BUY A COOPER
The Cooper in our photos is one of the very last, fi rst registered in April 2000 and featuring the Sport Pack with the chunky Yokohama-shod 13-inch
wheels and arch extensions. It also goes by the name ‘Cooper S Works’ signifying the 90 bhp John Cooper upgrade complete with side-exit twin
tailpipes which makes a real difference to the way these cars go.
With just 25,400 miles and a black/silver leather interior, it’s the closest you’ll get to buying a brand new classic Cooper S and you’ll need £14,995
to hand before speaking to GC Minis at http://www.gcminis.co.uk or 01322 665141.
Despite the Cooper being slightly faster than the MG, the Metro provides a better ride but when it comes
to the handling stakes, it's the Mini that snatches the victor's crown, making choosing a winner hard.
52 Classic Car Mart Spring 2016
As expected, the result was essentially the MG
Metro engine in the classic Mini body, although
the RSP Cooper was slightly down on power
against the Metro with smaller inlet valves fi tted
to make it unleaded-friendly and a catalytic
converter which the Metro never had to suffer.
The result was 61bhp but the car was still good
for 90mph and the limited run of 1000 cars very
quickly sold out in July 1990.
Unsurprisingly, it reappeared in September
of the same year as a mainstream model and
in 1991 John Cooper Garages began offering a
Rover-approved ‘S’ pack which added the familiar
modifi ed head, intake and exhaust to the larger
engine for a 78bhp result. Early ‘S’ kits were
fi tted by the Rover dealer, although the later
90bhp ‘S’ kits were installed at Cooper’s own
dedicated Mini facility.
In late 1991 the SU fi nally disappeared when
emissions regulations required the use of fuel
injection – initially a rather crude single-point
system, effectively a single injector spraying into
a central throttle mouth.
Bigger things were to come though, when
Rover was swallowed up by BMW in 1994 and in
order to keep the Mini brand sparkling it received
a level of investment it hadn’t seen since the
’50s. Airbags and a twin-point injection system
were added while the radiator was moved
the front and the gearing raised. The 1275cc
engine was now standardised across the range
rated at 50bhp in the basic models and 63bhp
in the Cooper with a Sport Pack offering
wide wheels and arch fl ares. Meanwhile, John
Cooper Garages continued to offer further
tuning for the cars with the ‘Works’ pack
offering 90bhp courtesy of a big-valve, high-
compression head which gave the Cooper the
pace to match its chunky looks.
The Mini continued in this form until October
2000 when the end fi nally came and the Minis
produced from this era are something of a
Marmite car for diehard Mini fans: for many,
only the ‘pure’ Issigonis Minis will do – sliding
windows, string door pull and all – while others
prefer the improved creature comforts of the
BMW-era cars which, it has to be said, are a far
more practical bet for longer trips.
Like the Metro, the late-model Mini is a blend
of the familiar and the modern and I always fi nd
the big chunky seats in these later cars the most
noticeable feature. They get in the way when
you’re trying to wedge people into the back and
they do dominate the interior somewhat, but
having driven across France in a late-model Seven
I can tell you which I’d choose when faced with a
choice between the spartan ’60s chairs or these.
As if to underline the fact that it’s all classic
Mini underneath though, the driving position is
all familiar. The addition of airbags did require
modifi cation of the steering wheel angle which
improves things over the original cars but there’s
no doubt it’s a Mini you’re piloting.
The single-point fuel injection is often criticised
but the twin-point system as fi tted to the car in
our photos is a different animal and gives the
1275cc A-Series much improved response, while
the ability to control fuelling and ignition makes
the car very tractable in traffi c.
As ever with the Mini, you’ve got just the
four gears on offer but they’re a lot easier to
fi nd than they were in the ’60s, with the higher
gearing making the Mini a lot more refi ned at
motorway speeds.
Long motorway journeys aren’t what these cars
are about though and underneath the plush seats
and 13-inch Sport Pack wheels, it’s still very much
a Mini. As such you can’t help but drive it like
one and in that respect it offers more immediate
pleasure than the MG Metro with the trademark
go-kart feel as you swerve round the potholes and
bounce over drain covers, all the while working
that four-speed shift to extract every bit of power
from the obliging A-Series. If the Metro was meant
to be the grown-up replacement for the Cooper,
this is its youthful, more fun counterpart. And in
90bhp S Works form as photographed here, it’s
really pretty quick – faster in fact than the MG,
even in Turbo form.
Verdict
For two cars which are essentially very similar
under the skin, the MG Metro and Cooper are
very different on the road, to the point where the
suggestion that the Metro is a different animal
altogether rather than a missing Mini link begins
to make sense. Forced to choose, I’d probably
go for the Metro simply because it’s yet another
fascinating story of missed opportunity by BL,
but for sheer driving fun the Cooper gets the
vote. CCM