A little reminiscence follows.
In 1965 I bought the follow-on Cooper, the 998cc version. It had a larger bore and shorter stroke, which enabled it to rev out further. It was grey with a white roof and red fake leather seats.
Before I sold it, I had the breathing improved on both intake and exhaust sides of the head, and a Lukey exhaust system, which together raised the top speed to just over 100mph, a little bit north of 6,700 rpm in 4th gear. Shod with Michelins, I had enormous fun with this car.
While the Coopers brought disk brakes to the Mini marque, they were disappointing when worked hard, even with competition pads. I still recall a hairy descent of the western side of the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia when brake fade set in with a vengeance. I guess 10 inch wheels don't provide much room for either cooling or heat sink. The Cooper S variants with larger 1,071 and 1,275 cc power plants had slightly better stopping power.
The twin SU carbies were on the left side of the block which, with the transverse mounting of the engine, meant they were just on the other side of the speedo cluster. When the car came back from Bob Holden with improved breathing, the intake noise in the cabin was so loud I thought Bob may have left the air filter off. Of course, he hadn't, it was just that the motor was capable of gulping more air. I stuffed the back of the speedo area with sound deadening material to reduce the sucking noise.
Then I became a family man with a boring four door Renault 10 replacing the fun machine.
Thanks for listening!
