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<\/p>\nFor decades, the idea of an iconic rallying legend, whether that\u2019s Burns, McRae, Loeb or Ogier, has seemed very much like part of the motorsport landscape. Manufacturers have long since worked out that taking a talented wheelman and co-driver, sticking them in something that resembles a showroom product, and then winning gruelling rallies with it, is a tried-and-tested formula for selling the more vanilla model line-up fayre, as was the case with the Mini.<\/p>\n
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Saab arguably invented the concept of the rally superstar for the showroom and it\u2019s fair to say that the charismatic Eric Carlsson set the template, winning the Monte Carlo rally in \u201962 \u2013 and catapulting the weird little FWD Swedish car into the public’s imagination. Saab\u2019s marketing team deftly launched the \u2018Monte Carlo\u2019 high performance special edition, with extra carbs, extra power and your chance to drive like Mr. \u2018On the Roof\u2019 himself, and the public quickly responded – with their wallets. Carlsson would take the title again in \u201963, leaving the way open for another \u2018underpowered\u2019 FWD superstar to (literally) come and steal the limelight. Enter stage left – the Mini.<\/p>\n
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The hat-trick of exploits between \u201964 and \u201967 are the well-known stuff of legend, of course, and we all love the narrative. Plucky Brit teams takes an A-Series-powered David to a rally of Goliaths \u2013 and gives them all a bloody nose. It was the stuff of public relations fantasy made real. Overnight, the humble Mini \u2013 and its wheelmen – became national heroes. Paddy Hopkirk and his co-driver Henry Liddon were front page stars, and EVERYBODY wanted a Mini in their driveway.<\/p>\n
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Hopkirk\u2019s Finnish team-mates Timo M\u00e4kinen and Rauno Aaltonen would add two further overall victories in 1965 and 1967 to the BMC trophy cabinet, despite the petty regulatory issues that saw the organisers strip the \u201967 car of its title on a lighting technicality. Nonetheless, the images of a Tartan Red Mini Cooper with a white roof were by now seared onto the retinas of the buying public. It\u2019s a motif that Rover – and subsequently BMW – would return to many times afterwards. Whenever the marketing team needed to tug on the heartstrings of would-be owners, a dash of red paint, a white roof, and maybe a Cooper stripe or two would always do it. The run-out classic cars were often shown in this hue, with many press and brochure shots perpetuating the legend \u2013 and when you think that we were already some THIRTY years after the event at this point, you have to admire the staying power of the whole marketing spin.<\/p>\n
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It was far from over yet though; the 1997 ACV30 concept car, then heralding the future direction of the forthcoming \u2018new\u2019 Mini, was unashamedly launched actually AT the Monte Carlo rally of the same year, and although the Frank Stephenson design that was ultimately chosen perhaps looked much nicer, even this concept was, you\u2019ve guessed it, red, with a white roof \u2013 and had a bunch of spot lamps on the front, naturally. Also, no prizes here for guessing the colourways chosen for the launch shots of BMW\u2019s new baby Cooper when that eventually hit the press, either.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a tried and tested formula that will doubtless be with us for as long as the Mini will. Every decade or so, BMW brings out a new \u2018Monte Carlo Edition\u2019 for Europe or the US, and even last year, a Paddy Hopkirk commemorative model for our Stateside friends. Always red. Always a white roof. But then, when it works so well and looks so good, can you really blame them?<\/p>\n
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