They love their Minis in Japan. Can you blame them? I mean, who doesn’t love Minis? They’re cute, cool, sporty, revolutionary and iconic. And in a country where about one out of three cars adheres to the kei regulations, it’s a perfectly-sized slice of British history. But that’s the problem with this one: it looks like the real thing – a classic ‘60s Mini Cooper – but it most definitely is not.
The original Mini was made for 40 years, and some of them made it to Japan. Quite a few, in fact. I don’t have any hard data to back this up, just the fact that I’ve seen this familiar shape in too many places around here for it to be a coincidence. I’ve seen late model ones, restored older ones, Mini-specialized workshops – they’re really popular here, I tell you. I’ve even seen a Mini graveyard from afar. I was on a bus, unfortunately, so I couldn’t stop to snap a couple pics.
Short of a classic Mini graveyard, here’s one I found nearby that is probably ready to be a parts donor, but is instead just sitting next to an abandoned house. I’ve seen a few of those as well – individual Minis slowly going to seed in someone’s back yard. It’s a sad sight, but it also proves that these retain a certain status and charm, even when immobile.
The interior of this late model doorstop was still surprisingly clean. I’m really no expert on these, but it seems this one had a few modifications, as well. I’ll let the CCommentariat debate what those might be. For my part, I’ll just say that this faded Union Jack seat cushion is a perfect representation of how I feel about the UK these days. Seeing a Mini always reminds me of what I used to love about that country, which I know well and am still attached to, but that has been drifting away into a sort of madness, or some sort of collective Alzheimer’s.
But let’s leave politics out of this. My point was that there are many Minis about, which I didn’t expect when I came to Japan. (The BMW Minis are also quite popular, but they are not really “mini” any more than the new Fiat 500s. Which are also quite popular. It’s all about the retro-cute thing, which is really big on the JDM.) I had seen at least one or two very old Minis about, as well. And the other day, I managed to find one that was stationary. It had all the proper badges, I thought. As I said, I’m really no expert, but even I know what early Minis look like. The small taillights were there – along with an Austin Cooper script that seemed pretty much like the real thing. Promising find, this.
The interior seemed like a Mark 1, as far as I could tell. Very ‘60s, or ‘50s even, with that central tach, that big bakelite wheel and the red faux leather. Ok, so there was an A/C unit added to the mix, but hey, this is Japan, not the Scottish Highlands. It’s definitely needed here.
It was a bit tricky to get a decent look at the front end, but that also seemed in decent order. But that’s when I noticed the missing hinges. The 1962-69 Mini Cooper, or any ‘60s Mini really, should have visible hinges on its front doors. Otherwise, it’s not a ‘60s Mini, but rather a post-1971 Mini. In which case, it cannot be a Cooper, and cannot have small taillamps and all that other stuff. Don’t get me wrong, this car was still beautiful. But as I realized it was a fake Cooper, I did wonder why so much effort would be expounded by its owner to make it look like an older car than it should have been. That takes a special kind of mindset.
What a genuine ‘60s Austin Mini Cooper looks like
I wondered: Who is this guy is trying to impress? Who is he trying to kid? People who don’t know it’s a Cooperized Mark III would likely be impressed by any Mini that looked halfway decent. People who know how to spot a true ‘60s Cooper won’t be fooled for very long. And after a spot of research, I also found that all Coopers have chromed window frames, which is not the case here. I call BS on this BL travesty. I’m sure I missed half a dozen other cues that should have told me that this was mutton dressed as Cooper, but I’m just not enough of a Mini maniac.
Imagine doing this with a VW Beetle, for instance. Start with a Super Beetle and try winding the clock back to the early ‘50s. Put on the old-style front wings, dash, steering wheel, seats, taillamps, engine lid, delete the rear window vents, add the old-style trim and badges… It’ll still look wrong in the end to people who know Beetles, because the Super Beetle’s greenhouse is so visibly different from the Split / Oval Window era Beetles. It’s going through a great deal of trouble for no tangible benefit.
