This amazing one-owner 1964 Mini Cooper 1275S was pulled out of long-term storage and is for sale. According to the ad, the car has an incredible 31,235 miles on the odometer and was purchased new through Walker Imports in Chicago. It can be found here on eBay with an asking price of $85,500! Yep, that’s eighty-five thousand five hundred U.S. dollars! Thanks to Billy1 for the tip on this great Mini. It has been cleaned up and you won’t believe the condition.
Here is the car all cleaned up. The car was in “climate-controlled…extended storage” for about 16 years before it was removed. There’s no doubt this is a very nice car and perhaps the nicest original 1964 Mini around. However, I’m not sure how the seller is going to achieve a sale price close to their asking price. According to the classic car insurer Hagerty, this car has an average value of $28,000 with Concours-level restored cars at $65,000. I don’t think the survivor status on this one adds 30% to the Concours value, do you?
After being pulled from storage, the car was mechanically gone through in early 2018. The fuel tanks were drained and cleaned with a new fuel pump. Work was done to the clutch, braking, and ignition systems among lots of other bits and pieces. There is no mention of any actual work that needed to be done to the 1275cc engine, which is a good thing.
The interior looks just as good as the outside. I’m a little surprised this isn’t a right-hand drive car…It would be interesting to know what the production numbers were for left-handers in 1964.
Overall, this is an awesome looking early Mini that anyone should be proud to own. What do you think, will the seller achieve anything close to their asking price?
It’s nice and I love those cars. But 85K? That’s nearly $60 / lb. !!!
Even though a 1275S Mini Cooper is on my Top Five wishlist, I can’t imagine paying anywhere near $85K for one. Not even sure I’d be able to stomach having one that had purchase and restoration costs adding up to anything near that. And that’s not just because I couldn’t scrape up that kind of money….
Of course it’s being sold by “(insert name of city here) Car Club,” which appears to be one of those sellers that operates on the “it only takes one” principle. Buy low, sell high…and why not? If the Mini’s too rich for you, you might be interested in an $18.5K ’74 Econoline!
There are enough small red flags flying — the cheap-looking replacement carpet and a few signs of corrosion underhood, for example — to make me a bit leery anyway. At 10% of the current ask, I’d still want to make a close inspection.
But Ray, the Ford has been “given a once over by a local mechanic” – how could you go wrong?
The mind boggles, Oldog!
I’m still struggling with the realization that this Mini will now almost certainly be a Collector Car and not a fun toy that the new owner will take out from time to time to flog along a good mountain road….
Heck, are we into Collector Econolines now?
There is an deriar for every seat they say. This guy has to be fishing, no way would most collectors pay that price. Great little car and I love em but WOW.
And now that they washed it, it has to be worth half what it was!
that it has no evidence of a tachometer suggests it wasn’t owned by an enthusiast, note the big speaker on the right but no radio or antenna in site??? from the garage–it’s an investor .
Actually, isn’t that a heater?
At that price they’re probably loosing lots of money.
(Rolls eyes & walks away)
As an owner of a 1960 Mk1 mini (January 12, 1960!) I love to see some of these crazy prices being ‘asked’. What is realized is another story. This is kind of a mixed bag. They found what was said to be a low mile original S and then went and changed the carpet (but will include it), left the motor all tatty, and reapplied are really terrible job at under coating the rockers. The car has been resprayed at least once notable by the over spray on the tank).
Super odd combo of events.
85k? Hope so! But me thinks not.
One million dollars for the little mini that needs Britain’s flag on roof.
My parents had the 64 mini with the barn doors on the back.
Ot was a fun small loud tin can with a four speed.
Is that a BSA to its left? Looks like a Sportster to the left of that.
Yes, a big single, not a Gold Star but interesting anyway. I’m passing it on to a BSA group for ID.
Yes, a Gold Star DB34 or 32. Not a DBD. The half hub brake threw me off.
Here’s a much more reasonable warehouse find for 6K. It’s an “Italian Job”, an Innocenti Mini. The body was completely restored and repainted, the engine and subframes rebuilt and much more. It seems to need things like glass and door cards. All the work was done by well know shops in the region. It seems there’s a DKW wagon for sale somewhere and the 6K was needed for the purchase. It’s going to be a really nice little car!
Minis, Beetles, 500 and 2cv I have always desired, but 65,000 I could buy a good peterbilt day cab or a 2002 prevost Xl2 for that price.
We’re going to have to take your word on that.
That’s one of those deals where the wife says, sell it or I’m leaving, and the guy will prove to her there are no buyers, we have to hang on to it.
There is a 1964 AM radio under the parcel shelf, just to the left of the steering column. I do think it was owned by somewhat of an enthusiast, as evidenced by the needle roller drive couplings, as the original rubber coupling would last longer than 31k, unless absolutely punished. I always thought that the needle roller couplings themselves would be hard on the universal joints (cannot remember the Leyland name), by not having the shock absorbtion that the rubber couplings provided. Yes: overspray on tailpipe, rockers, battery box, rear subframe, and how do you rip the dash upholstery like that? Potential buyers note: the oil pressure gauge should show 75psi at cold idle, and 90-95psi at revs. A side note: does anyone ever receive notification of new comments?
Interesting to see a dusty 78-80 Canadian Mini 1000 behind it in the first shot.
Worry some is the painter that couldn’t be arsed to mask the simple stuff – what else couldn’t they be bothered to deal with? And $85k it should be perfect – perfectly restored or perfectly original, this is neither.
