13 replies to this topic

[Poppet2]

Surely most people would want a 1275cc cooper as its a faster engine.

[nicklouse]

There is more than one version of the special. 
 

there is the European Mini Special that was built in the late 70s early 80s then there is the Mini special built in the UK using most of the features from the Euro special and was a limited edition for the 20 years anniversary.

 

nothing to do with power.

[stuart bowes]

a lot of car manufacturers do 'specials' which usually means a few stickers, some bits in a different colour, maybe a pretty interior and so on

 

it's usually a way to try and shift a load of cars because they made too many (think ford in the 90's with their escorts and fiestas), but sometimes to celebrate 20 / 30 / 50 years etc

Edited by stuart bowes, Yesterday, 12:07 PM.

[Ethel]

Good question.

 

In '79 BL (or was it Austin Rover?) were about to launch the Metro with its A+ power unit being common across all models that had previously used the A Series. The 1098 wasn't to be included in new models (Allegro 3, Metro...), so there's always been speculation they had a load of 1098 components on their inventory to use up. It wasn't even certain that wouldn't be true for the Mini generally.

 

The bits that made an A series a 1098 instead of a 998 would do the same in an A+ and that's what happened as the Clubby Estate soldiered on.

 

Why not a 1275? - they'd always told us 1275 Minis needed disc brakes (just the UK???) and that would have added cost. An 1100 would be cheaper to insure too. The square nosed Clubman & 1275GT were still on the scene and it was the birth of the Mini, with a round nose, they were celebrating / trying to cash in on.

[roblightbody]

In 1979 when the Mini special came out, the Mini was mostly sold for its excellent fuel efficiency (reading contemporary Autocar road tests, it was still amongst the best of any car).  The jump from 998cc to 1100 in a roundnose would have been quite exciting at the time for people who still liked Minis.  And a bigger engine in a roundnose wasn't to come again to the Mini until 11 years later.

 

Off the top of my head, over the other roundnose minis at the time it had 

- vinyl roof

- side stripes

- wide alloys & arches

- center console

- triple-pack GT style dials

- Radio and cigar lighter (!)

- 1100 instead of 998.

[beardylondon]

+ rear clubman bumper, fitted on the front and rear!
+ under dash [storage] bin

Edited by beardylondon, Yesterday, 05:26 PM.

[sonikk4]

Different wing repeaters as well.

[nicklouse]

​

[Ethel]

UK Minis didn't wing repeaters before the '79 spesh. It was pretty much a round nose Clubby... with GT clocks, alloys & a centre console.

[stevie77]

I think they were the first Mini in the UK to have the wider plastic arches as well.
I saw this Special at a Mini meet last year. I think they look great.

[beardylondon]

Great pic, but it has gold wheels, there were not gold!

I think they were the first Mini in the UK to have the wider plastic arches as well.
I saw this Special at a Mini meet last year. I think they look great.

[stevie77]

Ah I didn’t know that, I thought it was just part of the Special extras they had! 🤣

Great pic, but it has gold wheels, there were not gold!

I think they were the first Mini in the UK to have the wider plastic arches as well.
I saw this Special at a Mini meet last year. I think they look great.

[Spider]

Interesting production history / model line up.

 

Here in the outpost, our production facilities were very much a smaller show than that of the UK and likewise, our local market was smaller, though, we did exports too, more so of the Moke than the Mini. With these limitations, they tended to produce only 2-ish models at any one 'period'.

 

While we did have an 850 Mini for a few years early on, the power unit for that was fully imported. That model was dropped in 1965 (including the 850 engine from all models)  for the Mini Deluxe that was fitted with a locally made 998. We did get the 997 Cooper, briefly, though I have a recollecion these were fully imported. This was later replaced with the 998 Cooper, though I'm not sure if these were locally assembled. They were always very very thin on the ground. We always had locally made Cooper S models from 1964 only ever in 1275 guise, and all had twin tanks, though the factory did import a very small number of 1071 models. The power units for these were all fully imported.

 

In 1968, the Deluxe was replaced with the Mini K (K for Kangaroo), which was very similar in spec to the Deluxe, but was fitted with an 1100 engine and the All Synchro gearbox. The 998 engine was dropped completely from our engine range, even the Moke and the Van had the 1100 fitted.

 

In 1971 the Round Nose model finished here when we got the Clubman. The 1100 engine continued in this model to 1975. When the Cooper S finished, also in 1971, it was replaced with the Clubman GT. This was nothing like the 1275GT, it was a Cooper S in every respect, only fitted in to a Clubman body, the only part that didn't carry ever other than the body was the loss of the Oil Pressure Gauge. The Cooper S Hydro was retained, twin fuel tanks, everything. I always felt it was the pinnacle of our model line up, great car, used by our Highway Patrol for a while (as was the Cooper S when they were in production). The GT finished in 1973. In 1974, BL worldwide was 'broke' and strapped for cash, our local Zetalnd factory finished at the end of that year, which was a great shame, while it was a smaller operation than that of the UK, we did have the only Roto-dip there outside of the UK.

While our main assembly plant was at Zetland and that was sold off, they did also have smaller operations at Enfield and Moorebank. Enfield was 'expanded' and while many of the BL cars were dropped from local production, the Mini and the Moke continued there. All engines were fully imported from the UK, we lost our 1100 in 'favour' of the 998 which was the mainstay and only power unit we had until later in 1978, when they did a 'run out' model of the Mini tagging it the 1275 LS, which was for all intents very similar to the 1275GT. The other 998 Minis also continued. The 1275 engine was also offered as an option in the Moke too at this time. While the Mini did finish in October 1978, the Moke carried on until December 1981, with either 998 or 1275 engines being offered.

[mab01uk]

The 1100 Special was launched in August 1979 to celebrate the Mini’s big 20th birthday at a celebratory event in Donington in 1979 which was the first large Mini event I attended!. In the end, 5100 were built after the initial planned run of 2500 sold out in double quick time, forcing BL to run off an additional 2600.

 

The Mini 1100 Special (AROnline) :-

https://www.aronline...i/1100-special/

 

A year later, (along with the Clubman saloon and estate), the 1275GT was phased out on the introduction of the Metro in August 1980 (final chassis no. was XE2D200 744571 & total production was 110,673)....the price was too close to overlapping the new 1.3 Metros so sadly only the cheaper 998 & 850 Mini saloons remained in production.

 

Interestingly it is on record (from ex-BL workers) that an 850cc A-series engine cost more to produce in the later years than a 998cc because of the lower volumes in production.....even though the 850 Mini had to be sold for less it actually cost more to build as the entry level small car in the Mini range!

 

I suspect the same thing happened later with the 998cc in the 1990's.....when the Metro stopped using the 998cc A-series (when it swapped to K-Series) and the 1990's Rover Coopers sold greater numbers of the 1275cc, so the 998cc volumes for only Mini's became uneconomic to produce, along with meeting stricter emissions testing. Large production volumes are key to lower costs in the car industry, even more so today as manufacturers strive to share common platforms and engines.

 

The Mini 850 (City & SDL) was discontinued in 1980 on introduction of the Metro although the 850 engine was available in the Minivan for a further two years (1982).

The A+ engine in the Metro was only the 998 & 1275cc.

 

August 1980: Production of Mini City 850 ended (final chassis number XK2S1000743113) and Mini 850 SDL (final chassis number XK2S1N00743003).

September 1980: Models oficially withdrawn from sale as the 998cc engined City replaced 848cc City.

Edited by mab01uk, Yesterday, 11:03 PM.