Sure, some of you may say “Lay off, T87. This is not a crime. He just likes it that way.” Of course he does. That’s why he did it. But it doesn’t mean I have to like or respect it. It’s depriving a genuine Cooper owner of some trim and badges for his restoration project. It’s trying to pretend a car is what it is not. It’s ahistorical and insulting to the memory of John Cooper. And if he sells it as is for a premium to someone who doesn’t know their Mark I from their Mark IIIs, it’s potential fraud.
I know, I know, I’m getting riled up over nothing. Unhinged, in fact – just like that Mini. I just don’t like this kind of snobbery. And I’m miffed because I would have loved to have bagged a genuine ‘60s Mini Cooper. But now I’m looking at my photos and, well, it’s still a pretty little number, that fake Mini. A lot of money and passion probably went into it. Maybe the guy just wants to make his own because he can’t find the genuine article. I don’t know how many were imported here, if any.
So fine, I’ll save my bile for something more bileworthy. Ride on, Wannabe Cooper-san. Have fun pretending it’s 1965 all over again, with some nice A/C blowing on your mop-top and Eurythmics singing in your ears. Wait, were Eurythmics around in 1965? No? Let’s pretend they were. Facts and history don’t matter, it’s how you feel that does. And while we’re here having fun, let me hear you pronounce “Rover” one more time.
Related posts:
CC Outake: 1966 Austin Mini Cooper S – Direct From Monte Carlo, by Roger Carr
Sports Car Shop Classics: 1967 Austin Mini Cooper S And 1999 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur, by PN
Curbside Classic: Austin Mini – Yesterday’s Mini; Today’s Micro, by PN
Car Carshow Classic: 1960 Austin Seven (Mini) – The Future Started Here, by Roger Carr
Curbside Classic: When Is a Mini Not a Mini? When it’s a 1966 Riley Elf Mk III, by Marckyle64
Sharp spotting T87!
But at the end of the day, it’s his/her car , and that’s how s/re likes it, and largely a very impressive effort. I’d rather it was like this than like the other one in your shots.
The other big clue is wind up, not sliding windows.
And yes, the cushion does seem apt, though too often it seems upside down as well.
Oz Coopers had slidey windows, though.
*windey!
I’m no Mini expert either, but I also spotted the interior door trims – didn’t all early Mini’s have the steel door bins and cord door handle?
This car doesn’t bother me though – its easier to make a late Mini look older as they changed much less than the Beetle to a Super Beetle update (very different windows, even totally different front suspension). And to be honest I much prefer the earlier looks than the ’70’s update, although I’d also quite like a Clubman in ’70’s Orange.
This is a fun Saturday morning read T87.
I save forgiving smiles for “tribute” GTOs and other American muscle types, and have complete understanding and respect for older type 1 and 2 VWs with larger more useful engines.
Then again, taking a later model and making it look like an earlier model is completely understandable to an old car aficionado (that is both OLD-CAR aficionado and OLD car-aficionado), whose knowledge is limited to mostly USA and imported models.
The subject of your post is IMO beautiful, and in my part of the USA, where knowledge of real minis (not the BMW namesakes) is minuscule (sorry), few would be the wiser.
As a fellow appreciator of originality, I feel your pain. As one with zero background with Minis, I would have been fooled. OK, except for the a/c control on the dash with the blue graphic. Nobody did that in 1965.
I am also right there with you on the historical revisionism that seems to be all around us these days. In music, 1969 has to be all about Woodstock. Everyone forgets that it was also about The Archies, Bobby Sherman and Sammy Davis, Jr. Everyone wants the vibe but not necessarily the reality.
The American version would be the RestoMod. Everyone wants the cool classic, but they want to put it on a modern chassis so that it starts, stops steers and has features like their daily driver.
My first thought was that in that era “Made In Japan” was finally shaking a reputation of cheap junk. Knowing what I do about the way Japanese vehicles were reliable above all else, I wonder what kind of reputation the original Mini got there. I guess we kind of know because the original Honda Civic was sort of like the Mini once Honda got done improving it.
