Mini Cooper: 1961-2000

From its launch on 20 September 1961 the Mini Cooper caused a sensation. The world-s first sports saloon, the diminutive Cooper combined the glamour and racing heritage of 1959 and 1960 Formula 1 champions the Cooper Car Company with the outstanding handling and downright practicability of the Austin Mini Seven and Morris Mini Minor. Alec Issigonis-s little people-s car had been launched by the manufacturer, the British Motor Corporation (BMC), two years earlier. A winner almost from the word go, the Mini Cooper not only ruled the racetracks and rally stages of the early and mid-1960s but proved to be a practical and fun sporting family saloon car. After over 100,000 examples were sold between 1961 and 1971, the Mini Cooper is still a practical sporting saloon in the guise of the BMW-owned MINI Cooper sixty years after the introduction of the original model.This remarkable product of the United Kingdom merits a fresh examination as it nears its sixtieth birthday. Based upon over fifty