How many cars owe their existence to tax laws? The buyers of many small-motored French, Italian, and English cars built in the ’40s and ’50s were granted a break due to low calculated horsepower ratings. Other cars never would have been built had their home markets not been protected by tariffs. The Innocenti Mini was produced in response to very high duties imposed by the Italian government on imported cars in the 1950s. Italy’s Innocenti, a machinery manufacturer founded in 1931, paired with British Motor Corporation in 1959 to build the Mini on Italian soil, performing an end-run around the taxman. Clever! … and weirdly familiar these days. This 1967 version is advertised here on craigslist for $19,500. This car sold a few months ago at auction – where the listing gives more details – for $17,500. It’s located in Orange County, California, and the tip comes to us courtesy of numskal – thanks!
Manufacturing the Innocenti Mini involved assembling complete knocked down (CKD) kits. The first examples were equipped with BMC’s A-series 850 cc inline four, but the 998 cc was swiftly offered as an alternative to that tiny powerplant; in the early ’70s, available horsepower rose again when the 1300 was introduced. This car, apparently originally equipped with an 850, now shelters a replacement 998 block bored out to 1014 ccs with a Cooper 12G295 head, high compression pistons, double-roller timing chain (nice!), lightened flywheel, Isky springs, and a long-branch header. No doubt output has improved from the stock motor’s 55 hp. The factory gearbox was a four-speed manual transaxle driving the front wheels.
This car was imported from Germany in 2002. We aren’t told when it was restored, but the interior is in decent condition. The dash includes three Veglia gauges: the larger of these is a combination instrument showing speed, distance, and water temperature. Oil pressure and fuel gauges complete the center-mount set; off to the left is a Smiths tachometer. All Innocenti Minis were left hand drive. The rear windows pop out at the back edges, and the fronts are sliders.
The boot lid differs slightly from BMC’s Mini, with a square-ish embossment – rather than a horizontal one – for the license plate. But external hinges on the boot lid and the doors were common to both cars. The auction listing notes that this Mini shows signs of a repaint. Research reveals that the seller’s asking price is near the top end of the range for an Innocenti, with only Cooper versions selling for more. Still, Minis are a gas to drive, and when you consider what else can be had for twenty grand, it puts the price in a more favorable light. What do you think of this Italian Brit-box?
Any way you look at it these cars are pure fun to drive. Nice one here.
Really nice car, great write up. Re the header, IIRC, they were referred to a “long center branch” headers.
best,
bt
A Mini is a Mini is a Mini…….. no matter how you look at it!! What is truly amazing about these cars is that worldwide over 1 million were made! They are still one of the most ‘SPM’ cars every made!! (Smiles Per Mile). They run best with the 1275cc motor and the newer ones bored out to 1325!!
The one I has scared the crap out of me when a Greyhound bus changed lanes about six inches in front of me going sixty-five mph on I-5. Never felt safe on the freeway after that.
I’m surely Guilti of wanting this Innocenti Mini..any original Mini does it for me. Forget the BMW-built later ones, they are garbage. These are the ones to have no matter who built them. Now if only it was a Cooper Climax…..
I’ve got a ’69 Morris Cooper with the 998cc and twin carbs and I can verify that yes, they are indeed a lot of fun.
Story goes that Alec Issigonis, the designer of the original Mini’s, designed the interior door pockets to just the right size to carry his bottle of gin! I’ve not heard any further details about that story beyond that!
Even if that story isn’t true, it should be. This car would be a rocket powered go cart.
So, my last Mini was a plain jane 1976 burgundy model that I bought for $200 from an elderly couple in about 1982. Every time I read “12G295” it makes me smile….
My punker high school girlfriend at the time was from London, and thought the Mini was cool (her older sister had a nice one as a daily driver, worked at the local bank branch so I saw it all the time on the way to school). In a neighboring town there were all manner of worn out Minis in a junkyard and I had found one with a proper 12G295 head still bolted to the motor. I put together a toolbox as I planned to head out there after school and pick up the head. It was a Friday, and at school my girlfriend said she was free after class, what were we going to do? At risk of obvious peril, I mentioned that I really wanted to get out to City Autowreckers to get the cylinder head. I was shocked when she said “Let’s go!” Neither one of us was dressed for the cold and snow and muck of late February, but we drove my Mini out there and paid for the head. I then wrenched it off the block, and leaned it up against the passenger footwell for the ride home. Took a turn with a big slide in the snow, and the head rolled over on feet, bruising her nicely.
Good times.
bt
On my first trip to the U.K. in 1980 I of course had to hire (rent) a Mini. had it for a couple of days exploring the country lanes. As stated they are lots of fun to drive.
One thing that still sticks in my mind is that despite driving in the rain more than once the car stayed clean. I realized the frequent rainy weather which Britain is known for keeps the dust well flushed off the roadways.
Maureen and I did a motor trip through England, Scotland and Wales in ’76. (Boy, did we, as Yanks, ever get good-natured grief over the “Bi-Centenary” all over BBC 1 and 2 all the time! “You blokes not only gave us a drubbing in your Revolution, now you’ve got to rub our noses in it!)
Anyhow, as a then 18 year driver of FIATs, I tried to rent one but wound up with a Mini. Yes, it handled the hedgerow-edged lanes of off-the-motorway admirably, but the ergonomics of the thing left this 6′-2” driver a bit bent out my usual Giacosa designed driving position comfort zone.
Handling, 5 stars. Driver friendliness, 1 star. Sorry, Sir Alec.