Classic Tails
The 1275GT was great, but not quite the halo model that the Mini Cooper S had been.
How BLMC gifted an entire market segment to Ford 50 years ago.
It is now 50 years since the last Mini Cooper S was produced. Rolling out of the Longbridge gates and onto a Leyland or AEC car transporter, this July 1971 built S in Blaze Orange would in fact survive to the present day, as has the very first Mk3 S that was built over a year earlier. Not that British Leyland even wanted to build it, the Mk3 launched in March 1970 merely being an obligation to fulfil a contract that had been signed in 1961.
The Cooper name would of course linger on until 1975 with the Innocenti Cooper 1300 built in both Italy and Belgium, but this generally superior Mini would not be imported into the UK for whatever reason – probably the usual BL lack of foresight.
On one hand, discontinuing the Cooper S made some sense. It wasn’t a big seller due to high insurance costs and it was also very expensive to make with its unique engine and the royalty payment to John Cooper. On the other hand, it was still a formidable competition car and the improvements needed to keep it fresh as a road car would not have been expensive – a reversion to dry suspension, a taller final drive, a better camshaft to liberate a real 80+bhp from a Longbridge-built Innocenti power unit that was smoother and nicer than the 1300GT unit, (there was no need for the full blown S unit in a road car). But no, British Leyland or BLMC as they were then known just pulled the plug on the whole Cooper thing and we’ll probably never know the full story.
In the place of the popular 998 Cooper came the Clubmanfronted 1275GT, announced in September 1969 as the Cooper was being discontinued. Now this was BLMC at work, marketing men at the fore, and it has to be said that they made a good fist of it even if early examples were found a bit lacking in certain areas. For reasons again lost in the swirling mist of BLMC mystery, the newly revamped Mk3 Mini 850 and 1000 saloons regained dry rubber cone suspension, but the more expensive 998 Clubman saloon, 1275GT and Cooper S retained Hydrolastic. Some less than complimentary things have been said about Hydro, but on a car like the 998 Clubman it was perfect. It tamed the uncompromising ride of rubber cones, and the handling was fine for the 34bhp the 998 produced. It was not quite so good when really pressing on, which is why BLMC Special Tuning offered a front damper and supplementary bump stop kit to tame the pitching found on power on/off.
It would of course have made perfect sense to make an enthusiasts’ 100mph Mini with a 10.5 second 0-60mph time, especially as six months earlier Ford had launched their £1100 Escort Mexico. Instead, with 60bhp from a single carburettor 1275 engine, the Mini 1275GT performed about the same as the 1300GT Escort and a little better than the 998 Cooper, but it was not the same halo model.
Ford’s AVO set-up never really made any money directly. With specially uprated bodyshells being shipped down by lorry to Aveley in Essex and basically hand-built at leisure to whatever specification the customer ordered, very few Mexicos, RS2000s or RS1600s were the same and that’s why Ford pulled the plug after four years and moved RS production to Germany with the Mk2 Escort. But AVO had done what it had set out to do, providing affordable halo models linked to competition success and giving almost immeasurable prestige and of course extra sales to the regular Escort. That’s where Ford made the money back from AVO.
For their part, BLMC did nothing. Sure, the Hydrolastic suspension was discontinued in July ’71 along with the S. They fitted a more sensible final drive at the same time and later on some bigger wheels, but that apart, the GT rumbled on for another eight or nine years with no real improvements to its performance or overall image. For all that though, it sold very well, but only because there was nothing else in the Mini range. That’s why, in 1974 and having had a 1275GT for over three years, my dad replaced it with a nearly new Mexico.
What else was there? Certainly not a Marina TC with impressive performance but scary handling, nor a Firenza with its thirsty 1800 slant four. Nothing foreign with flaky dealer service, and not an Avenger Tiger with its somewhat limited colour range and the boot spoiler that was just too much even then. The Alfasud Ti could have been a contender, but it hadn’t quite been launched in the UK and bodywise would not have ended well. The Allegro might be trendy now, but in 1974 it certainly wasn’t, and it just wasn’t what a 26 year old Yeovil Car Club guy wanted to drive.
This is where Donald Stokes went so wrong – dropping the Mini Cooper S and then not importing 5000 Innocenti Cooper 1300s every year. The Mini was still a big seller, its best ever year being in 1972. It still held a huge draw for young guys, a market that Ford just stepped in and hoovered up. And BLMC sat back and allowed them to do it, probably thinking that 1275GT buyers trading up were going to buy an Allegro or a Maxi. In their dreams!
This is where Donald Stokes went so wrong – dropping the Mini Cooper S and then not importing 5000 Innocenti Cooper 1300s every year