Rear view of a 1965, Twin-engine, Austin Mini Cooper S, on display at the 2019 London Classic Car Show. Showing the exhaust system in the boot.
The origin of the twin-engine Mini Cooper was a twin-engine Mini Moke that John Cooper saw and drove in late 1962. He thought that a twin-engine Mini Cooper would be quite successful. As a result Cooper had his staff build a twin-engine Mini. Evidently the car performed well, but one night during testing the rear engine failed causing a rollover. John Cooper was seriously hurt and nearly lost his life in that rollover. Following this incident the original twin-engine Mini Cooper was destroyed and no further official development took is known that Downton Engineering also built a twin-engine Mini and raced it in the 1963 Targa Florio. The car was plagued with overheating and excessive tire wear, but managed to finish the race. I think that the car shown below is this second Downton Engineering Mini, but I am not sure. The picture below is taken from Graham Robson’s book, but he is not specific on which Mini it is. Hopefully someone with information on this car will be able to clarify the identification of the is thought that 4 to 6 twin-engine Mini Coopers have been built. I believe that each of these Minis was built individually, each with its own individual solutions to the problems of this modification. The car shown at the 2016 Lime Rock Historic Festival and pictured below is one of these one-off twin-engine Mini Cooper the Mini Cooper engine is not large and as the transmission and drive train are integral with the engine, it is rather easy to conceive how to construct a twin-engine Mini. While the original Mini was a small car on the outside, it was rather roomy on the inside. I suspect that the biggest issues with the twin-engine Mini are related to dissipation of heat given the location of the engine. The challenge would be to get cool air to the engine compartment and get rid of the hot air as soon as possible.
Size: 4597px × 3489px
Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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