Rover Spi Cooper

[PH5121]

I've been on here for years and never posted details of any of my cars.
But inspired by Kamilb's Mpi thread I've found a couple of pictures on my phone I could post of my mini which is a 1992 Rover Mini Cooper Spi.

I inherited the car last year, my dad had owned it from 1993 up to his death in 2018.

He bought it when I still lived at home and was into minis in a big way and had a heavily modified one. The enthusiasm rubbed off onto him.

It only had a couple of trips out last year, one to a local mini meet.



It stood for years as it wouldn't run properly. This was easily sorted by flushing the radiator out.

It is rust free and has only covered 13k miles from new. This year I'll get some new tyres on it as the current ones are 25 years old.

If given a choice of what car to go out in my kids always choose the mini. Hopefully this year we'll get out in it more.

[heisthegaffer]

Nice story. Enjoy mate.

[RobFerrari]

I have just replied to the other thread and will certainly do to this as well, what a lovely looking Cooper.

Mine was a J Reg also, but a touch earlier as it still had the Carb engine. I miss it dearly and wish I had a way at the time to hang on to it! Sadly, mine did had plenty of rust unlike your lovely example here. I don't think I have ever really seen any SPi ones let alone one with such low mileage...

Hope to see more photos and trip stories of it!

[PH5121]

Mine back then was a carb Cooper too Rob.
I prefer carb to efi but couldn't say no when mum offered me the mini.

[595Heaven]

Nice to see another proper Mini - enjoy

[PH5121]

It's nice to see that people still have a soft spot for them.

The Mini was my first automotive love, I started to save up to buy one when I was 12 and got one at 16.

[595Heaven]

I bought mine brand new not long after joining Rover.

I missed out on the very last unsold RSP Cooper in the UK by a couple of hours (Hartwell Northampton I think) which was more than a little frustrating.

Such a fun car - I’d love to try one again!

[PH5121]

595Heaven said:

Such a fun car - I’d love to try one again!

The most striking thing for me is how vulnerable I now feel in one.

I didn't feel like this as a youngster when I drove like a total fool. It's when I have my kids in the car I realise that there's not much protection and I drive very sedately, however even at low speed you still feel you are going quick as you bounce about!

I look back at how many crashes and near misses I had and now realise I was very lucky not to be injured in any of them.

[Retro_Jim]

Great car OP, it's nice that it stays in the family too

[PH5121]

Retro_Jim said:

Great car OP, it's nice that it stays in the family too

My dad actually gave it to my eldest son when he was a 6 month old baby but never altered the V5. It sat in our garage under a cover for years until the kids got to an age where they were likely to damage it with their bikes / skate-boards / scooters etc getting chucked in, so it went back to live at my parents house.

My eldest is now very interested in cars and has spent 3 days of this weeks half term school holiday helping out (sweeping up, making tea, washing cars etc) at the garage that my brother in law works at.
When he reaches 17 I won't be letting him loose in it as youthful exuberance and stupidity means he'll have accidents and scrapes, the mini is too nice to be wrecked.

[hxc_]

Had one of these as my first car 10 years ago or so. Fun thing. Though mine developed some sort of loss of power at high revs which we never could get to th ebottom of.

Crashed it into the back of a van. Sorry

Looks lovely!