Morris Mini Cooper S – 1964 Rallye de Monte Carlo Winner

March 21, 2025

2024 was a landmark year for the Mini Cooper, marking 60 years since it won its first Monte Carlo rally with Irishman Paddy Hopkirk at the wheel. I’ve always loved the classic Mini, furthermore for the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some at the British Motor Museum including the first Mini, the last and all 3 cars to win at the Monte. I even sat in 33 EJB last year when celebrating the anniversary at Retromobile in Paris.

Revell Germany’s Mini Cooper kit was a recent tooling, only hitting the market in 2012, with the rally version following at the 50^th anniversary in 2014. It is an accurate replica of the car as it was in 1964, complete with its transverse 4-cylinder engine, rally decals and lights. The real car now, no longer has the leather cover for the front grille, butthis is included in the kit.

I took photos and videos of the real car for research, many of which are included here – note the modified dashboard with additional dials and switches for use in the rally.

The car was painted in Tartan red with an Old English white roof, colours I was able to match from ProScale paints. I primed the body in white first before painting – thankfully this kit’s roof is a separate part, making this an easier process. The paint has a matte finish, so I then clear coated the car using Mr Hobby clear gloss before adding the decals. I chose not to add the rally plates to the front and back until later.

I utilised the matte finish of the paint to do the interior and seats in the same red as the bodywork, before adding stone grey Revell acrylic to the seats, whilst the co-driver’s seat was semi-gloss black, just like real car. As the original has a rubber floor matt as well as a leather tool bag on the back seat, I added these by simply painting some masking tape semi-gloss black and cutting them to size. The additional spanners on the parcel shelf are a great feature of this kit, although they aren’t in the same position as they are in the original car.

Accuracy of the interior is high, with an accurate rally dashboard, padding on the door pockets and even small covers for the door release latch. Apparently, these were added to the car to prevent the occupants accidentally opening the doors when buffeted from side to side during rally stages. Also added were small strips of aluminium tape to replicate the chrome trim alongside the kit decals.

The engine bay features many of the details of the real car, including ignition wires and tanks. The engine was painted olive green, with a mixture of blacks, whites and metallic shades used for the rest, all from Revell.

Exterior parts were mainly added using pva glue as this doesn’t damage the paint or clear parts. I used more aluminium tape to add the chrome trim around the wheel arches and beneath the doors, pushing it firmly into place using a cotton bud. More aluminium tape was used in very thin strips on the windscreen to replicate the heated elements as well as under the Rallye de Monte Carlo plate decals on both the bonnet and boot.

The completed model was photographed with its full-sized namesake in late 2024, just inside the anniversary year. I was proud of the finished article, feeling I replicated Paddy Hopkirk’s car to a satisfactory degree. This is a great kit, with far more detail and accuracy than the Fujimi Mini kit, although that is of a later model.

The Mini Cooper S also won the rallye de Monte Carlo in 1965 with Timo Makinen, and 1967 with Rauno Aaltonen, although Makinen also should have won in ’66, but for a controversial disqualification due to illegal headlights.

Tamiya have produced a kit of the 1967 winner, which I also have to build in the future, but no kit of the 1965 winner has been released.

I look forward to building Aaltonen’s car from Tamiya, to compare it to this one. Thanks for reading!