The Japanese have always wanted to make a car like the Mini, the concept, the idea. Some Daihatsu’s are copies of the Mini, the taillights, the grille.
From what I understand is that the Mini soldiered on for a few more years because of the strong demand from Japan.
Same for the reproduction parts to make it look like an Mk 1 Cooper or Cooper S, the demand came from Japan.
I’m not enough of a Mini guy to easily tell early from late models – the sliding front windows are the most obvious difference to me – and the old and new ones to me look similar, yet there is indeed something off about the retro-ized late Mini. The changes to the Beetle (even discounting the Super Beetle) were far more obvious.
There are thousands of car manufacturers in China. Many of them make lookalike cars, Minis are one of them. Often they look ridiculous but I assume, knowing China,, that some are quite close. This may be one of those. Although they dont asually have a fake badge, the makers like to tout their 2 foot long or multi line names on the back..
A buddy of mine snapped this pic recently, and he posted it elsewhere, just yesterday. CC Effect. This one has frames protecting the taillights.
Don’t take this the wrong way T87, but your judgmental rant about this car, one of undoubtedly thousands of Minis that have been “Cooperized” over the decades in Japan, the UK, the US, all over Europe and all over the globe with readily available aftermarket badges and such, is every bit as extreme (or more so) than either side of the Brexit debate.
No, he didn’t deprive someone else of rare and precious original Austin Cooper badges for their genuine restoration. They’re available on the web for $29.95 on ebay. And no, he’s not going to fool anyone when it comes time to sell it. These fake Coopers have been around for decades; folks were doing them already starting in the 70s. they were dirt common in LA in the 70s. just a few badges and rear lights and such. All readily available.
The odds of seeing an authentic original Mk1 Mini Cooper on the streets or in a driveway are about the same as seeing an authentic original Shelby Cobra or Porsche Speedster on the street. Better to start with the assumption that it’s fake.
And it’s not at all like starting with a Super Beetle to make a ’50s VW. That would be like starting with a big-nosed Mini Clubman. Actually, not, as even that would be drastically easier, as the windows and such are all still the same size. The VW’s body window cutouts were increased several times. And the Super Beetle had a longer wheelbase and totally different platform.
And for what it’s worth, kits to turn an oval rear window Beetle into a split rear window Beetle have been around since the late 60s, and were quite popular for ages.
Where’s your sense of fun and humor? The Japanese have that in spades, which explains their rampant light-hearted love of Euro-retro, a well as all the other car culture madness, like Chevy Astro vans. I’ve been to Tokyo and some other big cities in Japan. Much of them are not very pretty, with some exceptions. Endless look-alike concrete buildings, etc. And then of course there’s the conformist culture. It’s really no surprise that they love things like this. The owner of this car is not trying to fool anyone in the least. Nobody there expects it to be a very rare authentic Mk 1 Cooper. It’s just…fun. And not to be taken seriously.
I get that.
I saw a real ’64 289 Cobra at the car show they had August 30th at the World of Speed museum. Owned by same family all its life, and it was by no means a trailer queen.It was pretty rough actually. So yes you might see one in the wild. In a parking lot. With no velvet ropes around it.But the odds are not in your favor, for sure.
If you have a chassis number an entire 23 window VW microbus can be bought in kit form in repop, Minis have been modified since people found the first ones handled really well in fact stock standard little old lady versions with 850cc engines are the rare ones not quick CooperS look alikes they all looked like that when I was a kid bright red or orange straight thru exhaust etc etc.
Many MKIII Coopers were created forty or so years ago because of a couple of British car phenomena. The first was that the Minis made in the ’60s had better mechanical specifications than the ones made in the ’70s and ’80s. Real coopers had disc brakes and tuned engines that later cars were missing. A 1275GT Clubman was a poor, single-carburetor substitute for a 1275S Cooper from previous years. The same goes for the Mini 1000 v. a 998 Cooper. The other factor was that all those earlier Coopers rusted into oblivion before they had a chance to wear out.
