THE UNSTOPPABLE RISE OF JOHN COOPER

Mini Cooper? Yup, Mini Cooper… it rolls off the tongue today just as happily as it did for the first time 60 years ago. Everyone recalls that name, that wonderful name. Let’s just suppose that BMC had linked up with any other motorsport company of the period. Suppose you could have bought a Mini Lotus, a Mini BRM or even a Mini Vanwall? Somehow, I reckon, it would not have worked.

Let’s dig back into motorsport history and see how Cooper Cars ever came into contact with BMC in the first place. Let’s also demolish the oft-repeated rumour that John Cooper had never met Mini’s designer Alec Issigonis before work started on the Mini Cooper, or that Issigonis was not at all interested in motorsport; not true and a dig into the archives makes that very clear.

John Cooper and Alec Issigonis were both involved in motorsport even before WW II broke out. Their paths must have crossed, however briefly, at and around Brooklands in the late 1930s. John’s father, Charles,