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The Mini Cooper was not designed it evolved from a nimble people carrier to a race and rally winner. The Cooper prototype was tested by John Cooper and his Formula One race colleagues, all were of the opinion that the changes should be put into a production car by B.M.C.
John Cooper went to Alec Issigonis to get the car built by them, but this request fell on deaf ears. Not deterred John meet with George Harriman Managing director of the company at the time. After some discussion and a test drive the two men shook hands and the Mini Cooper was given the code name ADO50 and on its way to a production line of 1000 cars , and on its way to the history books of Motor Sport. In September of 1961 the first Mini Cooper was announced to the motoring press.
From then the next step was to put the Cooper S into production and send it on its way to the Monty Carlo Rally for more wins.
The Coopers formed the back bone of the works team run by BMC's Competitions Department, led first by Marcus Chambers, later Stuart Turner and finally Peter Browning.
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