Early Mk1 racer

[Blackheath_CooperS]

Recently, the MOCSA (Mini Owners Club of Southern Africa) Facebook page got a message from a gentleman named Robin Dunstan who wanted to sell the mini that he had raced in the 1960’s. Robin actually won the Port Elizabeth regional 1967 Salon Car Championship in the 105W Team Chequered Flag Mini.

Funnily his first line in his message was “please bear in mind this is not a genuine Cooper S!” I must confess that I’ve become a bit of an armchair Cooper S snob sitting on the sideline of this forum and being exposed to all the knowledge, excellent standard, and originality of the cars.

Luckily though this little car really caught our attention and we snapped up the opportunity to purchase it. Talking to Robin you got the sense of his passion for racing his mini in the 60’s and the great personal history behind the car besides the non-matching engine and chassis numbers.

I’ve tried to attach some pictures of the car and some of the further information that Robin gave me.

Robin raced the mini both in Cooper and non-Cooper guise. It's an early Mk1 shell that was within the first batch of CKD cars to arrive in South Africa. He says that these early Mk1 bodies are 50lbs lighter than the later bodies?

Robin deseamed the shell and raced a 1071cc Cooper S spec version of the same mini in the 1960’s. He ran 40 thou flat top Pistons, fast road cam, BMC special tuning straight cut close ratio gears, and standard Cooper S brakes, wheels, arms, and drive shafts. We will stick to these spec’s as we begin the project.

Mini Historian Ryno Verster says that there was a very active bunch of mini racers in the Eastern Cape province in the 1960’s. Tentatively, the goal is to get the mini back on track in early 2016 for the David Piper International Day – which is a race meet that brings down some great international cars and drivers to South Africa.

[rich@minispares.com]

nice find!

[gpmini]

Repeat of the as found pics

[Dr S]

That's way more interesting than a matching number million quid trailer queen to me Looks a proper bit of kit

[mk1]

What an absolutely fantastic purchase!

That is exactly my sort of car.

What spec are you planning on rebuilding it back to.

It's not often that someone manages to find a genuine car with this sort of history attached.

[In the shed]

"Repeat of the as found pics"


"You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post. "

Can someone explain the above?

[mk1]

"You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post. "

You have not logged in, the General section can be seen by anyone, but the attached images & files cannot.

Log in & all should be OK.

Otherwise, log out & back in again.

M

[mk1coopers]

Looks like a great find

[gpmini]

What an absolutely fantastic purchase!

That is exactly my sort of car.

What spec are you planning on rebuilding it back to.

It's not often that someone manages to find a genuine car with this sort of history attached.

Hi Mark

The idea is to get it to as close as possible to the 1967 regional Championship winning car. But as it may be raced at Piper Day, there will likely need to be some modern safety upgrades (roll cage, harness, tyres etc). But externally not too different to what you see now. Plexiglass windows, W105 stickers on the side. Wavy grill and mustache. Austin badge. Sounds like the 1071 motor is a peach and already rebuilt, so will be used as is, with possibly a change in final drive ratio if required. According to a knowledgeable friend the Chassis Number is Jan 1960, and the body number confirming an earlier build of Sept 1959.

[coopers1968]

well done super find!
congrats:)

[JC T ONE]

Nice great find & with cool history to it.

[Pete]

They certainly liked BIG competition numbers of there! That's a great find, and another '59 for Bill's black book!

[dhenry]

When did the seams come off. Looks like they were still there in 67. Amazing find though and far more interesting than a Cooper S.

[mk1]

Don't tell anyone it's a "59" You'll be getting nagged endlessly to put it back to standard & park it in a field

[Blackheath_CooperS]

You are right, the seams look they were still on in the championship winning car. I will have to confirm with Robin when the seams came off. There doesn't seem to be any rust. The car must have been deseamed for pure ascetic reasons.

Yup, definitely wise not to call it a '59!

[gpmini]

Maybe it was deseamed to reduce drag? The makings of an under 1100cc land speed record attempt for pre 66 production car maybe ? There is an annual Speedweek at Haksteenpan in the Northern Cape where Bloodhound SSC will attempt to set a new land speed record and break 1000 mph. In the spirit of http://project64mini.com the amazing NZ Mini story at Bonneville

[gpmini]

What an absolutely fantastic purchase!

That is exactly my sort of car.

What spec are you planning on rebuilding it back to.

It's not often that someone manages to find a genuine car with this sort of history attached.

Mark would you (or anyone else in the forum community) suggest for the rebuild?

Leon

[mk1]

If it was mine, I'd just try & get it back to as close as possible spec to how it won the championship. It's so rare to find a genuine racer with history.

M

[gpmini]

Thanks Mark, that is the plan. We'll have a look at what the requirements are to compete at Piper Day. If much different to period we may stick with getting it close to it was in 1967 and not then compete early next year.

Leon

[gpmini]

According to Ryno Verster, the South African Mini historian, the Eastern Province racers were neglected in CAR Magazine, Motoring Mirror newspaper etc. He therefore has very little information on the race successes of this car, other than this little bit of info that he was able to gather:

"Robin Dunstan, Austin Mini 998 cc and Austin Cooper ‘S’ 999 cc, competition number W 105
1st in Class W in the Saloon Car race during the Port Elizabeth Autumn Trophy race meeting at the St Albans Aerodrome on 3 June 1967.
3rd in Class W in the National Saloon Car race during the Van Riebeeck Trophy race meeting at Killarney on 9 September 1967.
Participated in the Border Trophy Handicap race and in Class W in the Eastern Cape and Border Saloon Car Championship race during the Border October Motor race meeting at East London circuit on 7 October 1967; results unknown.
Participated in the Border Trophy Handicap race and in Class W in the Eastern Cape and Border Saloon Car Championship race during the Border January Motor Race meeting at East London circuit on 20 January 1968; results unknown.
1st in Class W in the Eastern Cape and Border Championship race during the East London Winter race meeting at East London on 14 July 1969."