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 Friday July 25, 2008 |
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MINI Concept Geneva |
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Written by Jeff Seabrook
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Tuesday February 28, 2006 |
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Page 7 of 8
It was the great sensation of the 1963/64 rally winter: A small red David with a white roof left all the ultra-powerful Goliaths behind, clinching its first overall win in the Monte Carlo Rally. Virtually overnight, this little “dwarf” had become a legend.
Wherever the Mini – either in standard trim, in the form of the Mini Cooper, or as a specially tuned performance car – entered a rally or any other motorsport event at the time, it was good for a great surprise. Indeed, these were the years in which the Mini caused one sensation after the other in the world of rally racing, showing its tail lights to many a would-be winner on tracks and circuits everywhere. So it is quite appropriate to
say that the ’60s were the decade of the Mini, far beyond official races
and contests.
Just a bit more than six months after the Mini had made its debut in 1959,
six Mini works cars entered the 1960 Monte Carlo Rally, with six more of these new young athletes being driven by private drivers. In 1962 Rauno Aaltonen, later to become world-famous as the “Flying Finn”, entered Monte Carlo for the first time at the wheel of a Mini Cooper, subsequently being forced to retire after a spectacular accident. Two other names in the lists of participants
were also destined to hit the headlines in connection with the Mini in the years to come: Timo Mäkinen and Patrick “Paddy” Hopkirk. In 1963 various Minis already came close to the top places in the Rally, but a year was still to pass before the real breakthrough.
In 1964 Paddy Hopkirk and his two Scandinavian colleagues joined forces
for the first time in the same team. Putting up a great performance on several stages of the race, Paddy Hopkirk battled it out successfully against his far more powerful competitors, moving right up to the top of the field and finally securing first place in the fiercely contested “Night of Long Knives”.
Mini thus entered the history books, just like its three most famous drivers thrilling the spectators with their daredevil style of racing: Paddy Hopkirk,
Timo Mäkinen, and Rauno Aaltonen.
A year later, in 1965, Finnish driver Timo Mäkinen and his co-pilot Paul Easter continued the Mini Cooper’s story of success once again, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in supreme style: Mäkinen was the only driver in the entire field to complete thousands of kilometres without one penalty point despite very
difficult and challenging snow conditions in the French Alps. In all, only 35 out of 237 cars reached the finish line – three of them were Minis. For the first
time Mäkinen drove a Mini Cooper with the new 1275-cc engine later to become a genuine synonym for this particular model.
In 1966 the Mini Armada went for the hat trick. The four Cooper teams were the great favourites right from the start and attracted utmost interest from the public and the competition alike. So it was no surprise that they lived up
to their role right from the start: Mäkinen, Aaltonen and Hopkirk quickly left the field behind, ultimately finishing the Rally first, second, and third. But then came one of the most contested and dubious decisions in the long history of the Monte Carlo Rally: In an eight-hour technical inspection, the
Race Commissioners found that the four additional headlights fitted on the Mini Cooper’s radiator grille were not fully commensurate with French homologation rules and disqualified the first three cars.
Notwithstanding this bitter decision, the Mini Cooper returned to the Monte Carlo Rally in 1967, the three musketeers Aaltonen, Hopkirk and Mäkinen being backed up by Simo Lampinen and Tony Fall. This time the “Flying Finn” Rauno Aaltonen won the race and all other Mini Coopers also saw the chequered flag, Hopkirk finishing sixth, Fall coming tenth, Lampinen reaching the finish line as No 15, and Mäkinen finishing in 41st place.
The armada of works Minis set out for Monaco for the last time in 1968. This time Aaltonen finished third in his Mini Cooper S, Fall coming fourth and Hopkirk fifth.
While this marked the end of an era, the legend remains to this day. Indeed, rally enthusiasts the world over know to this very day what
“33 EJB” stands for – this was the numberplate on Paddy Hopkirk’s
Mini Cooper S, the winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.
Mini DNA in the MINI Challenge.
Forty years on, nothing has changed. What once helped the Mini Cooper win the race to Monaco is still one of the most significant basic elements of the MINI Cooper: With its compact exterior dimensions it whips around corners incredibly quickly, resting firmly on its wide track and long wheelbase.
Clearly, driving behaviour of this kind simply begs for racing activities – which
is why the John Cooper Challenge, the MINI Brand Trophy, thrills an increasing number of amateur racing drivers particularly in Britain, the MINI’s home country. Several other countries have also followed this example and have established their own MINI challenges in the meantime. So just like they did 40 years ago, many young, up-and-coming drivers and talents are now gaining their initial experience and winning their first trophies at the wheel of a MINI.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday February 28, 2006 )
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