John Cooper became legend in the 1950s with his racing cars and gave the sporty mini models both their heart and their name. His descendants still have gasoline in their veins; And to this day they continue to transform the Mini into a real sports machine under the JCW label. A visit to Michael and Charlie Cooper in southern England. Promise: It’s not just the sunshine that conjures up a smile on her face.
Many Mini fans across Europe know the address of the Cooper Garage south of Arundel on the south coast of Great Britain. Mike Cooper lives with his family just a few minutes away, while his son Charlie has moved to West London ever since. Anyone who wants to absorb the spirit of the Mini should spend time with these two. The Cooper house is hidden, but then behind high hedges, lush green lawns and winding gravel paths, polished chrome shock rods start to shimmer -and behind them, friendly mini faces look through vintage sheet. Mike Cooper obviously comes across in a good mood. He has a few friends who visit the neighborhood – and not surprisingly that they all came in their classic mini models. The weathered garage doors are open, and behind the historical machines are the LED eyes of the latest mini-JCW GP and a brand new John Cooper Works Electric Glint covered. “I just got it to test a few days ago,” Chatders, “unbelievable how fast it is.”
Mike and his friends are not the only ones who enjoy the southern English sun and chat over fine old metal. After a few minutes, son Charlie Cooper not only arrives, but also Mike’s wife. However, she announces politely and announces that it is lunch and sandwiches should offer some food first. Behind the charming cottage that Mike bought in the mid-1980s, there is a large open room ideal for a football or cricket game. In the small wooden house, Mike begins to chat about the first tuning kits that he and his father have developed to give Mini models a thrust. “These kits were particularly popular in Japan in the nineties,” he recalls, “when the Mini Cooper was suddenly withdrawn from the market and the people offered more strength than the standard mini. We sold our kits for £ 600 with a new intake manifold, the air filter and the delivery system. Due to the customs problems, I found a local room that was nice for us.” Rover, who had Mini at the time, initially showed no interest in distributing the kits, so “when Rover heard that the first order was for 1,000 kits, they changed their opinion – and even agreed to honor the factory guarantee.”
In the 1960s, John Cooper gave the mini serious legs and brought Alec Issigonis’ compact rocket to the podium of rally events such as Monte Carlo. Over the decades, more and more Mini fans wanted a foretaste of this motorsport magic in their own cars – and that has not changed today. The Cooper Garage is still building historical mini models from new parts that cost up to 140 hp and up to € 100,000. The tuning company John Cooper Works was taken over by BMW in 2007 as a performance arm for the most sportiest mini models. Charlie Cooper, grandson of John, is as mini-mad as his father and grandfather. In one of the garages there is a black classic mini in which he holds the Goodwood classic speed record – around 200 km/h.
The new Mini John Cooper Works Electric, also parked in one of the garages, is not the only EV on site. A dark green mini-van with the logo “The Cooper Car Company Ltd” and a white roof looks inconspicuous, but is powered by an electric motor of 81 kW / 110 hp, the rubber burns in a sprint with full lane brick and reached 160 km / h. The battery is hidden in a red workshop box behind the stiff vinyl seats, and only two small digital measuring devices in the instrument cluster – together with the lack of engine noise – remove its electrical drive. “You can easily get 120 miles under one load,” smiles Mike. With only 600 kg, the tiny van flawless and dates from 1962. A dusty soap box car hangs on the wall of the private garage, with which the Cooper Garage at the Goodwood Festival of the 2013 speed was embarrassed by OEMS and Formula -1 teams in a vintage John Cooper Racing car. In the late 1950s, John Cooper was the first, the Formula -1 engines placed in the back of his cars -a layout that remains the standard to this day.
Charlie Cooper is through and through Mini. Last year he won his class for the 24 hours of Nürburgring and race Minis himself – although he currently surpassed himself through knee surgery, which probably holds him out of this year’s Eifel Endurance Classic. His frustration is visible – even behind dark sunglasses. Charlie likes electric cars such as the new mini -especially the Sharp 258 PS JCW version -but he cannot imagine giving up combustion engines. “Certainly not under the name John Cooper Works,” he smiles. “That could be very well the last internal combustion engine ever built under the Mini or BMW brand.”
Mike Cooper also sharpened the first generation of the “New Mini” in the early 2000s, a relic of the takeover of Rover by BMW. Initially, the lackluster Mini Cooper received a power boost-Danne came the sportier Cooper S., the 125 kW / 170 hp, with its unmistakable whining four-cylinder, perfect for a tuning upgrade. “We sold our kits in large numbers. You not only increased the power to 207 hp – you also added a lot more exhaust noises.” The Cooper garage quickly became Mini, what M GmbH for BMW or AMG for Mercedes is-a homemade performance department with a long leash, more uniquely British and innovative than ever before.
At that time, M GmbH had no plans for the Mini, so BMW Mike Cooper brought on board and started the first Mini Cooper S from John Cooper Works. Mike still remembers how the name of the hottest mini of all, the John Cooper Works GP, came about. “There was a two -hour meeting, including Jochen Goller, who was responsible for Mini at the time,” recalls Mike. “All usual sporty names have appeared. I proposed GP for Grand Prix, provided that it would not be strong as a striking. Check the lawyers – and the name John Cooper Works GP was set within 15 minutes.”
The Coopers have continued their tabic tradition in southern England for a long time with every new generation – just like John Cooper. He almost hit Audi with his own quattro-tech, which at the end of the 1960s set a classic mini with two engines on the front and one back. “It was a difficult car with two clutch pedals and two gear levers,” Mike recalls. “It was too slow and unwieldy on the track – but the additional traction was phenomenal on a rally phase.” After John Cooper suffered serious injuries in a rollover during a test run that was caused by a broken rear axle, the project was given up – and the rest is the story.
Despite all their mini obsession, the private collections of the Coopers are not exclusively mini-based mini. “For me, the perfect combination of everyday life is a Porsche 992 Carrera and a Mini John Cooper works,” laughs Mike and shows out of the window to his new VW -ID. Hum. He loves the electrical van, especially as a van – although it requires a charge stop when it drags to regional races. As far as the label of Mini and the John Cooper Works label is concerned with the new electric era – neither Mike nor Charlie know it. One thing is certain: “John Cooper Works is race – just like my father and my grandfather would have seen it. Even electrically.”
