1963 Austin Cooper S - 1960's SCCA race car build

Hello guys, thought I would share some links to the latest Mini build.

Current project is a 1963 Cooper S, raced since 1966 in SCCA. This car was owned for some time by Bob Kimes of Dayton, OH and raced into the early 1990's. It was a tired old war horse that deserved to be brought back to life.
Here are a few photos of the car when we brought it home:

The body was really solid, no rust at all since it had always been a racer. However, it was dented everywhere and had more holes drilled in the body than you could count. As you can see from the photos, it was a roller with no engine. All the mechanicals and safety equipment needed updating, to bring it to current Vintage spec. For example one-piece fiberglass front ends are not allowed....

Here is a photo taken from the early 1970's SCCA log book:

And this one is more recent, owner at the time was Tom Baggot:

The project started in April of 2013, and we are now closing in on the finishing stages. The concept was to bring the car up to a competitive level for today's Vintage racing, and of course improve the safety features. The debut race will be at the Can-Am Mini Challenge this June.

I will post up some more pics soon of the build process. Here is a link to the webpage for the car if you want to read more: Kimes Race Car

Cheers, Rachel

That is fantastic! Minis are great enough as it is, one with such a long and illustrious racing history is even better! Awesome effort to restore such a deserving car to its former glory. Keep us updated!

Very cool. I've been having delusions about stripping the interior out of my car, getting a cage and seats installed and racing it. It's only a 1L engine and I's swear it's cammed for revving rather than street driving. The little bugger just loves to scream, but unfortunately that makes it a bit tiring to drive on the highway.

OK, here are a few photos of the car during the metal work process.

In this photo, the many holes drilled over the years are fixed, as well as the rear wheel arch repairs, removal of the rear seat pan lip and pocket bins.

Next up was to fit the safety cage. Turning this collection of pre-cut and bent tubes from Custom Cages into a complete cage did take some planning:

You can never have too many hands or devices to hold the bars in place. The trick is to make sure everything fits as it should and make any adjustments - before you weld it in!

Cage is done, and shell now media blasted. We used a combination of walnut for the panels and sand for the areas not prone to warp.

I will post up some body work pics next time.

Cheers, Rachel

Very cool. I have always had a soft spot for classic racers even the tiny ones. My wife would love this thing.

What in the world happened to that steering wheel?