John Cooper grew to become a legend within the Nineteen Fifties together with his racing automobiles, and gave the sporty Mini fashions each their coronary heart and their identify. His descendants nonetheless have petrol of their veins; and to today, they proceed to show the Mini into a real sports activities machine underneath the JCW label. A go to to Michael and Charlie Cooper within the south of England. Promise: it’s not simply the sunshine that places a smile in your face.
Many Mini followers throughout Europe know the tackle of the Cooper Storage, situated south of Arundel on Britain’s south coast. Just some minutes away lives Mike Cooper together with his household, whereas his son Charlie has since moved to west London. Anybody who needs to take in the spirit of Mini ought to spend time with these two. The Cooper house is tucked away, however then behind tall hedges, lush inexperienced lawns, and winding gravel paths, polished chrome bumpers start to gleam—and behind them, pleasant Mini faces peek by classic sheet metallic. Mike Cooper comes over, evidently in good spirits. He has just a few mates visiting from the neighbourhood—and, unsurprisingly, they’ve all come of their basic Mini fashions. The weathered storage doorways are open, and behind the historic machines, the LED eyes of the newest Mini JCW GP and a brand-new John Cooper Works Electrical glint underneath cowl. “I simply received that one for testing just a few days in the past,” Mike chatters, “unbelievable how fast it’s.”
Mike and his mates aren’t the one ones having fun with the southern English solar and chatting about superb outdated metallic. After a couple of minutes, not solely does son Charlie Cooper arrive, however so does Mike’s spouse. She politely but firmly declares that it’s lunchtime, and sandwiches ought to present some sustenance first. Behind the charming cottage, which Mike purchased within the mid-Eighties, there are massive open areas—splendid for a recreation of soccer or cricket. Contained in the little wood home, Mike begins chatting away in regards to the first tuning kits that he and his father developed to provide Mini fashions a lift. “These kits have been particularly widespread in Japan within the Nineties,” he recollects, “when the Mini Cooper was out of the blue withdrawn from the market, and folks wished extra energy than the usual Mini provided. We bought our kits for £600 with a brand new consumption manifold, air filter, and exhaust system. Due to customs points, I discovered an area carpenter who constructed us good wood crates to pack the components in.” Rover, which owned Mini on the time, initially confirmed no real interest in distributing the kits, so the Coopers reached out through private contacts to Jaguar importers to get them into Japan. “When Rover heard that the primary order was for 1,000 kits, they modified their thoughts—and even agreed to honour the manufacturing facility guarantee.”
Within the Sixties, John Cooper gave the Mini critical legs and introduced Alec Issigonis’ compact rocket to the podiums of rally occasions like Monte Carlo. Over the many years, increasingly Mini followers wished a style of that motorsport magic in their very own automobiles—and that hasn’t modified at this time. The Cooper Storage nonetheless rebuilds historic Mini fashions from new components—providing as much as 140 PS and costing as much as €100,000. The tuning firm John Cooper Works was acquired by BMW in 2007 because the efficiency arm for essentially the most sporting Mini fashions. Charlie Cooper, grandson of John, is simply as Mini-mad as his father and grandfather. In one of many garages sits a black Traditional Mini during which he holds the Goodwood class velocity file—round 200 km/h.
The brand new Mini John Cooper Works Electrical, additionally parked in one of many garages, isn’t the one EV on website. A darkish inexperienced Mini van bearing the “The Cooper Automotive Firm Ltd” brand and a white roof seems unassuming, but it surely’s powered by an 81 kW / 110 PS electrical motor that burns rubber in a full-throttle dash and reaches 160 km/h. The battery pack is tucked right into a purple workshop field behind the stiff vinyl seats, and solely two small digital gauges within the instrument cluster—together with the dearth of engine noise—give away its electrical propulsion. “You’ll be able to simply get 120 miles on a cost,” Mike smiles. Weighing in at simply 600 kg, the tiny van is immaculate and dates again to 1962. On the wall of the non-public storage hangs a dusty soapbox automobile that the Cooper Storage used to embarrass OEMs and Method 1 groups on the 2013 Goodwood Competition of Pace—that includes a physique modelled on a classic John Cooper racing automobile. Within the late Nineteen Fifties, John Cooper was the primary to put Method 1 engines within the rear of his automobiles—a format that is still the usual to today.
Charlie Cooper is Mini by and thru. Final 12 months, he received his class on the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and regularly races Minis himself—although at the moment sidelined by a knee operation that’s more likely to preserve him out of this 12 months’s Eifel endurance basic. His frustration is seen—even behind darkish sun shades. Charlie likes electrical automobiles like the brand new Mini—particularly the sharp 258 PS JCW model—however he can’t think about giving up combustion engines. “Definitely not underneath the John Cooper Works identify,” he smiles. “That might very properly be the final combustion engine ever constructed underneath the Mini or BMW model.”
Mike Cooper additionally sharpened the primary technology of the “New Mini” within the early 2000s, a relic of BMW’s takeover of Rover. First, the lacklustre Mini Cooper received an influence enhance—then got here the sportier Cooper S. The 125 kW / 170 PS supercharged four-cylinder, with its distinctive whine, was excellent for a tuning improve. “We bought our kits in enormous numbers. They didn’t simply improve energy to 207 PS—in addition they added way more exhaust sound.” The Cooper Storage shortly grew to become to Mini what M GmbH is to BMW or AMG to Mercedes—a home-grown efficiency division with an extended leash, uniquely British and extra progressive than ever.
On the time, M GmbH had no plans for the Mini, so BMW introduced Mike Cooper on board and launched the primary Mini Cooper S by John Cooper Works. Mike nonetheless remembers how the identify of the most well liked Mini of all, the John Cooper Works GP, took place. “There was a two-hour assembly, together with Jochen Goller, who was chargeable for Mini again then,” Mike recollects. “All the standard sporty names got here up. I advised GP for Grand Prix, assuming it wouldn’t be closely trademarked. The attorneys checked—and inside quarter-hour, the identify John Cooper Works GP was set.”
The Coopers have lengthy continued their tinkering custom in southern England with every new technology—simply as John Cooper as soon as did. He almost beat Audi to the punch together with his personal quattro-tech, becoming a Traditional Mini within the late Sixties with two engines, one on the entrance and one on the rear. “It was a tough automobile to drive, with two clutch pedals and twin gear levers,” Mike recollects. “It was too gradual and unwieldy on the observe—however on a rally stage, the additional traction was phenomenal.” However after John Cooper suffered critical accidents in a rollover attributable to a damaged rear axle throughout a check run, the mission was deserted—and the remainder is historical past.
For all their Mini obsession, the Coopers’ non-public collections aren’t solely Mini-based. “For me, the right on a regular basis combo is a Porsche 992 Carrera and a Mini John Cooper Works,” Mike laughs, declaring of the window to his new VW ID. Buzz. He loves the electrical van, particularly as a transporter—although towing it to regional races requires a recharge cease. As for the place Mini and the John Cooper Works label are headed with the brand new electrical period—neither Mike nor Charlie know. However one factor is definite: “John Cooper Works is racing—simply as my father and grandfather would have seen it. Even electrical.”
