1967 | Morris Mini Cooper 998 MK1

Small Runabout, Big Legend – 1967 Morris Cooper Mini

When the Suez crisis broke out in 1956, petrol became scarce in Great Britain. The British Motor Corporation needed a new small car that was also affordable for the growing middle class.

Engineer Alec Issigonis was given free rein. He pulled the axles as far apart as possible, installed the engine transversely and the gearbox directly underneath. The result was a miracle in terms of space: a car just three metres long accommodating four adults. The doors had wide pockets for bottles of milk or beer. In return, Issigonis did without wind-up windows. The Mini was actually meant to be fun to drive, and that’s precisely what it was: the steering was as direct as on a go-kart, and the roadholding uncompromising (as was the suspension). Encouraged by the small wheels positioned at the corners and the hard springs.

The Mini, initially marketed under both the Austin and Morris brands, was well received by numerous celebrities, most notably Princess Margaret, as well as the model Twiggy, Paul McCartney and Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the last Shah of Iran. Formula 1 racing car manufacturer John Cooper added extra glamour, tuning the engine and retrofitting disc brakes. The Mini Cooper won the Monte Carlo Rally three times in the 1960s. Its dominance was so strong that the race commissioners tried to prevent it from winning under hair-raising pretexts. At the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands, Englishman Tony Fall was disqualified because of a missing air filter element. He had previously successfully asked for permission to remove the paper filter.

The smallest becomes the biggest; the biggest often becomes the fastest. If the Mini is one thing, it’s unconventional. In a time of social upheaval, it's a car that women and men of all classes can identify with. The model is so popular that it even outlived its successor, the Mini Metro, and was manufactured right up to 2000 – a total of 5.3 million times.

Our auction vehicle is a Swiss delivery and is presumed to have had only one previous owner. Extensive repairs to the body and mechanics have been carried out in recent years, so that the vehicle is now in good general condition. A classic at a fair price, which guarantees every new owner a fun drive combined with attention from all sides.