1966 MK1 Cooper S restomod fully restored

1966 Mini MK1 Cooper S Resto Mod - Originally a 1966 Morris Super De Luxe. Mot and Tax exempt although the car is MOT’d until November 2023£3,000 Spent at Autofficina Ferrari Specialists at the end of 2021, car went into storage and I have just spent £2000 on it between maintenance, some chassis components, brakes, 4 new tyres, 4 wheel align, rolling road tune booked next week. Work carried out by 499Minis in Herts and Peter Baldwin who is incredibly well known in the Mini world is going to be setting it up when its on the rollers. So will no doubt be superb, its incredible now so cannot wait to see whats it is like thereafter.This car was first registered in April 1966. Decoding the VIN, t it was originally a non-Cooper Morris in Super De Luxe trim. The car enjoyed a full and comprehensive rebuild in 2016The idea was to turn the classic into a luxurious grand tourer, in the style of a Singer Porsche or other high-end restomod; the ethos was to combine the best parts of the Mini’s various generations over the decades, offering superior power, superlative comfort and reliability in a single package to create a design icon. So the result is a car which runs a very highly developed 1380 fast-road motor, tamed with a single carb and stock flywheel for everyday usability, with comfortable yet planted suspension, strong brakes, and a sumptuous interior trimmed in Connolly hide and tweed with a quality sound system. Having just completed a trip from Hertfordshire to Colwyn bay to Anglesey and back home I can thoroughly vouch for this cars reliability. Perfect on the motorway at 70 mph. My last mini had straight cut gears which effectively made the car unusable as a road car. This is just perfect.The restoration work took a full 1,200 hours, and it’s estimated that building another car to the same standard and spec today would cost in excess of £50,000. In summary its a fabulously prepared and fastidiously built fast-road Mini, with genuine GT credentials, which is now available for a fraction of the build cost.There’s a large and comprehensive file of documentation with this car, with the V5 showing the Mini to be a 1966 Morris Super De Luxe which was officially registered with a 1275 engine. The VIN on the V5 matches that on the car, and there’s a huge sheaf of documentation detailing all of the parts sourced for the rebuild. The spares specialist Mini Sport was certainly kept busy at this time, as there are plenty of invoices from them, and all of the engine internals from Swiftune are itemised too. There are information sheets detailing the specs of the cams and the braking and fuelling systems, as well as dynamometer printouts for the pistons. All of the work is carefully itemised, along with helpful summaries to explain it all. Most recently, there’s an invoice from classic specialist Autofficina showing that, in 2020, the car received a new starter solenoid and various other attention to get it tip-top it runs as good as it did back then due to such little use.The seats and door cards have been luxuriously trimmed in soft Connolly leather with tweed inserts, the comfy front buckets having removable headrests. A quality sound system has been installed, with a retro-styled modern head unit mounted beneath the dash and Infinity 6x9 speakers custom-mounted in the rear below the seats. The gauges are all functioning correctly, with the auxiliary rev counter featuring an oil pressure warning light for peace of mind, and the Mini is fitted with sliding door windows and heated front and rear screens which are essential if you actually plan on using your classic car!The rear windows are pop-out items, and the rear seats have three-point seatbelts. The carpets are in superb condition, as is the headlining, and the steering wheel is a tasteful Astrali.Inside the boot it’s all dry, solid, and tidily carpeted. Affixed inside the bootlid is a strapped bag for top-up fluids and suchlike, and under the carpet is the spare wheel and battery.The bodywork of the Mini is great throughout. The paintwork is really nice inside and out, the underside of the car is remarkably good, and the panel fit is even and tidy throughout the car. The boot features the iconic hinged flip-down number plate, and the fillers for the twin tanks lock correctly. All of the window glass is excellent, as are the light lenses. The chrome trim is all straight and free from pitting and patination, and is fitted with a removable grille. A rally lamp is fitted at the rear as a reversing light, having taken the car to a couple of meet ups I have just applied a couple of decals to it with fairy liquid solution using a low adhesive sheet so these will lift off if you prefer the car without.A set of 10” Minilite wheels are fitted, in as-new condition, and they wear Dunlop SP Sport tyres which were specially sourced for this car. Tyres are a little worn on the front and dated but plenty of tread remaining, Mini Spares are local to me and new tyres are around £90 each!.This thing sounds glorious – as you’d expect it to, with the amount of work that’s gone on under the bonnet. That 1275 motor has been bored out to 1380cc and essentially taken as far as it’s possible for an A-Series to go while still remaining tractable and usable as a road car. The engine’s running a ported head with 35.7mm and 30mm valves, along with modified valve seats, bronze guides and Rimflo valves. The pistons are lightweight forged 73.5mm Omega items, and the Swiftune SW5 cam is highly regarded as a great all-rounder for a 1380 motor. With alloy-tipped roller rockers, balanced crank and rods, and a compression ratio of 10.2:1, this engine is safe to rev to 7,500rpm. There are ARP bolts on the con rods, mains and head, and the camshaft has a duplex chain and vernier pulley. To keep the car friendly and everyday-usable, the engine has been matched to a standard flywheel and a single 1.75HIF carb instead of twin carbs, and it really does run beautifully – supremely smooth with no histrionics, it’ll even happily run in top gear at 30mph without hiccupping.The gearbox is stock with new bearings and synchro rings throughout (built to race standard with quick-shift), plus a 3.1:1 diff, and it shifts very cleanly and precisely. Suspension-wise its on looking at hi-los all round with adjustable Gaz shocks, the steering benefits from a new rack, and the brakes are Cooper S discs with uprated pads.The car starts, runs and drives very well indeed, it makes a fantastic sound as it barks through the revs, and the handling is superb – a comfortable and cosseting ride, yet it corners completely flat. A very well built Mini indeed.