Works Rover Mini Cooper

Description

The car is featured in the book ‘The last works Mini’s’ and is depicted on the front cover No. 222 when it competed in the 1997 Monte Carlo Rally .
It was a fully funded Rover project led by British Motor Heritage who took 2 Rover Cooper 35 body shells from the production line and initially built them up as race cars . They competed in the 1996 Nurburgring 24 hr race before being striped and repainted in Red, at the sponsors request , to then compete in the 1997 Montecarlo Rally . 222 was a group N entry driven by Dave Paveley and finished the event with a trophy.
The cars were then converted back to race spec and took part in the 1997 Nurburgring 24 hr race – this was the last event 222 took part in but it was then the show car that featured in the ST catalogue for Rover Mini Cooper race parts and this car is the one that led to the ‘sports pack’ being produced -copying its wheel arches.
It is now presented as it ran on the Monte Carlo rally in 1997 but still retains its race dash and long range fuel tank.