Description
This is one of a few rare cars that were the last twin carb Cooper ‘S’ version ever made, and the date it went to John Cooper garages to have the work completed suggests it was the 2nd or 3rd car to have the S pack fitted.
1991 Rover Mini Cooper S Pack in red with a white roof. These mainstream cars with ‘S’ pack are actually rarer than the RSP (Rover Special Product) version. From 1971 – 1990 the mini Cooper was not made and the only available cars were 998cc minis. John Cooper fitted a Metro 1275cc engine and added some Cooper touches like bonnet stripes, white roof, and Minilite alloy wheels and 1050 were produced for the UK market. Due to the success of this car the mini Cooper then sold for an additional 10 years until the new BMW mini was made. When Rover reintroduced the Cooper name to the mini in 1990 John Cooper also gave the option of the S Pack which made the car into a Cooper S with an improved Cooper cylinder head (blue), exhaust manifold / exhaust and twin 1. 25 SU carburettors. This conversion was not available until March 1991 the same month as our car was registered. The mainstream ‘S’ was very exciting but was an expensive option so only a few were ever made. He also offered a Handling Pack which consisted of wider 165 performance tyres, 5 mm wheel spacers and sports shock absorbers which is also fitted to this car. John Cooper Garages fitted the pack to this car and the invoices for all the work are in the very comprehensive history file. I also have the original conversion certificate signed by John Cooper still in its John Cooper Garages black wallet. The history file also has the original book pack, both sets of keys, extensive John Cooper Garages invoices for conversion work. The picture shown is of John Cooper himself with the car when it was collected from his garage having had the conversion completed and John took the owner for a drive. It was bought by us from the first owner and used as our daily car before being subject of the recent costly total restoration. The car was tuned on the rolling road by Peter Baldwin prior to the restoration and produced power figures in excess of the the normal S Pack 78 bhp to 86 bhp. The cost of the refurbishment was well over £25, 000 which is all detailed in the history file. This really is a very rare and special opportunity to own a piece of mini Cooper history in ‘as new’ condition. We have hundreds of images of the car before during and after the restoration.
