OK so hopefully I don't live to regret starting this thread, but there is indeed many Mini enthusiasts amongst TNF with history of driving, racing in or against and even restoring Mini Coopers in Australia. The Australian-built cars from the first Morris Cooper 997cc of late 1962 cars through to the final 1971 Morris Cooper S differ to their English counterparts. Even more so as the years ticked by.
What follows is some waffle I wrote for the Mini Cooper Register's latest 'CooperWorld' magazine (that as I tap this, I'm yet to see). Then a couple of weeks ago I fluffed around with a blog, but I'm not sure I have the technical skills or the inclination to be a slave to a blog. So getting to the point, here's a bit about the Australian-built Cooper S,
It was late August that marked 50 years since 2 Australian-built Cooper S started racing and today almost exactly 50 years since the earliest of examples became available for keen enthusiasts to start driving them flat out everywhere. Despite the Australian Cooper S production being fragmented with many production changes, this feature’s main focus is to simply celebrate the fun car.
Restored 1965 BRG / Toga White roof example is a very early car – the 25th Cooper S BMC Australia built
The Aussie-pressed windup window doors showing the quarter vent windows and bootlid with the short numberplate holder to suit the local numberplate dimensions
The basics are the same, but the BMC Australia-built Morris Cooper S comes from a slightly different hymn book to the English version. The then Australian Government’s (impossible to achieve) target of 95% local content ‘Plan A’ policy with Australian car manufacturers saw to that.
Without the Mini De Luxe, an Aussie Cooper S would have been hard to justify.
There’s no doubting that if it wasn’t for the ‘economy of scale’ relating to BMC Australia’s intended volume selling, £A833 Morris Mini De Luxe 998cc of March 1965, an Australian-built Cooper S wouldn’t have been viable. Despite its inspiration being the English Cooper S. Itself made available in very limited, fully imported numbers and usually with the first Cooper S 1071cc engine prior to the Australian car’s production. The imports carried a hefty premium price of £A1366 inc tax in 1963/64. Compared to the local car’s 1965 introduction price of £A1140 inc tax – becoming a straight doubling of that figure to $2280 when Australia took up decimal currency in February 1966. However by late 1965 an ‘import’ of the same basic specification would have equated to £A1650!
Even before the Aussie Cooper S was released BMC were running adverts using the likes of Brian Foley in the P & R Williams UK-built Cooper S to promote sales of the then 998 Morris Cooper.
With orders placed for the UK parent to start supplying the necessary components that would meld the major DNA of an English Cooper S into an Australian produced version. Five batches totalling 156 kits, fitting into the UK’s March 1965 chassis number sequences began their Australian journey to allow production to commence. Ultimately with Australia being the biggest producer of Cooper S outside the UK – 4986 built (ranging from car number YKG 2S2 501 to 5486) as MkI versions and 2419 built (ranging from car number YG 2S4 501 to 2919) as MkII (that still retained MkI style grille, rear window and rear tail lamps – available May 1969) throughout their 1965-1971 production life. Each version carries different identification to the English cars – that really takes some serious explaining. In basic terms the Australian cars carry YKG 2S2 listed as ‘TYPE’ on the IDENTIFICATION plate of the MkI S. The release of the MkII S saw a change to YG 2S4 to identify this model. But in BMC Australia’s wisdom these cars were produced without any official plate attached to them until on January 1, 1970 a COMPLIANCE plate became Australian Design Rules mandatory.
The restored engine bay of the 25th car – visually a lot of effort went into making it as close as possible to when new. This rare example still runs the rare 9 row oil cooler that mounts below the generator.
