My forth car – Mini Cooper S (Rally)
The year was 1978, the car was a Mini Cooper S, I had sold the 850 and travelled to Sydney to buy a Cooper S to build into a Rally Car. The first car I went to look at was advertised, just as a Cooper S, but when I got there to look at it, it was a Rally car, a lot of the rally stuff had been pulled off it, but it had a half cage, a Weber and a sump guard. It was rough, but it was cheep so I bought it. I was now in Sydney with two cars, I don’t remember why my sister was in Sydney, but she was, and so she drove my road Cooper S with my Grand Mother in the passenger seat and I drove the rally Cooper S with my Grand Father in the passenger seat. Now this was long before the Sydney to Newcastle freeway or all the other road improvements of today, so Sydney to Maclean was a long way. My Grand Parents would take two days when they travelled up to visit, but me and my sister were young so we decided to do it in one day. (my sister tells me that we took two day, but she can’t remember why she was in Sydney) We filled up at Taree and then just outside Grafton the rally Cooper S conked out, the fuel gauge did not work and it had run out of petrol, my road Cooper S still had just under half a tank. That Weber really liked the petrol, my sister drove into Grafton and returned with some petrol, problem solved.
I entered an Economy run organized by Coffs Harbour and District Sporting Car Club and the Cooper S finished last, and then while competing in a two day Motorkhana, I stalled it during the second or third test, doing a hand brake turn, and it flooded. It took thirty second to restart, by the end of the second day I managed to pull back that thirty second and win, but only by a few seconds. The Weber came off after that, replaced by twin SU’s. The 1978 Bellinger Valley Rally was another disaster. Rally cars required Log Books by then and I did not know this so I was not allowed to start. We entered a Rally in the Armidale area a few months later (now had a Log Book) but we ended up (as I did on many occasions) stuck in a creek, in the middle of no ware, in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter. After that event I decided to get a rear wheel drive car to rally.
The Cooper S continued on for many years, I painted it to match the road Cooper S, and I used it for motorkhanas, Hillclimbs, and for a while, as my daily driver. But eventually, time and money weighed heavy on me and the motor in the mini started to feel it’s age. Driving into Grafton one day, I was pulled over by the Police, not the Highway Patrol, by detectives, the Mini was blowing so much smoke, it was gassing them. It was not there job and it was too much trouble for them to fine me, so they told me to fix it. That was never going to happen, so it got parked, and sold to finance the purchase of the Rally Dolly, but not for some time.
I had some great times with that car, lots of motorsport, lots of adventures and not a lot of trouble, that I can remember any way. Tune in same duck time, same duck channel for more adventures with cars.