The Mini Cooper was a development of the original British Motor Corporation Mini. With more powerful engines, new brakes, certain other tweaks and a distinctive paint job the car had some success in the rallies of the 1960s and as a production car.
The first 850cc Mini was produced in 1959. John Cooper of the Cooper Car Company was loaned an early production version and fitted it with a 997cc engine, boosting power from 34 bhp to 55 bhp, and disc brakes. Designed for Group 2 rally racing, initially 1,000 of this type were built to meet the homologation rules but when production ended in 1967 12,274 had been made. In 1963 production of a more powerful version had begun, Cooper had taken a new 1071cc engine and increased the size of the brake discs, this was manufactured for the public as the Cooper S from April until August 1964 with 4,030 produced.
In 1964 the car had its first major rally success, winning the Monte Carlo Rally - a feat it repeated in the next three years (the team were disqualified on a technicality in 1966). Cooper also produced versions for circuit racing, a 970cc and a 1275cc (76 bhp) model, both of which were offered to the public. The smaller engined model was not well recived and only 963 were built up to mid-1965 but the 1275cc was much more popular.
With the introuction of the Mk. II body production of the Coopers in 998cc and 1275cc continued. Following the merger of BMC with Leyland Motors in 1968 production of the 998cc variant was ended in 1969 with over 55,000 cars produced. Production of the 1275cc variant continued until January 1972, it was updated to the Mk. III body in 1969-70 and was largely indistinguishable from the original Mini. Export production continued until 1975. With continuing demand the Cooper company was quick to develop and sell a conversion kit.
A new Mini Cooper was briefly relaunched from 1990-1991, with slighter lower performance than the 1960s Cooper, 1,000 examples of this type were manufactured with a 63bhp 1275cc engine. Again proving popular a new Cooper-marked Mini went into production in late 1991 with a fuel-injected version of the 998cc engine, this remained in production until October 2000. It was upgraded to twin-point injection in 1997 and was also given a front mounted radiator and various safety improvements.
The new BMW MINI One, produced since 2001, includes a 115 bhp Cooper version since 2002.
