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Fancy owning a motorsport legend for road and track use? Paul Davies looks at true classics that made their name on rally stages and race tracks, and still provide a fine drive today

The ultimate incarnation of designer Alec Issigonis baby car with ‘wheel at each corner’ concept. Tweaked initially by innovative racing car builder John Cooper - then later with more than a little help from the equally brilliant Daniel Richmond, of Downton, and BMC’s own Eddie Maher - the diminutive Mini Cooper S completely re-wrote the rule book when it came to ‘cheap’ performance saloons. Nimble handling - if a little hampered by wheels of only 10ins diameter - plus a favourable power to weight ratio gave the ‘S’ a bigger punch than its size suggested.Rallymen like Paddy Hopkirk and Timo Makinen, racers John Rhodes and Gordon Spice, not to mention irrepressible dual-discipline wheelman, Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams were some of the stars. With just a little recall you can think of a score or so other famous names; they made the Cooper S, and it made them. Three outright victories on the Monte Carlo Rally (it should have been four, if not for a political disqualification!) plus numerous British saloon car titles, established the Cooper S as a favourite competition car from its birth in 1963. In fact if we stretch the envelope a little, it was still winning 15 years later in softer Mini 1275GT form - indeed it’s still winning now in many club and historic events. The first cars featured a very special version of the robust and tuneable A-series engine, with nitrided crankshaft and numerous other lovely competition-bred parts. The 1071cc version was based on an over-square Formula Junior engine, whilst the 970cc version (which remained in production for less than 12 months) was specifically created to creep under the one litre class limit on international events. The big selling model was the lustier longstroke 1275 S, which in competition trim became1293cc, and boasted well over 100bhp. From 1969 onwards the production engine lost many of its specialist components, but guys likeRichard Longman - a former Downton employee - kept on tuning and racing them to great effect. The Cooper S prompted an explosion of the tuning industry, from bolt-on bits such as wheel spacers and bonnet clips, to serious stuff like the Arden eight-port cylinder head that overcame the power-sapping siamesed porting of the production head. BMC (later British Leyland) Special Tuning supplied factory-developed parts, and so did a host of independent specialists. Nowadays real Cooper S cars (we’re not counting the BMW New Mini here!) are hard to find, but if you get a good one you will own a piece of automotive history - and driving it will put a big grin of your face. Every time.