If you think about it, in the 80s these were dirt cheap in the UK as no one wanted them. I had a 63 , 800cc mini with the ‘magic wand’ gear lever that came straight out of the firewall . Your Cooper has the remote extension for the gearbox to put the lever in the normal position. With the old style you threw it in the general direction of where you hoped the gear was. On the motorway I could quite easily hit 70mph without trying. My mate had a 1400cc race engine from Oselli engineering in Oxford. We’d creep up behind BMW 3 series on the motorway and flash the lights ( full rally light bar 😅) , you’d see them accelerate until they realised their doing 100mph, move over and my mate would floor it. He’s had 120 out of it , with the size of a mini, that’s scary. Would love one again but decent models are now silly money in the UK, so no hope of that. I will say that the go-kart style handling is addictive, have a look at the hot hatches in the 80s from Europe. Some stupid power available from cars that weigh virtually nothing. Was a great time to drive 😅😅
If you think about it, in the 80s these were dirt cheap in the UK as no one wanted them. I had a 63 , 800cc mini with the ‘magic wand’ gear lever that came straight out of the firewall . Your Cooper has the remote extension for the gearbox to put the lever in the normal position. With the old style you threw it in the general direction of where you hoped the gear was. On the motorway I could quite easily hit 70mph without trying. My mate had a 1400cc race engine from Oselli engineering in Oxford. We’d creep up behind BMW 3 series on the motorway and flash the lights ( full rally light bar 😅) , you’d see them accelerate until they realised their doing 100mph, move over and my mate would floor it. He’s had 120 out of it , with the size of a mini, that’s scary. Would love one again but decent models are now silly money in the UK, so no hope of that. I will say that the go-kart style handling is addictive, have a look at the hot hatches in the 80s from Europe. Some stupid power available from cars that weigh virtually nothing. Was a great time to drive 😅😅
Still for sale?