John Cooper S Works Page

By popular demand from S Works owners, we have now started a register for these very sort after cars, which have a confusing, and in some cases random and varied numbering scheme.

Cars were sometimes bought directly by John Cooper Garages from Rover and converted from new (normally indentified by "Car No. S-WKS-xxx" on the plaque) and then sold by John Cooper Garages, others were subsequently converted later on in life by either John Cooper Garages, or sometimes as a DIY kit, normally identifed by "Conversion No. xxxx" on the plaque where xxx is the unique car number. Some cars are fitted with 'older' plaques with Car No. Sxxx which seem a little random in nature, but that is pretty much how things were with numbers often being chosen by buyers thus not in sequence of build.

Depending on the date of the conversion and whether it was a new car or a later conversion, the plaques fitted to the cars by the drivers seat varied in design and numbering scheme used.

Each car should have a unique number, and authenticity can be difficult to prove unless all the associated conversion documents and certificates are with the car.

The Works cars were upgraded to produce up to 90 bhp, a large increase from the standard 62 bhp with the MPi engine, and many other special cosmetic upgrades were available as options to go with these conversions. There were up to 250 Works cars produced 'from new', although it is believe the final number was less than this, more around the 230 - 235 mark. In addition to those sold new with the S Works conversions, dozens more were converted later in life, numbers unknown, but probably another 100 or so minis treated to this upgrade, some were already earlier 'S' conversions (85bhp) and came back for the extras to push it to the S Works 90 bhp.

Part of this number of conversions were the much publicised 'final 50' classic S Works conversions, which came with a signed certificate stating this. There are also stories of additional conversions after these, but we are still gathering data and in communications with ex-employees of the John Cooper Garages to try and confirm the facts on these topics.

Data gathered so far suggests some of the final 50 conversions were Cooper Sport 500's - we have three confirmed as such, but we also have non-500's confirmed as being in the final 50 as well, so it appears a mixed bag of cars made up the final 50. If you have a final 50 car, please get in touch with us andy@coopersport500register.co.uk to help solve the puzzle and get the facts recorded once and for all.

There were 25 John Cooper LE S Works models, which came with numbered plaques on the dash glove box, but there are also a reported additional 10 cars which are the same but did not have numbers allocated, identical except for not being part of the 25 numbered cars and having no plaque on the glove box lid! These cars account for 35 of the '250' S Works cars made. Again if you have one of these cars, please get in contact with us.

It is unfortunate that with all desirable things like this, many fakes have been made, some delibrately so to make sellers a big profit by cashing in on the John Cooper name. The purpose of the register is to help combat this issue by collecting genuine information on the cars allowing us to advise potential purchasers of the likely authenticity of any car.

Counterfeit accessories in the John Cooper name are also all too common, ebay being one place to beware of. It is therefore with pleasure to hear that Mike Cooper has re-launched a range of genuine John Cooper accessories again for the mini in 2014. These items can be purchased through Mini Sport, the well known mini spares supplier.

If you have an S Works / John Cooper Conversion or wish to buy one, get in touch with us and lets help each other keep the genuine dream alive!