Autocar 998 cooper road test 1965

[SMOKE GREY]

Wonder if anyone has a copy of the Autocar road test of DOB393C the 998 Cooper. Used to be on here I think but can’t find it. Thanks.

[Costafortune]

I only have the MOTOR test, same car.

The performance figures are interesting - much faster than the 997, similar to a 1275GT and pretty close to a 1071 S.

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[SMOKE GREY]

I only have the MOTOR test, same car.

The performance figures are interesting - much faster than the 997, similar to a 1275GT and pretty close to a 1071 S.

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Cheers, appreciate that. Thank you. Shows how good a 998 is. Underrated car.

[Peter Laidler]

Yep, agree with you entirely Smoke Grey.

Look at the brake figures too. It puts into perspective the fallacy that they were rubbish. Not as efficient as a servo equipped S, but deduct the load required and small increase in surface area they were pretty damn good

[Ronnie]

BMC would not of introduced them if they were inferior.

[richardACS]

I only have the MOTOR test, same car.

The performance figures are interesting - much faster than the 997, similar to a 1275GT and pretty close to a 1071 S.

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Cheers, appreciate that. Thank you. Shows how good a 998 is. Underrated car.

I agree, my 68 998 Cooper was retrospectively a brilliant little car. I had anticipated when first buying my 1275s (back in the day) that it would be more of the same but even better! Not saying that those nice little S touches, wheels, twin tank, oil cooler, servo brakes were not nice things to have but the roughness of the engine tended to take away the quiet smoothness that the 998 inherently provided...

[Peter Laidler]

Couldn't have said it better Richard. Of all the praises I give to that tough little 998 Cooper engine, I'd forgotten about the quiet smoothness part.

Next time someone castigates the little Cooper 7" discs, I'm going to refer them to Surf Grey and Costafortune's Q and A.

[SMOKE GREY]

Thanks for everyone’s response. My reason was I had done some times with a stopwatch in my 997. None of this standing start malarkey but in gear acceleration, much more representative of on the road performance.
The 997 as most know had a good cam, and the 998 a better cylinder head, hence a modified head on a 997 or a 997 cam in a 998 gives good results. My 997 engine was built by Ian Osborne OAP, and is completely standard, cam, valve size, induction etc even the standard pressed exhaust manifold. Only deviation are valve springs, CR raised with the valves deshrouded , nothing fancy. The idea was to see what a properly put together 997 would muster.
Safe to say very pleased, engine dyno of 64HP and 64lb of torque. And nice and smooth, revs well . In gear performance is better than Autocars 997 and 998 figures and as good and in some cases better than the Taurus tuned 997 in Autocar and very similar to their 1071 figures.
On the B roads round where I live it puts a smile on your face and you often find modern traffic under your feet’ !

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[WMU 211G]

I only have the MOTOR test, same car.

The performance figures are interesting - much faster than the 997, similar to a 1275GT and pretty close to a 1071 S.

Page 1.

Cheers, appreciate that. Thank you. Shows how good a 998 is. Underrated car.

I agree, my 68 998 Cooper was retrospectively a brilliant little car. I had anticipated when first buying my 1275s (back in the day) that it would be more of the same but even better! Not saying that those nice little S touches, wheels, twin tank, oil cooler, servo brakes were not nice things to have but the roughness of the engine tended to take away the quiet smoothness that the 998 inherently provided...

This definitely rings a bell with me, my much missed '65 Mk1 S was a wonderful unrestored car but the 1275 engine was certainly rougher than the three Mk2 998 Coopers I've had. My current '68 998 loves to rev, I'm not sure what final drive is in it but in third and fourth gear it absolutely flies. My first one 'UWD 672G' was my everyday car from 1999 to 2004 and it served me very well on all kinds of roads, I wish I still had it. My second 'SCV 272G' is now owned by Kev Robinson of this parish and is a peach of a car.

Never owned a Mk1 997 or 998 Cooper but would love to one day!

[Peter Laidler]

I wouldn't worry about it none WMU. Your Mk2 998 Coopers were as good as it gets - in my opinion of course. It's well known that I love 'em to bits.

In fact I love 'em so much I've been trying to buy a mid '69 Cooper (but registered 3/70) for 18 months now. It's local, unused and unloved but garaged and covered in household crap etc but I'll keep on trying............

[richardACS]

I wouldn't worry about it none WMU. Your Mk2 998 Coopers were as good as it gets - in my opinion of course. It's well known that I love 'em to bits.

In fact I love 'em so much I've been trying to buy a mid '69 Cooper (but registered 3/70) for 18 months now. It's local, unused and unloved but garaged and covered in household crap etc but I'll keep on trying............

Best of luck Peter, what colour? (mine was El Paso Beige with the white roof) came with a lovely registration 5522MM, in those days nice plates were not the thing they are today and I sold it with the car!

[Peter Laidler]

Hi Rich. The colour, white, was a bit of an enigma. A very late, post Oct '69 'H' should have been glacier. But this one is snowberry. A bit of digging showed that it was made in early '69 and remained unsold and unloved. Presumably in a dealers showroom as unsaleable with the Mk3's and 1275GT's now on stream. But I simply can't get Mr Tosser to sell it in spite of a large offer of cash in used notes in a tesco bag waved under his nose AND his wife's recently. She's gagging for it....., the money I mean, but.....

If I go on, I'll start to get weepy over its eventual fate. Pass me a box of Kleenex.....

[snoopy64]

Don’t worry…. Nidge is going to need the tissues when I take him for a spin in SCV

[WMU 211G]

Don’t worry…. Nidge is going to need the tissues when I take him for a spin in SCV

Well I've only been waiting thirteen years Kev...

I'm sort of entertaining the idea of buying the lovely and genuine '65 Mk1 Cooper that my mate owned from 2003 to 2016 but alas I've run out of space...

https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1735822

As mentioned elsewhere, the first owner took it off the road in 1973 and it sat in his garage until my mate bought it in 2003, the guy he sold it to in 2016 has restored it and now it's up for grabs again.

[richardACS]

Don’t worry…. Nidge is going to need the tissues when I take him for a spin in SCV

Well I've only been waiting thirteen years Kev...

I'm sort of entertaining the idea of buying the lovely and genuine '65 Mk1 Cooper that my mate owned from 2003 to 2016 but alas I've run out of space...

https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1735822

As mentioned elsewhere, the first owner took it off the road in 1973 and it sat in his garage until my mate bought it in 2003, the guy he sold it to in 2016 has restored it and now it's up for grabs again.

I bet that Cooper comes with all the right cabin smells!