The Italian Job: An Innocenti Mini

Innocenti was an Italian machinery works originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920. Over the years they produced Lambretta scooters and, most notably, Mini's from 1965 until 1975 under license from British Leyland. Although the sales of Innocenti's second only behind Fiat in the early 70's a new manger was put in charge and at the end of his three year tenure in 1975 the company was purchased out of near bankruptcy in February 1976, by Alejandro de Tomaso and was reorganised by the De Tomaso Group under the name Nuova Innocenti. All of this background is important to understand more about our first registration for this year's celebration of DeTomaso at the Cortile: A 1975 Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300. ​

The Innocenti Mini was produced under license by the Italian factory Innocenti between 1965 and 1975. By the mid 1970's Innocenti had achieved a rather cult like following because of their production of the Lambretta scooters made famous in The Who Movie Quadrophenia. At the beginning of 1973, through agreements Leyland-Innocenti, introduced the Mini-Export for the European market.
Compared to the original English, versions Innocenti (including Cooper) had many differences. 

These cars were more sophisticated than the British built Minis. Improvements on the Innocenti were the 6-gauge dashboard and the quarter lights in the front doors.  They had interior with more accessories and better finished, several external components, such as in the design of the frames headlights, the grille and rear trunk, modified to accommodate the Italian plates in use at the time.

​Many details of internal and external were produced by Italian brands (IPRA for the radiators, Carello and Altissimo as regards the headlights). Also for what concerns the mechanical part were made of different choices such as the adoption of the booster on all models Cooper (the English Mini the brake booster solely on the Cooper S).

Mini Magazine wrote:
​“There are thousands of pub-hours to be spent arguing as to what models of Mini are the rarest and/or most desirable…but definitely in the top ten in our book on the rarity side must be (the Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 Export)”... “there can’t be many more than a handful of these luxuriously-appointed, highly-tuned Italian “blossom” left in existence.”

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Gary's 1975 Innocenti Mini

According to Gary Daniels, the first registrant to this years Cortile and the owner of the 1975 Innocenti pictured on this posting: "In researching the rarity of this car, I contacted the Mini Cooper Register who has an Innocenti register for more information, They informed me that all factory records had been destroyed and they could not varify the production information of this car. I did find an Inncenti website that listed serial numbers and production date information.

​According to them, this car was produced in January of 1975 and that January was the last month of production for the Innocenti factory before the purchase by Alejandro de Tomaso. Production numbers for Innocent Minis ran approximately 28,00/year up until 1974 where production was cut in half. In 1975, production was very small for all versions of the Innocenti due to the short production run ending in January, 1975. The 1300 Export version is the most luxurious and smallest production volume of all Innocenti Minis.

Nearly all body panels and body parts were made by Innocenti. Notable exterior features include the distinctive Inno grille, badging and extra chrome work, plastic wheel arches, side-repeaters and Rostyle steel wheels. Notable interior features are interior door latches, three-spoke Halebore steering wheel, cigarette lighter and heated rear screen. The dashes is distinct in that the instrument cluster is made up of six Veglia gauges, lined up in a row.

All Innocenti's were equipped with Cooper S brakes and a choice of 998cc or 1275cc engines. This car in original trim had a 1275CC Cooper S spec engine with an 11-stud head, S pistons, and an S crankshaft. The con-rods were Innocenti spec. Carburetors were twin SU 1.25-inch, 538 cam and Lucas 25D4 distributor producing about 71bhp. Top end was about 95MPH.

This Mini Innocenti 1300 Export has been modified to include a 16 valve, supercharged and fuel injected 200+BHP engine, uprated brakes, adjustable suspension, roll cage, Cobra race seats, four-point harnesses and 10” three-piece alloy wheels with Yokohama 032R tyres. Weighing in at 1300 pounds, this car has impressive performance!

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Gary's 1967 Rallye Monte Carlo Winner Mini Replica

Gary Daniels is also bringing his replica 1967 Monte Carlo Rally winner for display in the Mini Car show at the PVGP,
 so you'll want to walk down the hill to check it out as well.
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According to Primotipo...
"By 1967 the Mini Cooper S was long established as a race and rally winner; in the Monte the cars won in 1964, 1965 and 1966, the cars driven by Paddy Hopkirk/Henry Liddon, Timo Makinen/Paul Easter and in ’66 Makinen, Aaltonen and Hopkirk dominated the event.
They finished in that order only to have French officialdom throw them out, and Roger Clark’s  4th placed Lotus Cortina, advancing Finnish Citroen driver Pauli Toivonen to a hollow win.
The cars ‘were excluded for having iodine vapour, single filament bulbs in their standard headlamps instead of double-filament dipping bulbs’, this was a bit of French bullshit which allowed a Citroen win…
The Mini’s advantage was rammed home in 1967 when Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon won the event one last time, the age of the Mini was coming to an end, the ‘rally reign’ of the Ford Escort Twin-Cam/RS1600 and other more powerful specialised cars was about to begin…"  [Read More at Monte Carlo Rally 1967: Morris Cooper S]