Footnotes

• Belying its small size and apparent fragility, the Mini Cooper developed into the most successful works rally car of the 1960s. In actual fact, the works had started campaigning the Mini in rallies before the advent of the Cooper version, though with a mere 850cc to play with, the car’s agility could not make up for its lack of power. The 997cc Cooper’s arrival changed all that, and Pat Moss gave the car a dream international debut by winning the Ladies’ Prize in the 1962 Monte Carlo Rally. Favourable handicapping enabled Moss to win the Tulip and German rallies outright, while ‘Flying Finns’ Rauno Aaltonen and Timo Makinen finished 3rd and 5th in that year’s RAC event to cap a brilliant year.
  BMC’s Abingdon Competition Department prepared a Mini Cooper with registration ‘11 NYB’ for the 1962 Monte Carlo Rally. Works driver Rauno Aaltonen was assigned to drive the car (competitor number ‘100’) which was co-driven by Geoff Mabbs, a factory-supported private entrant from the West Country. During the event however, with Aaltonen at the wheel, ‘11 NYB’ rolled out of contention, the ‘Flying Finn’ having to be extricated by Mabbs from the upturned car, which had caught fire and burned out at the roadside. Almost certainly requiring a new bodyshell and a rewire during what would have been a major rebuild, neither the car nor its ‘11 NYB’ registration appeared on any more international or national rally entry lists in period.
  Only in recent years has a Mini Cooper registered ‘11 NYB’ been rallied on historic events, leading to the conclusion that it must have been rebuilt around a replacement bodyshell. Indeed, this car’s accompanying BMIHT certificate records that Austin Mini Cooper, chassis number ‘C-A2S7/194262’, was supplied new to Arthur Alsop Limited, of Newport, Monmouthshire in December 1961. How much, if any, of the original ‘11 NYB’ remains is not known.
  Purchased by the previous owner in 1994, the car comes with a 1”-thick file of bills relating to its total restoration between 1997 and 2000. The current titled owner bought the Mini Cooper in November 2000 and has covered around 1,500 miles, mainly on historic events, since then. Invoices dating from 2000 to 2003 indicate that the car was maintained by Orchard Restoration during these years and modified to obtain better performance, which included replacing the engine and gearbox after the 2001 Monte Challenge at a cost of £4,500.
  In addition to the aforementioned invoices, ‘11 NYB’ comes with an original handbook; copies of Autosport’s articles about the 1962 Monte Carlo Rally; a copy photograph of the burnt Mini at the ’62 Monte; a copy photograph of Aaltonen and Mabbs with ‘11 NYB’; old MoT certificates from 1999 to 2006; assorted old tax discs; original and copies of the old V5; current road fund licence and Swansea V5 registration document.
  

Saleroom notices

• Receipts in the history file indicate that the engine fitted in 2001 to this car was a 998cc type Mini Cooper engine.