The most obvious UK-sourced DNA from the kits being the mechanical package, starting with the ever popular 9F/Sa/Y designated 1275cc (overpainted Metallic Green), 7.5inch disc brakes, LP883 4.5inch drilled steel road wheels (painted Silver Birch metallic, rather than UK’s Old English White), Hydrolastic displacers units (no ‘dry’ Aussie Cooper S), speedo/instrument cluster, heater and the standard fitment to Australian cars of the right hand fuel tank and oil cooler. It’s pretty common knowledge many things changed or were tweaked during these components production life for the English car. Filtering into changes on the Australian car as fresh batches arrived at Zetland. Or indeed superseded with locally-sourced items. Probably not so obvious to the owner of each new car at the time (and perhaps even with some owners now), but items like the 9 to 13 row oil cooler, Rubber to Hardy Spicer steel universals, the various Hydro displacers and the like, that evolved with this models production. As did, many items sourced within Australia to continue the ‘Plan A’ local content intentions and the regular ‘update’ manufacturers tend to give their cars to freshen the model. Variations (some evolving) away from the English car include front panel, bulkhead, floorpan, doors, door jambs, sills, bootlid & floor, ‘B’pillar, plus many other fiddly bits. Exterior and interior colours also relate major changes with both tone and pattern.
The restored interior of the 25th car. Porcelain Green trim works well with BRG. Early cars had Feltex loop pile carpet, green with a brown fleck would have been in this car when built – with replacement original carpet impossible to find now.
Continuing on from the trend set by the Aussie-built Morris Cooper of 997 or 998cc persuasion, the early Aussie Cooper S had the bootboard colour matched to the interior. With felt lining covering the boot floor between the tanks (and letting moisture gather). Felt was also applied to the underside of the rear parcel shelf.
So in reality there’s ‘no line in the sand’ point where things changed all at once they just evolved as those new or updated items were released to production. Lucas Australia provided a couple of examples in the form of ‘2 screw’ rear lamp cluster and ‘permanent magnet’ 12AUW round yoke wiper motor. Another way to get that little extra Australian content.
Although one could say in most basic terms the fitting of all the UK-sourced goodies into a ‘tweaked’ Mini De Luxe bodyshell created the Cooper S – there is more to it that just that. The tweaks mainly involve extra holes, brackets, clips and/or tabs. But in some instances even these evolved and their method of fitment can be all important. When new they differentiated an ‘S’ from a De Luxe or from May 1969, the Mini K. And they should still for genuine examples 50 years later.
An early Cooper S on the Zetland production line, complete with vertical brace in the front panel. Most likely Toga White with Burgundy Red roof for this one.
The local BMC Engineers ability to create the Australian version as they did, allowed Marketing and the bean counters to, as already mentioned, sharpen the price significantly from that of an imported car. Mind you we are still talking £A307 price difference from ‘modest’ to ‘performance’ motoring. Introduction was around 5½ months between Mini De Luxe release and the proper availability of the Cooper S in September 1965. Later than anticipated due to holdups in production and leaving themselves with a reasonable amount of pressure to produce, deliver and allow Dealers’ road registration of 100 examples. The magic number required in 1965 for locally built cars’ eligibility for the October 3, 1965 Bathurst Armstrong 500 race meeting. The delay was enough for BMC to issue a News Bulletin (PR65/13) dated September 6, as the September 10, 1965 Bathurst’s official entry deadline loomed.
Front page of the 6/9/65 issued BMC (Australia) News regaling the new Cooper S.
As an example, September 14, 1965 was the date of registration for the first example major Melbourne-based BMC Dealer, Kellow-Falkiner received. Taking into account the logistics of transporting the cars around Australia, the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club – the Armstrong 500 race organisers’ allowed some discretion come race day. Offset by the fact they wanted a ‘proper’ race of what was meant to be for production cars. It’s just that some received a bit more ‘careful production’ than others!
Racing debut for the Aussie Cooper S at Queensland’s Lowood circuit. John French drove the Series Production Aussie Cooper S (top photo) to a class win. The bottom photos shows Bill Gates in #50 leading a Lotus Cortina. Natural competition for the Cooper S the world over.
Bathurst wasn’t the locally built cars’ debut race though as a couple of early examples had been whisked off to Queensland and raced at Lowood on August 29 with Bill Gates and John French given the honour to drive them. A quick sidenote being Gates was a capable driver of various marques and high profile Brisbane DJ, who helped the young Gibb brothers’ music career – aka the Bee Gees! BMC’s efforts prior to Bathurst were also helped by Sydney’s Warwick Farm circuit’s, Geoff Sykes running a special class for ‘cars awaiting homologation’ at his September 19 meeting. Strangely enough all 4 entries were Australian Cooper S – with at least 3 of them going to Bathurst too.
