6 replies to this topic

[Bass Man]

I just want to take an opinion from people who have owned Minis a bit longer than me....

I am going to look at a 1990 Mini Cooper this weekend, I thing this is one of the early revamped Rover Minis, with the single carb. the bottoms of the doors are gone and there is some rust around the headlights but I will be taking an independent engineer with me so I don't buy a pup.

What I would like from you guys is an overall opinion of the car, is it comparable with the early Minis, does it drive like them and is it similar to work on, does it have a poorer resale value because it is a 'Rover'. I am assuming that calling it a 'Cooper' is mainly a cosmetic sales pitch, does this effect the insurance?

I hope to pay approximately £500 for it

[Dan]

A 1990 Cooper is very likely to be a Racing/Flame/Checkmate based official conversion, although if it is then it should have twin carbs. What engine size does it have and what colour is it?

Edited by Dan, 26 January 2007 - 04:25 PM.

[Bungle]

a rover cooper is never going to be a austin/morris cooper but its a good car very tuneable and a fun drive

i bought mine new in 1990 and still own it

[Bass Man]

Dan, I don't know any details yet, I am merely going on some research I did on the model, I think it is single carb but am not sure, the first relaunched one had the red carpet and steering wheel, I think this is later and more of a budget version. Apparently at the time if you wanted the car to have an official conversion you had to buy it first then drive it to have the conversion done, then wait a few more weeks before you could drive it. Apparently not a lot of these were done!

Bungle - is yours a single carb model?

[Dan]

The Racing/Flame/Checkmate conversion was the first re-launch model. They were available 89-90 as a kit. John Cooper and his John Cooper Garages in Worthing had noticed the popularity of the Mini and his bespoke conversions was increasing, along with the success of the ERA Turbo so he approached Rover about the possibility of re-launching the official Mini Cooper. They agreed to the sale of a kit which would count as an official conversion and be covered by warranty. It was an option on the 998cc Mini Racing/Flame/Checkmate special edition series only. Just 2500 of these special editions were available and only 1000 kits (bear in mind they were hand made by JCG in Worthing). All the kits sold out in under a week. The kit arrived with your car in a large wooden box on the back seat (the exhause was packaged seperately) and had to be fitted by the dealer but only because Rover didn't want to re-tool the production line for the sake of an experiment. You didn't actually have to drive the car, it was just a dealer fit option. The success of this kit lead to Rover developing the next stage in the re-launch which was the RSP. Sold as the Cooper LE (Limited Edition) I believe and built by hand by RSP or Rover Special Products because they still didn't want to comit to changing the production line for an experimental model. Again this car was a phenominal success so finally Rover (they weren't too bright) got the message and designed a proper, official Mini Cooper. The production line was re-engineered and what became known as the mainstream Cooper (to distinguish it from the others) started coming down the line by the end of the year. So in 1990 you have all three models (Cooper Conversion, RSP and Mainstream Cooper) in production, this car could be one of any of those or could even be a dodgy home built conversion. It's quite easy to determine which is which if you know what you're looking for. The conversion is the only one with a 998 engine and twin carbs. The other two both have single carb engines in 1990 I think.

Edited by Dan, 26 January 2007 - 05:15 PM.

[Bungle]

Bungle - is yours a single carb model?

yes mine is a single carbed 1275 engine

mine was bought new in October 1990 for £6250 and is the main stream type (non rsp)

[Bass Man]

Thanks Dan, a mine of information. Hopefully get to go see it over the weekend, after all this it might even be a badly neglected example, the doors are certainly gone!

Thanks again