1969 Mini Cooper S - How Does An Italian Job Mini Actually Drive?

The registration plates were never issued which is why they were still available from DVLA. The plates were tenuously chosen as LGW 809G (London GatWick flight 809 ... their booked return flight) / HMP 729G (Her Majesty's Prison with 729 being Charlie Crokers prison number) and GPF 146G (Grand Prix Flag with 146 being the number of F1 points that Jackie Stewart had accumulated to date).

What a gorgeous example you got to try out Jack. 90% of the comments are going to be from all of us who owned minis - I had 4 and they never failed to put a (sometimes terrified) smile on my face. Sadly, I also lost 2 close friends who died in a mini back in 76, so they are a car I love dearly but with some remorse too.

Thanks Jack for the memories. I was 18 years old, I had a Mk1 Lotus Cortina with the A frame rear end and raced at club level. These bloody little things would slip past me in the corners while my inside front wheel waved in the air. We were all on German Dunlop Roadspeed crossply tyres. Crossply sounds terrible but these tyres were built on a race tyre carcass. there is a special sound that the A series engine had and as you drove away it all came back to me. Wooohooo!

I absolutely adore the size, simplicity and sheer uncomplicated fun the Mini Cooper represents. I WANT ONE❤

Mini Cooper S, you think you are going twice as fast as you really are! Lovely little cars I think. Thanks Jack for folding yourself into that one. 👍👍

The Daily Mail printing lies? Well I never

Love these little things. I had an original mini about 30years ago. A246 UOK...Will never forget it. Just a 1000cc but it was brilliant. Never owned anything since, that went round corners like it! Brakes were rubbish on mine too, drums all round. Still, memories that'll never leave me

Hi Jack, I see the Mini as the most practical Motorcycle ever built. It has a fully enclosed cabin and a bit of room for a passenger. It has 4 wheels for more stability and an actual Steering Wheel instead of all that leaning left and leaning right B.S. There is no need for Saddle Bags and you rarely get bugs in your teeth or rain up your ass on highway trips. Quite an improvement over an old BSA etc.

I had many Minis back in the day. I had a fully balanced bored out 1275/1293 Cooper S that reved to 7500 no probs. It's now in Hong Kong I believe. Took it all over Europe on various holidays and the Italians absolutely loved it. We've even raced around the back streets of Monaco back in the day must have been about 1972. Superb little cars but I'm hopelessly biased😂

Great video, thanks. I Learnt to drive in my Mum's 1970 850 Mini (at age 13, in 1974, as I pestered her so much), NZ assembled model. These NZ cars were a parts bin model, same as the Cooper S re sliding windows, door latch, dash with oil and temp gauges, fold down number plate, hydro suspension and the long wand gear stick. Many fun memories!!

So glad you've gotten around to this absolute classic. It brought back memories of bombing around Europe's narrow two-lanes in a Cooper S in the early '70's. No radio so we had to install a cassette player to listen to "Derek And Clive Live". I loved the handling. On longish trips one got beat up a bit but it was worth it for the 'road feel' through the seat of your pants on the twisties. Thanks for a great trip down memory lane!

The original Mini Cooper was a 997cc, long stroke design. This was eventually replaced with the 998cc Cooper. The first Cooper S was 1070cc. There was a 970cc short stroke Cooper S to homologate for under 1000cc saloon car racing. The final version was the 1275. One of the reasons for those capacities was that a 10thou over bore released a lot more power and took the overall displacements to 999cc, 1099 and 1299cc so staying legal for 1-litre, 1100cc and 1.3 litre racing classes.

We used to say that driving a Mini Cooper was the most fun you could have with your clothes on🙂 A brilliant little car. Interesting that Australian Mk2 Coopers S had a wider track with flared guards and spacers built in to the drums and discs, also had twin fuel tanks.

The Mini brings back loads of happy childhood memories for me, my parents had one when i was a kid in the 80's .... We used to travel all over the lake district and Scotland in it also trip's to Devon to visit my uncle..... It was just the standard 1000cc in a lovely metallic light Green..... Happy memories! Cracking stuff as always Jack buddy 👍

Great video! Have recently got my sound but patinated 1979 Mini back on the road (after 25y in my dad's garage :) I think your comments about the ride, handling, driving position etc. are right on the money. Nothing else quite like it.

Small in stature, but what a giant of a car. Fantastic exhaust note too

I rewatched the movie a few months ago - and noticed that the Alfa Romeo Guilia's (the cop cars) were being deliberately driven slowly, so as not to catch up with the Mini's !

Another trip down memory lane for me. One of my first cars, after I obtained my license back in the early 70s, was a Mini Deluxe with the 1-litre engine. Shortly afterwards after selling the latter, I bought a Cooper S that a previous owner had fitted with the 850's gearbox. Revved like stink in the lower gears and was fun to drive around town by somewhat noisy out on the highways. Fond memories indeed and such a lively chuckable car. Time to dig out the original Italian Job and watch that too. Thanks, Jack. 👍

It was an experience to own a Mini and perfect little car in its day. I had one in the 60’s.

They just make you smile, simple! And you get lots of smiles back when driving.