THE ORIGINAL TWINI

IT DEPENDS on who you talk to, but it seems likely the first twin-engined Mini was built in Britain by race-car builder Paul Emery back as early as 1962 or 63. Naturally, the factory took an interest and BMC initially developed a Moke with two engines. Inevitably, John Cooper lined up for a play in the BMC Moke and it took about four nanoseconds for him to realise the competition potential of a Mini with twice the horsepower and fourwheel-drive. BMC went on to build its own Twinis and even Downton Engineering built one and entered it in the 1963 Targa Florio, although the results never really matched its initial promise. But it’s Cooper’s own Twini that is the best known…for all the wrong reasons. Punting along the Kingston by-pass near his factory in May 1964, Cooper’s Twini left the road and rolled. Cooper suffered life-threatening head injuries but survived. The car was so badly damaged that it was difficult at the time to say what had gone wrong, but an investigation of the skid marks suggested the rear engine may have seized, sending the car into its death-roll. Now they tell me…