The two trends of devolution and rust were combined to create the ‘re-shelled’ Cooper. It typically looked like a big tail-light, loop grilled, winding window MKIIII while having Cooper brakes, a Cooper engine, Cooper badges, and an aftermarket exhaust. I drove one in 1984, and it wasn’t obvious why BL didn’t have something similar in the catalog at the time. Being BL, it could just have been that they didn’t want to pay the licensing agreement to keep making fun Minis.
I had a 1974 Innocenti Cooper 1300, the Italians knew how to make their Cooper S: the Veglia dashboard with gauges from left to right, the Brembo discbrakes with servo, the Carello H4 headlights.
This is still less inexplicable than the Japanese obsession with the Allegro Vanden Plas.
It also explains the creation and success of the Nissan Pike cars.
While the owner of this backdated Mini isn’t fooling the experts, it makes them happy. Also the base car could very well be a late production Mini-Cooper and not simply a tarted up Mini City
Actual MK2 Mini Coopers did exist but not the Cooper S that was the one the royaties were paid on that BL canned, why do I say this, well a housemate i lived with decades ago had a MK2 Cooper and a Mk1 CooperS and a De Joux no youve never heard of Ferris De joux’s creation before I know subject for when one is seen and photographed, A bikie mate from my old days was involved in the early used JDM import scheme bringing cars into NZ he was doing it one by one in the late 70s the old personal baggage method before it ramped up into ship loads at a time anyway he knew about the Japanese love of old British cars its not limited to Minis and began shipping cars back, lots of ex Kiwi Minis are in japan and there are still thousands left and no the BMW effort based around a Peugeot powertrain though quite a good car is certainly not a Mini, and the one you found is a mixture having been retrofitted with MK1 tail lights and aftermarket Austin Cooper badging, bumpers etc the shape of the panel the tail light is on should be smooth without the mild swelling under the light unit among other minor details.
It is a shame Japan never adjusted its Kei Car laws in terms of dimensions and engine size up to 750cc, allowing the Mini to easily be adapted to the segment sans for the Mini’s current engine size.
Apparently Chilean versions of the Mini either had or was planned to have a 750cc A-Series as a low-tax special (possibly via 803cc bore and 848cc stroke), there was also the 750cc 9X engine that could have been utilized for a Japanese Kei spec Mini.
I must counter with the observation that the Cooper “conversion” is at least discreet. It is not jarring; you had to look and think about it. It bothers nobody; few know about it and a real expert might miss the truth you uncovered. It is subtle.
Now here, in the USA, we do silly, unbelievable, obnoxious, nonsensical much more offensively.
To wit: multiple 1958 Edcheros; final generation El Caminos made into Buick Skylarks of a sort; A 1959 Pontiac “El Camino”; 1960 Edsel two door wagon; gross conversions of C4 or C5 (not sure which) Corvette convertibles into faux (apx.) ’62s – complete with white coves contrasting with a yellow or turquoise main scheme. I saw one of those last weekend here in Scottsdale. Then there were the MN12 Thunderbirds converted into something that looks like a ’50 shoebox Ford coupe.
The “cute” Japanese Mini/Cooper does not offend. What we Americans can do with too much money and too little discretion does.
I doubt this guy plans to fool anyone. My guess is that he bought the car and then thought the old one looked cooler, and found the cosmetic transformation was cheaper than finding the real thing. OR he bought it from a shop that did the work (be mad at the shop if they fooled him). Retro badges are so easy to get I’m sure they aren’t real.
The average Japanese are not such sticklers for authenticity in foreign stuff….they love the look and feel but it’s just too expensive to get the real thing.
Oh, spare us the “when Americans do something it’s gross and vulgar, but when the quaint foreigners do it it’s cute and fine” preaching.
The cars do not offend me, even if they are not always my taste. The originals in good shape are far too expensive for the ordinary person these days. But for a few grand in bodywork they can drive something they like the style of, but will get them to work. If they don’t have the luxury of a garage and a stable of other cars, they find a company who will do it for them….still cheaper than buying (And owning) an original 60-year-old car in great shape. Why not, and who are you to tell them what they should do with their money? It used to be far more common to customize and modify things to suit the tastes of the owner, to show a little individuality.
