Wasn't the award for 3 non-consecutive "Coupes" ("clean" runs on road timing) on the Coupe des Alpes (see the narrative) a "Coupe d'Agent", not a "Coupe d'Or" as claimed? (Coupe d'Or being for 3 consecutive "clean" runs.
"Original" (ie.magnesium) Minilite wheels will be fit for scrap or display only now, so why make a big point of it? That reg number certainly never used them during its "works" life.
At a rough guess, based on the events listed, the reg number would have been used on about 3 different "cars" (ie. body shells) during its "works" life alone. "Chassis plates" were switched by the works comps dept, leave alone reg numbers.
With old cars like this I would venture that no person can say with, absolute accuracy, just how much of the current vehicle was there on day one. As you imply, they had a hard life from the beginning and for quite a period were "just old cars" so were treated as such.
You make a good point regarding the magnesium wheels. A friend had some old mag Minilites tested (we think they were made about 1967 but with all the iterations that company has been thro' their records are useless); seven wheels tested (x-ray, dye penetration and some other clever modern stuff) six wheels totally useless, even for road use, one suitable for road use but no competition!
Why did BMC use Minilite, rather than the better-engineered Cooper Car Company wheels? Cost, or would it have meant loss of face to use wheels from "the opposition"?
A few years ago we built a 998 "Cooper spec" car from a 1992 Mini City, great fun, dirt cheap (apart from the Mini Sport engine). I discovered the "Cooper" wheels were still in production (although I can't immediately recall who makes them now). We decided that it would be just too expensive to revert to 10" diameter, as the wheels were very expensive vs the total cost of the build and the larger discs, with 12" wheels, would give us a chance of arriving at our accident at a slower speed! My son decided to sell the car- my idea was to build the mech hardware into a GTM but 'erself pointed out that we already had three two-seaters too many!
Looks like the Euro-millions has rolled over, so I've bought a ticket for Friday................