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Editorial - April 2024 issue

You may have noticed that there has been quite a lot of coverage of 33 EJB in CooperWorld over the last few issues, principally because of the fact the Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon were the first crew to win the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally exactly 60 years ago in 1964. It was, and still is, considered to have been one of the pivotal moments in the Mini’s history, and its subsequent rise to becoming the motoring icon that the Mini has become today. In fact I would go as far as to say that 33 EJB has become an iconic car in its own right, and recognised as such around the world. So, what an honour it will be to have its presence at our National Mini Day at Beaulieu, to celebrate  the anniversary of its triumphant Monte Carlo Rally win, but also in recognition of the car’s significance as, arguably, the most famous Mini of all. Our thanks go to the British Motor Museum for allowing us the opportunity to have the car take centre stage at our show in this very special anniversary year.

After 33 EJB had won the Monte it was immediately retired from competition use by BMC in recognition of its significant win. However, as many of us will know, in the following three years Minis had outright wins of the Monte Carlo Rally when driven by Timo Makinen, and Rauno Aaltonen respectivly, albeit Timo’s win in 1966 would not stand as, controversially, his car was disqualified for a lighting infringement. But it was these major successes that not only drove on the Abingdon Competitions Department to use Minis in most of the rallies they entered cars in during their heyday of the ‘60s, but also many privateers too, and not only in rallying, but circuit racing as well. To this day, Minis are still being used in competitive rallying and racing albeit in mostly historic competitions.

This is well illustrated by the fact that we have three articles in this issue of the magazine covering three slightly different levels of rallying. The first article covers the Land &amp; Estate Maintenance AGBO Rally and is written by Clive King who also took part in the rally. This stage rally tends to attract the expert level of participants in the sport. Then we have our own ‘Club’ rally the Northumberland &amp; Borders Rally which attracts competitors of differing levels from expert to novice. Niall Cook has been putting this rally on under the MCR banner for more years then I can remember! The third article covers the HERO Novice Rally and the concept behind this particular rally is to give people with no experience of rallying the opportunity to have a go at the sport with a view to opening up it up to new drivers and navigators. Paul Freeman has kindly written the article covering this rally.

Finally, by the time you receive this issue of CooperWorld it will be only about another six weeks to go to our National Mini Day at Beaulieu. With 33 EJB making an appearance at the show, it’s one not to miss so don’t delay buying your advance ticket/s for the show as soon as you can.

Paul

Paul Sulma  - Editor CooperWorld

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