Morris Mini Cooper S 1275

The Cooper S arrived in 1963 as the faster sibling of the standard Cooper, and the 1275cc engine added in 1964 made it a class contender in under-1300cc motorsport. Paddy Hopkirk's Monte Carlo Rally win that year did the rest for its reputation. This 1968 Morris-badged Mk II is a matching-numbers car, first registered in Oxford in March 1968 and finished in its original Island Blue with a white roof and black vinyl trim.

It was restored professionally over about six years from 2004, with a bare-metal repaint. MED Engineering rebuilt the engine and gearbox in 2006, the interior was renewed in 2007, and the cooling and braking systems were replaced and uprated in 2010. The car had covered 56,000 miles by the end of the work and now shows 58,625, roughly 10,000 of them since the engine rebuild.

A history file holds invoices and photographs for the work. The British Mini Club valued the car at £25,000 in 2015, and it has appeared at concours events and the London to Brighton run. Last year Enginuity in Acton fitted new front floor pans, inner wheel arches, wiring, a water pump and cooling hoses, at a cost of £4,474.22. It is a right-hand-drive, four-speed manual and is tax and MOT exempt as a historic vehicle.