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Post by Ministrone on Mar 6, 2016 21:33:09 GMT
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Villain
Director
Nine Elms, 1970, looking for the loot...
Posts: 1,296
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Post by Villain on Mar 7, 2016 12:17:03 GMT
Nice one Ministrone, thanks for posting those Here's AA1000 as found in the lock up... Villain
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Post by Superclassic on Mar 7, 2016 20:22:42 GMT
What a lovely Mini.So iconic,they were really something in the 60s,especially with The Beatles driving them,too.Great thread,Villain.
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Post by Ministrone on Mar 7, 2016 21:50:57 GMT
...........especially with The Beatles driving them and there's another thread we need to start
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Post by Sam Tyler on Mar 7, 2016 22:01:18 GMT
I wonder what had happened to it between these pictures? The change of front number plate seems the least of the issues...
Sam.
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Villain
Director
Nine Elms, 1970, looking for the loot...
Posts: 1,296
Online Status:
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Post by Villain on Mar 8, 2016 11:42:24 GMT
Even as special as it was Sam, it would have been seen as just another Mini by the early '70s, an old banger not worth bothering with. Sad but true! By then, even the following Mk2 and Mk3 Cooper S's would be looked on in the same way, once old Lord Stokes in his wisdom had decided that British Leyland didn't need the Cooper name anymore to sell 'hot' Minis, the Mk3 Cooper S was quietly dropped in July '71. Before the decision was made he had a meeting with John Cooper and asked him why he still got £2 commission on every Cooper sold, John's reply was quite flippant, ''oh I just come up to Longbridge once a fortnight to wind old Issigonis up!'', and there ended the connection between JC and BL! Stokes honestly thought that the new fangled Mini Clubman 1275GT was a worthy replacement for the Cooper models and that it would be cheaper to insure, but it turned out to cost more to insure than the outgoing models. It sold very well with about 110,000 being made between 1969 and 1980 but it never quite had the kudos of the Cooper S. The Mk3 Cooper S is very rare with only 1580 being built between March '70 and July '71, despite not looking that different to normal Mini 850s and 100s they are very sought after now. By the late '80s all '60s Minis were seen as proper classics which in itself helped to save some great cars, 'AA1000' included. I don't know how much its restoration cost but I'd imagine its owner has it a decent insurance valuation on it, probably somewhere in the region of £40-50k due to the fact that it's a genuine Radford Cooper S and a famous one at that. It may even be higher than that. One of George Harrision's Radfords is currently up for grabs at a dealer in Lancashire (it's a 1964 car which he bought for his first wife Patti Boyd), it was advertised last year at £40k but has more recently appeared in adverts with 'price on application'... make of that what you will! Ministrone - I was thinking of starting a specific thread for classic Minis, I've got plenty of material for one and I dare say you do too... Villain
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