Without getting too tied down with the motor racing side of things, the 1965 Armstrong 500 wasn’t BMC’s year. The saturation was already beginning with nine of the 14 Class C entries Cooper S. The Class contested for cars priced between £A1021 & £A1300. BMC Australia’s effort provided 3 cars in that Class alone. Each of which having quality driver pairings such as Hopkirk/Makinen, Foley/Manton & French/Harvey. But they spent time trying to outdo each other, rather than the serious Class D Ford Cortina GT500 opposition. The Foley/Manton pair won their Class, although 2 GT500’s were ahead on the road for the spoils of victory. It did however mean a revamp in BMC’s driver structure come 1966!
What BMC Australia had done was provide a means for many enthusiasts to join various forms of motor sport. Or performance motoring for the road’s of Australia. Or indeed both! A bit of ‘Drive it like you stole it’ – long before the term became common vernacular. Any of the above, certainly gave reason for BMC Australia to modify their new car warranty policy from 12 to 6 months coverage. And yet they still wouldn’t fit a tacho as standard!
BMC Rosette factory newspaper rev counter letter with the BMC spin on why they weren’t fitted
In period, BMC Australia sent new Cooper S to markets such as New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and cars are still moving about. Where once you could walk into the local BMC dealer and ultimately drive out the door with a new Cooper S, there really shouldn’t have been any identity issues then. But after the car’s often hard life, that heralded their owners’ high insurance premiums along the way. Meantime their car’s value declined. Followed years later with the steady increase in demand, they again rose in value. And as we all know as values increase, things can get interesting…
Whether it originated from England or Australia, the Cooper S has become a commodity that like so many ‘Hero’ cars of a particular generation is sought after. Meaning that for at least the last 20/25 years cars are keeping shipping companies busy as they are punted around the globe. There are certainly quite a number of Australian cars roaming the roads of northern hemisphere countries. Rather ironic really. But it can also bring about a darker side, that’s been about for years too – the fakes and replica cars. Some may well have been built innocently enough by someone without the finances to have the genuine example or a reshell due to rust or accident damage. I have no major problem with this when it is openly known. But they really can become an issue when these cars reach sale time as circumstance changes an owner’s outlook. Or these cars have passed through two or 3 owners, or even hit the stocklist of a Classic Car dealer and with a puff of fairy dust become genuine. Depending on how well executed, some can be spotted from 20 paces and others require a very keen eye. So ‘Buyer Beware’ and ‘Do Your Homework’ have exactly the same meaning regardless of original hemisphere.
There’s also cars with genuine period race history, that because of their racing days can be a bit of ‘Grandpa’s Axe’. Once upon a time these cars were quietly sold on to an unsuspecting candidate as they’d been returned to road car duty. Because lets face it, as an old race car they had about as much worth as an old taxi! Meaning often the race history was quickly lost. Going the full circle now of course cars with ‘bona-fide’ race history have become sought after. With re-inventing of history also part of today’s equation to up the value or prestige. Of course that can apply to so many marques, but again do your homework if you’re about to hand over the hard earned.
Coppers in Coopers - one of 3 early Cooper S deployed by the ACT Police Force in late 1965.
Also with an ‘It takes one to catch one’ ethos BMC Australia ended up with a pretty good gig supplying Cooper S to Police Forces. Mainly to the New South Wales Police where they managed to sign up over 10% of Australian Cooper S production for duty. Stuffing a burly copper in a Cooper S in an attempt to keep some form of decorum on the roads. Forty-Five and 50 years later these are also sought after and also require a keen eye to identify ‘genuine’ Police examples that were sent off to Government auctions after their ‘use by’ mileage was quickly realised.
How did these survive… The dizzy heights of 1960s tyre technology. Dunlop’s radial ply SP41 145 x 10 – standard rubber for the Aussie S and first Australian car to use them.
Stephen
Edited by cooper997, 25 February 2017 - 00:29.
Best car deal I ever did! 
