Rescued Privateer

摘要

It's often about being in the right place at the right time. In Guy Munday's case he had heard about the 1962 Cooper you see here from its then owner's son-in-law. The owner was Brian Moore who had an extensive rally career as a privateer in the Cooper. He racked up over 100 rallies, including eight international events, and won 40-plus trophies driving his Cooper. Brian originally bought the Mini second hand in September 1964. The Mini left the factory in Tartan Red with a black roof but during Brian's ownership it changed colour on several occasions. Guy explains: "The car has been red, then yellow, brown and back to red again." Some of these colour changes were attributed to the car being rolled which happened on more than one occasion. It was red and white in 1969, an important year in this Cooper's career, as we'll discover later, and that's how it ended its rally career. As well as becoming a rally car pretty much as soon as Brian had bought the car, as in 1965 it was entered into the Welsh International and Shunpiker Rally, it was also a family car, as his daughter recalls being taken to school in it. In the summers of 1965 to 1968 Brian entered the Cooper into the International Gulf London Rally, run by the London Motor Club. 1965 only saw 18 vehicles complete the rally from over 100 entrants, including famous names such as Pat Moss, Paddy Hopkirk and John Sprinzel. Unfortunately Brian wasn't in that top 18 after the car suffered fuel pump problems in the Forest of Dean, which took them over the time limit.