Mini Cooper 1275S
Still with its first owner, this 1275S has done the Monte historic, competed with Hopkirk and been used to prompt childbirth
1963 – Nicky Porter’s father orders a Mini 1275S ‘My dad promised me a Cooper S for my 21st birthday,’ recalls Nicky Porter. ‘I wanted to do hill climbs and sprints and have a chance of winning. I’d already been successful with an 850 Mini and a 970 Cooper.’
The order was placed in 1963 via Steels of Hereford, the Jaguar main dealer where Nicky’s dad David bought his Jaguars. After waiting nearly a year the order was cancelled because of manufacturing delays; enter Downton Engineering to the rescue. Nicky recalls, ‘I was already a good customer, and they wrote saying there was one available. It was destined to be Downton’s own car, but frustration with delays led them to convert a 1071cc Cooper with a 1275 engine, which the company had helped design and plan manufacture. Eventually the first 25 cars were sent to the press and key customers. Downton had bagged the 20th one built.’
Nicky’s dad was chairman of the Bugatti Owners’ Club and, recognising his son’s talent in more modest machinery, paid for a full race 1275S. Nicky recalls, ‘The cost of the engine modifications, close-ratio straight-cut gearbox and LSD was £212. The Koni dampers, lowered suspension, Smiths tacho and Cooper magnesium wheels added another £85, bringing the total to £1059, 2s, 5p – the price of a terraced house in Hereford at the time. The brakes remained standard, the factory front discs adequate for hill climbs that typically last about a minute.’ Downton tuned the Mini for more torque at lower revs, and boosted power from 76bhp to 96bhp.
Nicky collected his present on 5 June 1964, paying £15 to register it BCJ 700B. ‘This was a very serious car and very fast. I remember arriving at Downton Engineering in Downton village just south of Salisbury. Daniel Richmond, the founder, showed me how to drive the car after my father had handed over the payment. We tootled through the village and out onto the New Forest National Park. After clearing the village he pulled over onto the grass verge and stopped. He turned to me and said, “I want to show you how these limited-slip differentials work.” With that he took the revs up to 5000rpm, dropped the clutch and we took off up the road. Mechanical sympathy – not a bit of it!
‘After his demonstration I drove sensibly, I just wanted to get this valuable car the 100 miles home safely. Also, I took the view that the journey was running-in the engine.’
Back then safety equipment was sparse. Nicky winces at the recollection of competing with a three-point seatbelt and no rollcage, the only protection being a Stirling Moss-type open-face helmet. He entered BCJ in the standard production class for hill climbs. ‘We could take the spare wheel out to save weight but otherwise all interior trim had to be in place, and this was strictly policed. In those days about 75% of the cars were Minis with the odd Ford Anglia thrown in.’
Nicky was well-placed to look after the Mini himself, having been an apprentice mechanic, and he got maximum use from his birthday present. ‘In those early years I was doing about 25 hill climbs a year plus four or five sprints and the odd autocross, something most weekends. During those early days I could drive it to events because it was in a lower state of tune, so it could cope with normal traffic. With youth and fitness on my side I could put up with the noise and discomfort for hours on end to and from home.
‘BCJ held class records at most venues I attended at one time or another. Within weeks of getting the car I entered an Herefordshire Motor Club autocross, probably because I was young and daring. Looking back I can’t believe I did that. Not only was I first overall but also fastest time of the day. That was before I fitted the go-faster roof aerial and wheelarch extensions. Over the years regulations changed and wider wheels could be used. I never bothered to paint the extensions, I just left them white. Once we could run on slicks the times came tumbling down. There’s nothing like getting the car drifting with the LSD working hard.
‘BCJ soon wasn’t road-legal because it had no silencer; in those days hill climbs didn’t mandate them. I was now trailering it to events, first using my 848cc Mini van but soon switching to a Jag Mk2 3.8 SE, and later a 3.4 S-type. The final Jag I used was an XJ6 4.2 and from then on various Mercs because my business was by then was a Mercedes dealership. If after working on the engine I needed to take BCJ on the road for a shakedown I’d fit a back box to keep the noise down.’
The prestigious Cutty Sark Trophy at the 1965 Prescott Hill Climb (now The Gold Cup) was in Daniel Richmond’s view achievable by a 1000cc-engined Mini. ‘This is a single event and to win you have to show the biggest improvement in the record for your class. Daniel thought the record at the time for saloons in the 1000cc class was low, so he offered to remove my 1275cc unit and replace it with a 999cc screamer at no charge. He was right, I won the trophy outright and Downton got good publicity. Afterwards BCJ returned to Downton for the engines to be swapped back.’
In 1967 Nicky first bought his own garage business in County Durham. ‘For about four months BCJ was my runaround. When my son, Charles, was born I collected him and my wife Joyce from hospital in the Mini. I even took the front passenger seat out so they could sit in the back with more room; remember this was 1967, so no rear seatbelts. Actually Joyce also used BCJ but it wasn’t really suitable, being noisy and uncomfortable. We nicknamed the heater the “fug stirrer” on account of it being pretty useless. Anyway the car got us known locally.’
With the Croft Circuit not far away, family life didn’t prevent a foray into motor racing in the early Seventies. ‘Racing is way more expensive, you need to rebuild the engine after every race. And to be competitive we had to modify the car. The SU carburettors gave way to a single twin-choke Weber which is better for racing, it likes to be on full throttle all the time. I also swapped to a different camshaft for more torque at the higher end of the rev range. With power sorted, next was saving weight, so alloy doors, boot and bonnet replaced the steel items. Even the radiator grille was jettisoned along with the “fug stirrer”, the side windows replaced with Perspex. And up until now I didn’t have a roll cage, so I fitted an alloy one, later replaced with steel. Then on race day we were having to change the oil every time between practice, qualifying and the race.
