11 replies to this topic

[275 GTB-4]

Can anyone confirm whether John Cooper was the first to use the distinctive bonnet stripes that run parallel to the edge of the Mini bonnet and are around 10 centimetres wide?

Later (retro) John Cooper Garages Minis featured them, but they were also very popular on racing Minis very early in the piece.

[signed: wondering ]

[Ray Bell]

Quite likely...

They are, after all, fashioned after the stripes on the front of the F1 and F2 works Coopers.

[RS2000]

What was so ludicrous was that the Retro red Minis had them too, not just the green ones. Red works rally cars never carried them, only the green "works" Cooper race cars.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by RS2000
What was so ludicrous was that the Retro red Minis had them too, not just the green ones. Red works rally cars never carried them, only the green "works" Cooper race cars.

So as Cat-ergh-wailer (Ummm Catalina) has put forward off line....Charles probably started the trend o his single seaters and Cooper Minis just naturally followed on the trend.

Soooo when did Charles start using the stripes....from day one??

[Alan Cox]

Also, the stripes on the racing Minis continued back from the bonnet, across the scuttle and up to the windscreen, unlike those on the modern road cars, which stop at the bonnet edge.

[Mistron]

did 33 EJB not have stripes on the bonnet when it did its only event before the monte - the Tour de France in '63?

Was it Green or red in this race? Pic I recall seeing was black and white, with the car on a banked circuit.

will dig it out.

[Mark A]

Originally posted by Mistron
did 33 EJB not have stripes on the bonnet when it did its only event before the monte - the Tour de France in '63?

Was it Green or red in this race? Pic I recall seeing was black and white, with the car on a banked circuit.

will dig it out.

33EJB had a pair of stripes on the bonnet on the 1963 Tour de France. It was 100% red, the only green works rally car was AGU780B.

[Mistron]

100% red,

apart from the stripes. and the roof.

I thought one of the clubman 1275GT works cars was green? maybe I'm thinking of a rallycross car though.

[sterling49]

Originally posted by Alan Cox
Also, the stripes on the racing Minis continued back from the bonnet, across the scuttle and up to the windscreen, unlike those on the modern road cars, which stop at the bonnet edge.

Could not tell you about the exact position of the stripes.....whenever I saw Mr Rhodes driving one at Brands I was watching the front tyres self destruct in pur blue Dunlop R7 haze.....AWESOME!

[Mark A]

Originally posted by Mistron
100% red,

apart from the stripes. and the roof.

I thought one of the clubman 1275GT works cars was green? maybe I'm thinking of a rallycross car though.

The dodgy clubman.

It was a strange light green but was only used as a recce car, it also had the same reg number as one of the race cars (which wasn't a clubman).

[RS2000]

Originally posted by sterling49

whenever I saw Mr Rhodes driving one at Brands I was watching the front tyres self destruct in pur blue Dunlop R7 haze

...thus usually letting through an Anglia or Escort that had preserved its tyres...



Actually, I believe he put an historic Mini racer into the barriers last week, aged 79, but is not seriously hurt, hopefully.

[sterling49]

Originally posted by RS2000


...thus usually letting through an Anglia or Escort that had preserved its tyres...



Actually, I believe he put an historic Mini racer into the barriers last week, aged 79, but is not seriously hurt, hopefully.

Hope he is ok..........agreed he may have had the fastest way around the corner, but it was soo good to watch......thinks......off the Fraser Imps geting "drive shaft wind up" and rocking backwards and forwards through South Bank Bend.....