OWNER PROFILE
26 July 2019 MiniWorld
[ 1967 Mk1 A stin Cooper S ]
PeterGaasbeek
Age: 54
Occupation:
Financial advisor
Dream cars: Aston Martins
Married/single?
Married to Marjolein
Any children?
Two sons: Daan and Olaf
Any pets? Spot, a hunting Labrador
Favourite food: Lasagne
Worst job on a Mini: Radiator removal
Favourite Mini suppliers/specialists:
Mini Spares and Verbaas Preparationssame family for a while before Peter
bought it. “The seller helped me with the
transport to the shipping company,” he
says. “It went on a roll-on roll-off ship
and it took only nine days from Florida
to Amsterdam. It was delayed twice
Twin tanks supply fuel via a
Facet electronic fuel pump.Mk1 Cooper S piano hinges allow
access to the rear mounting points
for the Sabelt four-point harnesses.because the ship was fully booked.”
Arriving in the Netherlands in May
2008, the condition of the Cooper S was
reasonable with Island Blue and white
exterior paintwork and a Gold Brocade
Grey interior. Supplied with a Heritage
certificate stating a build date of 19 May
1967, Peter felt assured it was original,
but looked for further evidence, such
as matching numbers for the bodyshell
and engine. He also spotted there was
some damage to the rear valance. The
outer sills had been replaced in the past
for an incorrect type: the Mk1 Cooper S
should have outer sills with four flutes.
The plan to strip and rebuild the
Cooper S didn’t get underway until
2010 when Peter decided to allocate
one evening per week to the project. “I
stripped the car to a bare shell. Nothing
was left in place,” he remembers. “I had
the body put in an oven, to bake off all
the paint, and Dinitroll inside it. I did
everything with a very good friend of
mine, Eric van den Einden. We had lots offun and discovered everything ourselves.”
The Cooper S had Hydrolastic
suspension fitted when Peter bought it
but he decided to remove all of this and
fit Moulton dry rubber cones instead.
With the intention to make a rally car, he
felt that the floating-on-fluid setup wasn’t
suitable (although many Works rally
drivers preferred Hydrolastic). He sourced
a pair of subframes from Verbaas Rally
Preparations, had them seam-welded for
additional strength and assembled them
with standard rubber cones and trumpets
but with Koni adjustable dampers.
Frans Verbaas, from Verbaas
Preparations, was asked to rebuild the
1275cc A-series engine that came with
the Cooper S. Boring out the cylinders
by +0.060”, it now displaces 1330cc
and offers 110bhp at the flywheel. Take
a look at the Tech Spec panel below.
Modifications to this engine have been
quite extensive. MED supplied one of
their modified cylinder heads with
1.5:1 high-lift roller rocker gear andRear vision is aided by bullet
mirrors and a driver’s side
clip-on overtaking mirror.»