Straight away, I thought this was the car to have. I was rallying rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive, so I adapted quickly

Little red cars with white roofs, big on spotlights and attitude soon carved themselves into an iconic image. BMC first went rallying with the Mini in weedy 850cc form – in which it proved a surprisingly capable contender.

But it wasn’t until the Cooper S that the cars turned into winners. And not until the effectively Formula Junior-engined 1071 ‘S’ arrived did it take the international field by storm. In final 1275cc form, it was unbeatable, taking four outright Monte Carlo wins (three officially), and remaining a winner right up until 1968, by which time it had to give best to the new, far more powerful Escort.

But the ingredients were there by the time this car, a 1071 ‘S’ took a class win on the ’63 Monte in the hands of Rauno Aaltonen, who finally got his outright win in 1967.

‘I loved the Mini,’ he told me at the top of the Col de Turini on the 40th anniversary of Paddy Hopkirk’s epic first Monte win in 1964. ‘Straight away, I thought this is the car to have. I was rallying for Mercedes and Saab – rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive – so I adapted easily.’

Hopkirk once summed up the Mini’s giant-killing performances on the Monte, where the little red cars beat the massive works effort of the Ford teams with the V8 Falcons, albeit on handicap: ‘The Mini was the fastest car downhill…’

There was more than one reason for that. Early Coopers had little 7.5in disc brakes on the front, which didn’t stand up well to the Scandinavians’ habit of left-foot braking with the power on: ‘We always had the brakes on fire,’ said co-driver Paul Easter. This technique also exposed weaknesses in the inner drive couplings, prompting the famous Abingdon works mechanics to improvises a quick way of getting to them at service times – tipping the little cars on their side on a spare pair of wheels.

These rally cars were each built largely by one man, time-served mechanics who could accomplish every task from engine building to wiring: ‘Two men working on a Mini got in each others’ way,’ says works rally mechanics Brian Moylan, who built Aaltonen’s ’64 Monte-winning car. ‘The sequence of building was body and subframes first, engines last.’

Inside, it’s standard carpets, Microcell sets, though only the driver gets a bucket, and a heated front screen to keep the mist at bay on the Monte. A specially extended throttle pad to help with heel and toeing has must-have boy-racer accessory stamped all over it. The navigator got a load of extra switches in his door, for washers and horns, a pair of Heuer Monte Carlo rally clocks and Halda Twinmaster trip.

This Mini has never not been a rally car. Built March 1962 at Longbridge, registered April and dispatched to MG Car Co. Ltd at Abingdon for BMC Competitions Department, its first event was the ’62 RAC, where it finished fifth overall with Rauno Aaltonen and Tony Ambrose, and its last was The Rally Show at Chatsworth: though dormant for 20 years after its first decade in competition, it’s been competing in historics since 1994, with three rebuilds since and a best result of 1st overall on the 2003 Rallye des Alpes Historique, navigated by  Willy Cave. As owner Peter Barker says: ‘60 rallies in 46 years, and still going strong!

More:
Saab 96 Sport
Mini Cooper S
Porsche 911T Rallye
Ford Escort RS1800
Lancia Stratos
Audi quattro A2
Subaru Impreza 555