17 replies to this topic

[Shooter63]

OK I'll be a bit less cryptic, the reason there are so many Cooper and CooperS cars about is because they have been rung into lesser models, body wise there is nothing special about a cooper save a few easily welded in brackets, it was the running gear that changed. Back in the day if you scrapped a car and you were supposed to send the logbook back to DVLA stating what you had done, but alot of people just kept them, fast forward 30 years those logbooks are now worth a tidy sum as it gives the car its title, hence people buy a base model get new chassis plates made up,change the running gear and Robert is one of the family near instant 50K car. Something to remember most Coopers would have been wet ie hydro cars only the very early ones would be dry.
As I side note one of my friends races an appendix K Cooper S we always laugh how miraculous it is that SO many early cars have survived to a point that there seems to be more raced then were made in those years

Shooter

[sonscar]

I always buy the cheapest there is,that way you will have been ripped off less.These cars are old and may not be as they seem.Once you pump up the tyres originality starts being lost.Beware is the only advice I can give.Steve..

[mab01uk]

Many Mk1 850 Automatic Minis became reborn as Mk1 Cooper S back in the 1980/90's as 850 Auto Minis were often low mileage, one owner, garaged from new and owned by older persons often female. This made the 850 Auto a great source of cheap rust free bodyshells long before it became economic to rebuild a rusted or damaged Cooper S shell with new panels or more recently a BMH Mk1 shell. A Cooper or S built from an old S logbook/V5, parts and a lesser models bodyshell is often known as a 'flat pack' re-creation but only an expert eye can spot the wrong details or if well done it can be impossible to tell...also depends how important 'provenance' is to the buyer.

Same thing happens in the Ford world where many cars like Mk1 Ford Escort RS and Mexicos, etc started life as a lesser model but were later upgraded....

Edited by mab01uk, 01 July 2022 - 10:42 PM.