There is nothing more offensive and obnoxious than finger wagging at others.
“…how I feel about the UK these days..” “..collective Alzheimer’s…” “sort of madness…”
You should perhaps have heeded your own admonition to leave politics out of it.
All Minis are great fun – Coopers or not
Strange as it may seem to some old Minis are not rare or particularly valueable in Aotearoa unless of course you have a geuine CooperS and empty RO RO vehicle ships regularly return to Japan for another load of used JDM cars they could be filled with old BMC cars for relatively little money should the demand be there, modern Kiwis like their cars maintenance free so Japanese cars fit the bill being disposable once the problems begin and theres always another shiny one straight off the boat ready to take home.
Good lord, T, did you go out in the mid-day sun sans pith? Surely seems something has boiled your bonce, old chap.
Like VeeWee beetles, there’s barely a Mini for sale that hasn’t been individualized by the individual who owns it. For sure, much of it usually to be descried on the grounds of taste and decency, but they paid for it and all that. As for this one, it’s most discreet, not to say effective (fooled you, what). Others have mentioned that it won’t fool any buyer, nor is likely intended so to do.
Here in the remote fringes of the former Empire, the readies needed for a goodly original Cooper are close to $100K, meaning they’re for the rich, who, in my view, have quite enough access to all the good toys. Building an homage like this for maybe $20K at home lets those who might have enthusiasm for the machine instead of enthusiasm for investment join in. Considered that way, it’s participation and public visibility rather than mock-turtleism that’s going on. It’s all good. As the govt ads here say mindlessly whenever it thinks a supposed terror threat’ll help re-election, be alert, but not alarmed.
I enclose one white helmet, gratis.
Another Mini which is now looked after is the Special (1976 – 1981), this was only made in Belgium for the European market in the seventies, to give the brand a re-boost.
They were built at the Seneffe plant in Wallonie, the French speaking part of Southern Belgium and they had a different color scheme, a black grille, sporty hubcaps, tinted windows, reversing lights in their taillights ( Italian Carello’s first used on the Italian made Innocenti Mini’s ) a vinyl roof, cloth seats, Cibie headlights and an 1100 cc engine.
In 1979 this model was also offered for the UK market.
In those days I had a Red ’74 Innocenti Cooper 1300 (one of the cars I am sorry I ever sold) and my sister had an 1100 Special
Tatra (if I may presume to use your first name), I think you are slightly misinterpreting what the builder of this Mini was aiming for. If he thinks as I do, he’s had no intention of pretending to build a replica of -any- specific year or model of Mini. He is attempting to build his ideal Mini by gathering together the best elements of the entire 20 year run of Minis, and then adding the best after-market modifications to make “the Mini that might have been.“
So, you start with an improved design later year car with air-conditioning, big 1275cc engine, and disc brakes. You swap out the dash for the much cooler looking big dial dash. Dump the Bible-size tail lights for the more elegant older ones. Do a mild engine build on the late stock 1275 for more power but without the expense/peakiness/high maintenance of a Cooper engine. If done properly, you end up with a comfortable, reliable, fun-to-drive, cool-looking car, for much less than the cost of an authentic early car with its underpowered (for modern times, even in Tokyo traffic) engine, puny brakes, sliding windows, and OMG in humid Tokyo no A/C.
I see this all the time in the Alfa Spider world; another car with a long long production run.
Since so many ( some 5,387,862 in the case of the Mini), were produced, he is hardly depriving the world of a rare car, especially when noting he started with a hardly-at-all desirable to collectors late model. You get almost all the cool-factor and a lot less of the hair-shirt suffering of an early car….
Thanks for all your comments, everybody!
I elected the give this post an over-the-top angry slant to spice it up, and elicit reactions. The Mini is so universally loved that it could have made for a very milquetoast (milquepost?) piece.
Mostly in good fun, I assure you. I was disappointed that I didn’t catch the genuine thing, but that’s something I have gotten used to in Thailand…
And thanks for the pith helmet, Justy!
Not at all, thankyou taking the pith.