Here is the complete anthology and full collection of every single piece of detail information, history, and pictures for Austin Mini Cooper since 1959. This page will explain MAINLY the Mini Cooper from 1961 to 1969 together with the detail parts, model year, and how it looks like. This is to keep all mini cars lover confuse about the common Mini with the Mini Cooper. We provide Austin and Morris Mini Cooper as well as Austin and Morris Cooper S information in order to helps Mini lovers disambiguate the Cooper and the normal Mini as they all just look the same from MK1 to MK7.

Where the Mini Cooper come from? The Mini was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and first launched by BMC in 1959. The first Mini was introduced as Austin Seven Mini. Two years later in 1961, Issigonis’ good friend saw the potential of the Austin Mini becoming rally cars for competition, he proposed to Issigonis to create a high performance Mini. Initially Issigonis reluctant to make the Mini a performance car as he wanted to keep it an economical car. However, his friend appealed to BMC management and that’s where two of them started to collaborate and create the Mini Cooper which first unveiled in 1961. Issigonis’ friend had made a big changed to Mini’s life, and this friend is the well known John Cooper.

Mini Cooper between 1961 to 1967

In 1961, the first MK1 generation Mini Cooper debuted as Austin seven Cooper, Austin Mini Cooper, and Morris Mini Cooper. The Austin and Morris Mini Cooper both cars eventually were the same model but each of them carry their own badge and decals. Both Morris and Austin are under BMC. The production of MK1 Cooper ends in 1967.

• Badges, Stickers: Austin Cooper/Morris Cooper decals
• Body and color: External door hinge, sliding window, contrasting roof colour
• Brakes: Front disc brakes
• Gear: fitted with close ratio gearbox
• Grilles, Brightwork: Austin version had 11 grille slats while Morris version had 7 grille slats
• Engine: 997cc, 55 bhp. The 997 cc engine was replaced by a shorter stroke 998 cc in 1964. Therefore, Austin and Morris Mini Cooper from 1961 to 1964 is running 997cc engine and 1964 to 1967 is running 998 cc engine. This makes the 997 cc Mini Cooper very less in the market today.
• Fuel system: Twin SU carburettors
• Original price: £679

Mini Cooper between 1967 to 1969

Here comes the MK2 generation. The Cooper continues its production from 1967 to 1969. The slipper-look rear lights have been changed to rectangular type, a larger rear windscreen, and both Austin and Morris Cooper received new grille style as standard.

Mini Cooper S

The Cooper S appears in between 1963 and 1964. Cooper S is a more powerful and sportier version featuring a 1071 cc engine, larger servo-assisted disc brakes, Cooper S badges and 120 mph central speedometer. There were ONLY 4,030 Cooper S were produced and sold until August 1964, this makes the ‘S’ more valuable to collect.

Later on from 1964 to 1965, Cooper introduced Austin Mini Cooper S and Morris Mini Cooper S fitted with 970cc engine for circuit racing in the under 1000cc. In between 1964 to 1967, Cooper also introduced the most powerful version of Austin and Morris Cooper S which carrying the best 1275cc engine specifically for circuit racing in the under 1300cc. This is the best version among all Cooper S, it featured 130mph central speedometer, single colour, and 4 ½ rims as standard. The Cooper S version featured twin fuel tanks as standard from 1966.

Mini Cooper S between 1967 to 1971

The MKII/MK2 Cooper S comes between 1967 and 1971. All Cooper S in this generation comes with twin fuel tanks and 4 ½ rims as standard.

Victory of Mini Cooper S in Monte Carlo Rally

Despite only having 78 hp, the Minis achieve the victory.

Total sales of Mini Cooper

In the end, a total number of 5,387,862 Minis were sold, making it by far the most popular British car ever made. The table here shows the total number of Cooper and Cooper S were sold among all Mini sold since 1959 to 2000.

Mini Cooper production dates and chassis numbers

This table gives a little guide to help when buying an original Austin Mini Cooper or Mini Cooper S. There is no wrong buying a replica Cooper but do not pay the Cooper price for a modified Mini, pay the Cooper price for a genuine Cooper.

There is total number of 7 generations in classic Mini,

Mini Mark 1 – MK1/MKI
Mini Mark 2 – MK2/MKII
Mini Mark 3 – MK3/MKIII
Mini Mark 4 – MK4/MKIV
Mini Mark 5 – MK5/MKV
Mini Mark 6 – MK6/MKVI
Mini Mark 7 – MK7/MKVII

On November 1969, BMC announced the names of Austin and Morris were dropped from the Mini. All the cars from there onwards are known as “Mini”, “Mini Cooper”, and “Mini Cooper S”. This had given an end to the name Morris Mini Cooper and Austin Mini Cooper.