Sixty years ago, on 21st January 1964, a BMC Mini Cooper S took the first foreign international rally win on the 33rd edition of the Monte Carlo Rally for what became one of the most versatile and successful competition cars in history.
Driven by Paddy Hopkirk and navigated by Henry Liddon, the 1071 cc, 90 bhp Cooper S defeated a top class and truly international entry of 300 cars, including a quasi-works team of Ford Falcon Sprints with three times the power output of the Cooper S.
But back in the 1960s Monte results were based on handicap that equalized large and small engine cars to offer the same chance of victory.
International rallying was very different in the swinging sixties with none of today’s centralized servicing, daytime running, and relatively short special stages, as recalled by Paddy (right above) talking to Ken Davies.
Cars competing in the 1964 rally started from various European cities before covering vast mileages, at a set average speed, to converge on the common route in France where the competitive stages finally started.
Also, one of the European start locations was a Russian city with Minsk selected for that honour, some 1250 miles away from the rally’s main start in Reims.
Seventeen British entries were attracted to Minsk on the snow-bound Steppes of Russia and British entries included Hopkirk and Liddon’s Cooper S, 1952 Monte winner Sidney Allard, and son Alan both in Ford Cortinas and BBC commentator Raymond Baxter in a Mini Cooper. For the first Minsk starter the starter’s flag dropped at 00:34am on Saturday January 18.
There is also a fascinating side story to BMC’s win which is recalled by their multifarious and PR savvy competitions manager, Stuart Turner, “We got swept up in the giddiness and picked up any publicity we could. As an example, the Beatles flew into Paris to mass hysteria while we were there for the start of the Monte.
“Ringo Starr was delayed and came on a later plane to even more publicity and I collected him from Le Bourget airport in one of the rally cars. The Beatles and the Mini? A perfect link. In this atmosphere you will appreciate just how important Paddy’s 1964 Monte win was to all of us, especially as we thought the odds were stacked against us”.
BMC’s 1964 win formed a big international news story as the event rated as one of the toughest and best-known global Motorsport events and publicity opportunities were maximized by BMC’s own press and media corps.
It was after all a Great British victory and good for the nation. So much so that following the prize giving ceremony outside Monaco’s elegant palace the winning Mini and crew were flown back to Blighty via Silver City Airways to appear live (below) on the biggest TV variety show of the era, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, complete with revolving stage and Bruce Forsyth. We’ve not seen the like since!
Two weeks prior to Paddy’s memorable Monte win, Bromyard’s Barrie’s Williams, co-driven by John Griffiths in a 1275cc Cooper S, defied black ice, freezing fog and 54 other competitors to win the International Welsh rally, based in Cardiff 3-5th January.
Perhaps Cardiff didn’t carry the same advertising kudos as Monte Carlo in subsequent headlines, but the status of both rallies was international, and both winning cars were BMC Cooper S’s, with Barrie’s win coming first.
Throughout intervening years, this produced much good-natured banter between both protagonists regarding which Cooper S win BMC should have counted!
For sure that snowy January victory in the Alpes Maritime changed Paddy’s life and he perceptively exploited his superstar status to create a successful business career around Monte Carlo 1964, Mini Cooper and subsequently became brand ambassador for BMW’s MINI.
Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams also went on to have a successful motorsport career and both these versatile drivers became international motorsport treasures, with Paddy even becoming popular president of the British Racing Drivers Club.
© Ken Davies
