This car, Lot 228, sold for $138,790, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival auction on September 13, 2014.
What an interesting survivor. And how charming that it’s latterly been raced by the man who bought it new, although of course those “Championships” are class and not outright wins — you need a Lotus Cortina for that. It sold for the level of money you’d expect only a genuine Works-built car to achieve, and we need to understand why.
First, the successful bid is a “sum-of-its-parts” valuation. It would be hard or even impossible to replicate this race winner for the money paid here. As ever, buying someone’s already-completed race car or project is cheaper than starting from scratch.
Early pictures show it racing in presumably stock trim, judging by the full interior, lack of roll cage, and 4½-inch wheels, and later it was a rally car, but now it’s in full race spec.
Mini in name, but not in price
Does it really cost this much to build a winning Mini? Absolutely. The price of a half-decent standard 1275 Cooper “S” is around £25,000 ($40k), and a Swiftune FIA-spec engine and transmission package, which includes ancillaries, will set you back £27,500 ($43,650). Preparing the body shell with roll cage, paint and plumbed extinguisher costs at least £10k ($16k) and already we’ve little left over for labor within the budget, let alone sorting out the suspension and brakes.
Ironically, it’s the FIA rulebook that makes preparing a fast car so expensive, as we shall see below.
The “total restoration” and build into a race car was by Rae Davis Racing, which also produces the fastest A35s in the world. The work involved a re-shell, as the one it arrived with was too far gone after years of rallying — and it may not have been the original anyway. Don’t read too much into the patch screwed to the floor covering the original gearstick hole, as all Mk 1 Coopers were like this, according to Davis.
Damage caused by the major “off” at Spa in 2007 was repaired, and the car was not re-shelled again as far as Davis knows, but not having its original body shouldn’t affect the value. Re-shelling damaged competition cars was common practice back in the day, and almost none of the original Works cars reside within their original bodywork. Either way, as part of this pristine, race-prepared package, even after several seasons the shell was dead-straight and shiny, with immaculate floors.
Stretching and bending rules
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile racing regulations, to which most historic racing in Europe conforms, are quite restrictive. They essentially allow only what was done in period, with the goal of keeping cars technically stock. So, you can’t just bolt on any go-faster bits that you like.
But with careful reading of the rules, the Mini’s once-75-horsepower, 1,275-cc, long-stroke slugger becomes a 1,293-cc, fully balanced, 120-hp screamer. Mysteriously, a little negative camber appears at the wheels — even though Mini suspension isn’t adjustable.
“It’s a black art, and you have to be a bit devious,” Rae Davis admitted. “You want more castor on the front too, but pulling the front wheels forward makes the wheelbase too long, and you can’t move the rear wheels forward to compensate as you would on a Lotus Cortina. Ideally you want a Mini to corner on three wheels to help kill the understeer, otherwise they push the front, so the rear anti-roll bar and the dampers are very important.”
The minimum weight for an FIA Mini Cooper S is 620 kg (1,366 pounds), and you can be sure it’s down to that, as they can be built under 600 kg and ballasted back up. This car carried the usual pedal extension mods, so the driver can heel-and-toe — in fact, legendary Mini rally exponent Paddy Hopkirk marketed just such a device in period as a bolt-on go-faster aid.
Numbers confusion, but the price is right
Both the engine and chassis numbers were incorrectly quoted in the catalog. The VIN CA287551918, which is only 417 numbers after the first Austin Cooper 1275 S, should start CA2S, so the S has been misread as an 8, and the engine number 9FDSA731962 was more likely correctly to have been 9FDSAY. I don’t think we need read anything too sinister into that, as the car has had FIA papers that identify it as a genuine Cooper (of course they need renewing upon change of ownership), plus there’s that Heritage Certificate which does the same.
The bottom line is that, although a couple of FIA-spec Minis have recently sold cheaper at auction, the sums certainly stack up on this one, and as a ready-to-go, proven winner with an almost-fresh engine, it needs no more spending or expensive track time for shaking it down.
Tiny racer, massive provenance
What makes this car so attractive is that Goodwood provenance.
Although it might not guarantee a future entry to the best old-car event in the world, owners like to think it makes a difference, and having appeared there both when new and at the Revival, there is every hope this car might one day be invited back. With owners desperate to appear there, every little bit of perceived clout adds value. This is the price of fame, folks.
So, though you never quite get your money back on race cars, I’d call it fairly bought and realistically sold. ♦(Introductory description courtesy of Bonhams.)