@RayT – actually most of the rust is surface rust, and I do believe those are the original pattern mats – as crabby as they are.
The things I noticed ……
There are signs of external body repair – overspray on the front tow hooks for eample.
The seller states that this was a Pre-Hydrolastic car – not correct ! 65 was the year it was introduced, and besides you can see the Hydro transfer pipes back to front on the body underside. It does though look like the Hydro has been replaced for dry suspension.
$85K for this car is ridiculous by any stretch of the imagination – it would be a good buy for around $35K to a max of $45K. It probably needs around $20K spent on it to bring it to tip top concourse condition, in which case it would then be wort around $65K max.
Nice car stupid price ……
I think that’s a BSA, I want the BSA!
matt
$15k to $20k at the most.
$80k is way out there in the galaxy!
It definitely is from a Reseller trying to outsmart potential buyers.
I just checked the records, and this is one of those cars just prior to the official introduction of the Hyro suspension. The Hydro suspension was “officially” introduced at CA2S7L552341, which is a couple of hundred Coopers (Cooper 998’s and Cooper 1275’s) before the official introduction.
So this is almost certainly an early introduction of the Hydro 1275 in 1964.
Interesting …..
A lot of people claim that the 1275’s where all Hydro, but that is not totally correct, as the 1964 cars where solid Rubber and not Hydro suspension, but prior to the official introduction in 1965, there where some 64 cars fitted with it.
So this would put this car as a late 1964 built car.
I find this quite interesting, as, in the day, I owned some 9 or 10 1275s, and not one of them had wet suspension. I wouldn’t think they shipped different cars to Canada, but the British did some very strange things. In the undercar photos, I can only see, from RH side to LH side, the brake line, the battery cable, and the fuel pipe; I do see, however, on both side, what appears to be provisionary clips for the hydrolastic pipes. Could it be that they changed over to the new pipe clips prior to actually installing the wet suspension? I did have to rebody a dry Mini Cooper by using a wet Mini body, and the front subframe was a PITA, at the top mounting point, but I just don’t remember why it was so laborious. I do remember vowing to never do another one.
@FastEddie/OldEddie
Yes sir you are quite correct, my incorrect observation. No Hydro transfer pipes – my incorrect observation.
Interestingly, the pipe clamps are on the underside of the floors, which means this is a body built in preparation of the introduction of the Hydro cars, which came just a few hundred VIN numbers after this car.
I do not know enough about Canada delivered cars, but I have seen a lot of original un-restored 65 to 67 LHD 1275s sold on BAT that have the original Hydro suspension in place.
There are differences between the wet and dry sub-frames. The wet sub-frame has a bayonet fit collar where the Hydro unit engages versus the simple locating collar of a dry unit (this applies to front and back sub-frames.
The front sub-frame on the Hydro unit also has a raised locator “nipples” around the studs, and has a spacer between the sub-frame and the body cross-member. So they are not directly interchangeable.
There are also differences between the suspension arms front and back. On both front and back arms the suspension cup is located in a different position, altering the pivot rate. The front arm has a small hole to locate the bump rubber on the Hydro, whereas the dry arm has a larger hole for the lower shock pin. On the rear Hydro arm the outer end has a small diameter peg to attach the lower end of the helper spring versus the dry which has a larger diameter peg for the lower end attachment of the shock.
Bottom line – the hydro sub-frames can be used for dry, but not vice versa. The arms front and back are either dry or Hydro, and have to be switched if going Hydro to dry or dry to hydro.
There are also other differences between Hydro and Dry on the body, other than the pipe clamps on the floor. The hole in the cross-member in the middle of the spring unit on the hydro is larger to accommodate the pass through of the hydro unit pipe, the close panel on the rear valance ends was shortened to avoid fowling the Hydro pipe, and there are also differences in the brackets on the front cross-member to add a clamp point for the Hydro pipes, and the cross-member cover plates over the suspension towers at the front are different.
Going Hydro to Dry is a whole lot simpler than going Dry to Wet …….
Thank goodness I was going the right way! Yes, my memories are now refreshed, thanks to your information. At the time, I had the 2 cars side by side in the yard, positioned blocks to hold both sets of front & rear subframes in position, removed all fasteners, drained the hydrolastic & removed the hoses, got my pals in to lift off the rusty Cooper body, then we lifted the hydrolastic body up, moved over, set it down, and found we had a problem, or two. It took a few days of spare time to figure it all out, but it worked out in the end. I was doing this for a relative, who got PO’d at the delay, demanded his (not very much) money back, and I was the new (surprised) owner of another Mini Cooper! I took it in for a new repaint, in original colours, and was then very pleased to make a nice profit. It was a very pretty car, blue over white, and a good friend bought it, so it all worked out for the best.
God! I love these little hornets! Wish I hadn’t sold my last one, and given away my very last mini, a pickup with 1275 S motivation. For those who are thinking that it might be nice to own one, and have never driven one, try to mooch a drive on a huge parking lot where you can’t total it, and your estimation of their value will rise quite sharply. Enthusiast owners/racers quite often drove these little buggers by ear, and by seat of the pants, and, if you were in the middle of a pack, you had no time to look anyway, as things were happening way too fast. A HUGE thrill is getting one up one two wheels, in the heat of battle (and some anger).
I really enjoyed all the comments, especially the historical info from Peter Pentz. My funds are all tied up for the next few years, but I think it’s time to do some serious hunting after that.