860 MW One of the most famous Downton Coopers.
860 MW was, amongst other claims to fame the first Mini Cooper to win a National event, it was also the car made famous as "The Mini Ton Bomb".
After its days as a Downton "Hack" it was purchased by Barry Hawkins who used it as his day to day transport, even driving through France in it on holiday. Throughout this period it went throughmany "Full race" guises adopting whatever was "Cutting edge at the time.
Barrys Niece was lucky enough to drive it just after having passed her test. Check out the comment she wrote on the bottom of the REVIEW.
"Targa" Austin Cooper S 1275
Currently under restoration in Germany, read more HERE
UHR 850 The most well known Downton Mini.
UHR 850 was the Downton Development hack as well as one of their most well known & respected Racers. Upon "Bunty" Richmonds death in 1975 she left specific instructions that this car should either be found a place in a Museum or burned. Thankfully it was found a place in the British Motor Heritage Collection. It can be seen at Gaydon Today.
A typical "Downton Social Club" Racer.
One of the big advantages with working at Downton was access to all the latest tuning kit and some of the most active tuning minds of the time. This car was jointly owned by Barry Hawkins & Richard Longman and was campaigned very successfully in the mid 60's. A particularly good day was had at LANDOW when 4 races were won in a day. The deseaming work was carried out at Bill Abbots garage, and was one of the very few, if not the only deseamed car of the period. Note the very unusual head specification for the period!
Needless to say, Mr Longman went on to even greater success.
In my opinion Richardwas the best Mini driver of the period (don't tell him I said that) and a very difficult chap to beat, he was always very focused, competitive, with a light bodyweight and our cars where powerful and well sorted. I often drove the same car and it was rare to better his lap times. We raced most weekends all over the country, as many as three circuits in three day's on a bank holiday, which often meant coming back to Bill Abbott's to change ratio's (choice was 3.4-3.7-3.9-4.0-4.77). We always did the Boxing Day Brand's. One season Richard had 27 wins to my 9.
Austin Cooper S 1275 MK2
I bought a Austin Cooper S in Switzerland in 1968 - thus a Mk II. Flame red, black roof. At that time there was a famous Swiss F1 race ace - Jo Siffert who raced F1 BRM (British Racing Motors) and also Porsche 917 on long distance races such as Le Mans where he won a couple of times together with Pedro Rodrguez and some Brit. His Porsche mechanic was André Marti who still lives in Fribourg, CH. ANdré had been a guest mechanic at the Downton works in Downton and was their Swiss representative. He tuned my Austin Cooper S with Downton bits that I had personally picked up in Downton. It had 107 bhp, ran very well but I sold it when the kids came. Did not really appreciate it like I would now.
Andy Blaser (Switzerland)
NIck Hunters MK2 'S'.
OThis car was owned by Nick Hunter in the mid 80's it was fitted with an original No: 5 conversion. The links below go to copys of the original specification and the servicing instructions, the originals went with the car. I wonder where it is now?
Austin Cooper 998 c/w Touring Conversion.
The only running Downton Mini in New Zealand. There are in fact two, there is a 1275 Downton under restoration which belonged to the Bruce McLaren family.
1966 998 Cooper. Complete with origional "RECORD OF LICENSE" and the original Richard Miles (Downton London) invoice detailing the conversion that was carried out. It also has all the service documentation relating to the car until it left the UK in 1968, destined for New Zealand along with it's proud owner. The original owner is still living in Wellington, New Zealand.
The performance is really well above expectation for the capacity and the gearbox delightfully precise if alarmingly noisy, the brakes are scary to say the least. The motor is equipped with 2 x 1 1/2 " SU's - quite big for such a low capacity yet there are no flat spots or obvious breathing problems. The engine is very "revvy" which makes driving great fun.
1 ELY (Richard Miles (Downton) London Demonstrator.
1 ELY came to light in the early 2000's. It was originally converted by Richard Miles and was used as a demonstrator for a year or so. During this period it was featured in an ARTICLE in Motoring News.
After being offered at a variety of stupid prices the car and its original number were seperated and sold. Although immediately before it was sold it underwent a rather unsympathetic restoration, it is now being painstakingly put back to its Richard Miles specification.
