17 replies to this topic

[taffy1967]

Well I read somewhere that the Flame Red, Racing Green and Check Mate (along with the RSP) were introduced to test the market and see if there was a demand for sporty minis before they decided to bring the Cooper back. Seems like your Flame Red did exactly that

Is your Cooper an SPI/catalytic convert or a carb/catalytic converter? I didn't remember that there were Coopers in 91/92 other than the RSP (should have done after working in a Mini garrage for a year...)

I'd say the Flame Red, Racing Green and then the Check Mate tested the market to see if people were interested in a sporty looking Mini here in the UK. After all JCG even produced the Cooper tuning kit for them.

The RSP Mini Cooper LE was launched in July 1990 and that wasn't used to test the market to see if the Mini Cooper was going to sell, because the Mainstream Mini Cooper was already on the cards and being built. But Rover wanted to kick start the relaunch of the Cooper brand with a special model to get as much publicity as possible.

[taffy1967]

Well I read somewhere that the Flame Red, Racing Green and Check Mate (along with the RSP) were introduced to test the market and see if there was a demand for sporty minis before they decided to bring the Cooper back. Seems like your Flame Red did exactly that

Yes, after seeing the RSP, I wanted a 'new' Cooper but, couldn't afford one at the time so kept the Flame until I could.

Is your Cooper an SPI/catalytic convert or a carb/catalytic converter? I didn't remember that there were Coopers in 91/92 other than the RSP (should have done after working in a Mini garrage for a year...)

My Cooper was an Spi, (1.3i). It was one of the first injection models, being registered in 1991. Between the RSP and the 1.3i's, Rover produced, what are now known as, 'mainstream' Coopers which were carb/cat and they were only built for just over a year. These had the same interior as the Racing/Flame, no bonnet stripes or spotlamps and, IIRC didn't even have tinted glass.

The seats were similar, but not identical on the Mainstream Coopers. Plus you could almost bring them up to RSP Cooper LE spec with the optional extras Rover provided at the time: -

[taffy1967]

Further proof that Rover were committed to the new Mini Cooper and the RSP LE just helped launch the model: -