rallying from 1964 to 1967. It blew away all the bigger, more-powerful machinery on no fewer than 18 international rallies. These included the prestigious Monte Carlo, which the car won three times—but don’t say that to a British rally fan of the period. He might suddenly turn violent, because, without a doubt, he believes the Mini Cooper S won the Monte four times not three, and that Monegasque/French skulduggery cheated the little buzz box out of its 1966 victory.
John Cooper, another of Enzo Ferrari’s garagisti, was the hero of the hour when Sir Alec Issigonis finished developing his four-seater people’s car, which some genius named the Mini. Aided and abetted by the likes of Stirling Moss, Roy Salvadori and Jack Brabham, John’s Cooper-Climaxes were giving a good account of themselves in F1 by 1958 and would go on to win the 1959 and 1960 Formula One Constructors’ World Championships, no less. So, logically, John was asked to breathe a little more life into the car and transform it into the Mini Cooper, which came in three different flavors—997, 1,071 and 1,275-cc. The 1275 S went into production in early 1964 and the British Motor Corporation’s Competitions Department quickly laid its hands on enough of them to go for a Group 2 homologation. And that led to a close working relationship with Cooper.
The impact of the Mini on the motoring and motor sport worlds was “ginormous.” The car broke all the social barriers of its day. It was just as OK for the local plumber to take his wife down to the pub in a Mini as it was for Princess Margaret to pick up her kids from school in one. The Beatles canonized the little car by zipping through London’s traffic in black-bodied, smokey-windowed Minis.
There were teething troubles with the 1275 S rally car, of course, and at least one unusual remedy. Rubber drive shaft couplings were not happy on gravel-surfaced rally stages and had to be changed quite often. Jaws dropped when people saw how it was done: the BMC mechanics simply tipped the Mini Cooper on its side, changed the couplings and rolled it back on its wheels again!
The BMC Competition Department had always been loyal to British drivers and employed no foreigners, that is, until the brilliant Stuart Turner joined them at 28 as “probationary Competitions Manager,” soon to lose the “probationary.” Stuart had seen Rauno Aaltonen perform in the 1961 Polish Rally as European champion Eugen Bohringer’s co-driver. The German did not fancy doing one of the gravel stages, so he handed the wheel over to Aaltonen, who turned out to be blindingly fast and impressed young Turner. Before Stuart enticed Rauno to Abingdon—the BMC Competitions’ lair—Aaltonen won the 1961 1,000 Lakes Rally in his native Finland in a Mercedes.
Rauno’s BMC engagement caused one British rally stalwart to describe the Scandinavians as “beady eyed, Coca-Cola drinking bastards.” He was to spit teeth later, as Finns and Swedes became international and later world rally champions. But he became slightly mollified in 1962, when the BMC Competitions Department took on Paddy Hopkirk, who was unhappy in the Rootes team.
The plot thickened when Stuart was talked into letting a Finn he had never heard of drive a 997-cc Mini Cooper in the 1962 RAC Rally of Great Britain. His name was Timo Makinen and he finished 7th overall and won his class.
So with those three acquisitions—Rauno Aaltonen, Timo Makinen, Paddy Hopkirk and, later, Tony Fall—and the Mini Cooper’s development work coming along nicely, the scene was set for the Mini to begin giant killing. And it did not take long to get going. Paddy Hopkirk actually won the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally in the agile little roller skate and came home to a hero’s welcome. Jack had killed his first giant—and would go on doing so for some time to come.
Timo Makinen won the 1964 Tulip Rally in the 1275 S and gave the tiny 10 footer its second Monte Carlo Rally victory in 1965. The Finn was so fast that only 10 other cars could get to within five minutes of him! Paddy Hopkirk won the year’s Circuit of Ireland Rally, and with victories in the Geneva, Czech, Polish, Three Cities and RAC rallies, Rauno Aaltonen was crowned 1965 European Rally Champion, all in the quick little Mini Cooper 1275 S.
Group 1 showroom car regulations came into force for the 1966 Monte and the BMC Competitions Department made sure their Mini Coopers complied, hoping to score a hat-trick of three successive Monte Carlo Rally victories. The tiny British cars not only won the Monegasque event, Timo, Rauno and Paddy came 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the road, but not for the organizers. The men who ran the rally said the Abingdon babies’ headlights were illegal and the Minis were disqualified. Victory was handed to a Citroën. The mere fact that the French car was competing with illegal white headlamps contrary to French and Monegasque law did not seem to worry the rally officials one bit! Britain was in an uproar at the disqualification, of course, and screamed for the blood of the “f…..g Froggies.” But any amount of protesting did no good.
Although smarting from their shameful treatment at the Monte, the Mini Coopers still turned in eight more outright victories, including Tony Fall’s win in the Circuit of Ireland and the Polish rallies, Rauno Aaltonen’s in the Czech and Timo Makinen in the 1,000 Lakes.
Heads held high, BMC sent the Mini Coopers back to Monaco for the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally. They had been preparing for the event for four months, testing tire options by October and starting their recces in December. The Competitions Department entered five giant killers and all of them finished, three in the top 10. Vic Elford’s Porsche 911 led for much of the way, but he lost time in the snowy mountains. Eventually, Rauno Aaltonen and his Mini Cooper 1275 S won by 13 seconds. A sweet victory indeed!
The gutsy little Mini Coopers went on to win the 1967 Circuit of Ireland, Acropolis, Coupe des Alpes (Hopkirk) and the 1,000 Lakes (Makinen).
But by 1968, the legendary Mini Coopers were finding the newcomers hard to deal with, as the Ford Escort Twin Cam, Porsche 911, Lancia Fulvia 1600, Alpine Renault A110 and Opel Rallye Kadett all started to steal their thunder. The day of the valiant little giant killers was nearly over. The Competitions Department was closed at the end of 1970, but the giant killers had had their day in the sun.