‘I didn’t enjoy circuit racing. I was nearly involved in someone else’s accident on a couple of occasions. I’m not used to having all these cars around me, weaving about, missing their braking points, not to mention a wide spectrum of driver ability. Well that’s not for me, I couldn’t afford the damage. After four races at Croft I decided to stick to what I knew.
‘I started doing more rallying, another of my passions going back to 1962. In 1974, at the suggestion of a local paint shop, I changed the Mini’s colour. Looking back it’s difficult to imagine why I chose pink, maybe all those posters and their day-glo colours. Metallic colours were still unusual then, so good publicity for the paint shop.’ BCJ’S first outing in the pink was April 1974 at the Wiscombe Park Hill Climb, where it set the Class 2 Record for 1150cc-1500cc saloons at 47.17 seconds. ‘That record stood until I had another go at it in 1985.’
By 1975 the engine had been bored out to 1328cc, eventually leading to its demise. ‘It was worn out and needed sleeves in the bores because it was losing power. The final straw was on the start line at Prescott Hillclimb in 1975 when the clutch blew. I’d had enough. I sold the engine and BCJ then sat in my father in law’s garage for several years. Instead, I went rallying in a Mercedes.’
In 1982, Nicky was intrigued by the upcoming Lombard RAC Golden 50 Rally, commemorating 50 years of the Round Britain RAC Rally, but he didn’t have a suitable car. ‘Then I remembered BCJ in the garage. I had a spare 1275S engine set up for rallying, so more of a road tune. I could easily do the preparation work myself but I no time to run the engine in. I asked my pal Neville Wright to drive it a couple of hundred miles. His wife Karen was expecting their son Ben, who was late. Neville persuaded her to join him for a run up Teesdale. However, even after 80-odd miles of being jiggled about Ben remained where he was!’
Nicky’s hard work paid off and after three days of competition BCJ finished third overall to Paddy Hopkirk. And it was still pink. Nicky describes the event as consisting of a series of rally sections, hill climbs and circuits. ‘I disgraced myself on the circuits but more than made up for it on the other sections; some, like Prescott Hill Climb I knew like the back of my hand.’ Nicky was on a roll and two weeks later finished third on the Welsh Historic Rally. “Really, it was a similar event, just without Hopkirk. We should have won but I ignored the navigator’s instruction (my second wife Judith) and went the wrong way. That was the start of historic rallying, however, not for some years.”
1984 – Nicky sells it for £5000... then buys it back again In 1984, Nicky sold BCJ to friend John Casey. ‘I hadn’t used it for a couple of years and money’s always useful.
‘I didn’t enjoy circuit racing – I wasn’t used to having all these cars around me, weaving about’
John paid £5000 and immediately repainted it the original red and black at his own bodyshop. He also swapped the engine to one more suited to hill climbs. Three months later an unexpected business venture came up and John needed money, so I bought it back for what he’d paid me.’ The next four years, although quiet, saw BCJ back at a number of hill climbs before it was laid up again in 1988, this time at Nicky’s home.
In the mid-nineties Nicky recalled BCJ for duty on historic regularity rallies. ‘When you’re asked to average a speed of 50mkph (31mph) up the Col de Turini, you need something fast and nimble; my Mercedes, a 220SEB, wasn’t. I was looking for nothing less than outright wins. The Mini was in storage and I also had a brand-new spare 1275S engine I’d bought in the Sixties; it was still in its wooden packing crate as delivered by BMC. Despite sitting around for 30 years it was in perfect condition, but I needed someone who could get more power out of it. So, in 1995, I took the engine to Steve Harris Engineering to be built into a full FIA rally motor with the emphasis on bottom-end torque. Meanwhile, I dealt with the bodyshell and interior.’
Steve is an ex-downton apprentice, ‘I remember working on BCJ aged 16 when it was new. It was always looked after in Downton’s experimental department which was reserved for special cars. When Nicky contacted me I couldn’t believe he had a new engine, they hadn’t been made in years. We set about modifying the cylinder head, the camshaft, and all the usual things to get to rally spec. One thing that sticks in my mind is Nicky delivering the car to me on a trailer. Before he left he washed and chamois-leathered the car. I took the hint that he wanted it back in similar condition.’
Over the next few years Nicky and Steve’s work was put to good use. Nicky says, ‘I competed in France, Spain and Corsica with the odd event in the UK. On some special stages I needed to use the full potential of the car to climb the mountains at an average speed of 50kmph. I managed several top ten finishes and won the Classic Trophy Rally in France outright in 2004.
‘We would drive to rallies in Northern France but the whine form those straight-cut gears was an endurance test. Events further away needed a trailer. The last time we used the car on an event was in 2014 to celebrate Paddy Hopkirk’s 1964 Monte-carlo Rally win. We joined another 40 Minis to drive from Calais to Monte Carlo following the 1964 route. By the time my wife Wendy and I got to Monte Carlo we were deaf and numb, but what an experience. That’s BCJ’S use now, anniversary events. It’ll be back at Prescott in May 2021.
‘Looking back, this is a remarkable car, the earliest known in existence, number 20. The bodywork is completely original, even the front wings. In all the years of competing I’ve never pranged it, had some near misses mind. And it’s only ever let me down once. Really you can’t ask for more.’
‘We drove to Monte Carlo to follow the 1964 rally route. By the time we arrived we were deaf and numb’