Motoring News
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looks of the special ADAM Black Edition and ADAM
White Edition models. e ADAM comes in ‘I’ll be
Black’ metallic paint or ‘Saturday White Fever’ brilliant
paint exterior colours. e rest of the exterior carries a
brushed, aluminum-look including the side mirror
housings, and grille bar carrying the Vauxhall logo. In
addition, there are tinted rear windows and 18-inch
wheels in a Twister design with matching brushed alu‐
minium finish wheel clips. e black or white lacquered
standard roof spoiler, as well as the characteristically
shaped headlamps with LED daytime running lights
and LED rear lights ensure the car stand-outs amongst
its rivals. e sport chassis provides plenty of driving
fun with its direct response and sports pedals.
Inside the cabin, the seats, instruments and applications
continue the exterior colour scheme. In the ADAM
Black Edition, all occupants enjoy the comfort of Ocio
Black Morrocana seat trim cushions. While the centre
console and instrument panel are piano black, the door
trims, glove box, leather gear knob and handbrake han‐
dle are in contrasting bright white. e counterpart to
this is the ADAM White Edition version, with its own
colour scheme: the seats are Ocio White Morrocana
also mirrored in the instrument panel and centre con‐
sole.
e ADAM Black Edition and ADAM White Edition is
priced at £14,995 (1.4 87PS), available across the UK.
For further information please visit http://www.vaux‐
hall.co.uk/vehicles/vauxhall-range/cars/adam/blackand-white/adam-white-black-edition.html
– to the British manufacturer’s collection.
A BIG VICTORY FOR THE
SMALL CAR: 50 YEARS
AGO THE CLASSIC MINI
WON THE MONTE CARLO
RALLY FOR THE FIRST
TIME
A big victory for the small car: 50 years ago the classic
Mini won the Monte Carlo Rally for the first time.
Paddy Hopkirk made the one-off British small car a
motor sport legend in January 1964 – Timo Mäkinen
and Rauno Aaltonen repeated the triumph in 1965
and 1967.
Small car, huge win: it is now 50 years since one of the
most spectacular victories in the history of internation‐
al motor sport. On 21 January 1964, the Mini Cooper S
won the Monte Carlo Rally for the first time. It was the
pairing of Northern Ireland’s Patrick (“Paddy”) Hop‐
kirk and his co-driver Henry Liddon that pulled off the
big surprise, resisting the supposed superiority of sig‐
nificantly more powerful rivals in their small British
car. Its faultless run over country roads and mountain
passes, ice and snow, tight corners and steep gradients
laid the foundations for the underdog-turned-giantslayer to cement itself in both the hearts of the public
and the annals of motor sport legend. Indeed, the clas‐
sic Mini’s dominance of the Monte Carlo Rally contin‐
ued over the years that followed, Hopkirk’s Finnish
team-mates Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen
adding two further overall victories – in 1965 and 1967
nowadays.”
Now 80 years old, Paddy Hopkirk’s eyes still light up
when he recalls the driving qualities of his winning car:
“Although the Mini was only a little family saloon, tech‐
nically it had a lot of advantages. Its front-wheel drive
and front-mounted transverse engine were a great ad‐
vantage, and the fact the car was smaller and the roads
were ploughed, they were quite narrow, so I suppose
that was an advantage. We were very lucky – the car was
right, everything happened at the right time and came
together at the right moment.”
e triumph of the classic Mini in the Monte was laud‐
ed as a sensation by motor sport fans around the world.
But this wasn’t a success that came entirely out of the
blue: the small car developed by Alec Issigonis, then
Deputy Technical Director at the British Motor Corpo‐
ration, possessed an inherent sporting talent from birth.
e first person to spot this potential was John Cooper.
e sports car designer was the driving force behind
construction of a more powerful version of the car. e
Mini produced only 34 hp at launch, but its front-wheel
It was the legendary “Night of the Long Knives”, the
penultimate stage of the Monte, which put the Mini
Cooper S with car number 37 and the now famous li‐
cence plate 33 EJB on course for victory that winter of
1964. Hopkirk crossed the finish line just 17 seconds off
the pace set by his chief adversary Bo Ljungfeldt in the
far more powerful V8-powered Ford Falcon. e hand‐
icap formula at the time – designed to even out the
weight and power differences between the various cars
– meant the classic Mini actually led the way in the
overall standings. And Hopkirk defended his advantage
in the sprint through the streets of Monte Carlo that
rounded off the rally. At the winner’s ceremony he
shared the cheers of the crowed with his team-mates.
Timo Mäkinen’s fourth-place finish and Rauno Aalto‐
nen’s seventh overall set the seal on the success of the
Mini Cooper S and ushered in the era of the “ree
Musketeers” in the Monte Carlo Rally.
e classic Mini’s victory was celebrated with particular
excitement in its native Britain. Hopkirk received a con‐
gratulatory telegram from the British government and
the Beatles were also among those leading the applause.
“I got a telegram from the Beatles,” remembers
Hopkirk. “at was followed by a photograph of the
four of them autographed to me saying: ‘You’re one of
us now, Paddy.’ And it’s very nice to have that
drive, low weight, wide track and comparatively long
wheelbase made it an extremely agile four-seater and
paved the way for its forays onto race circuits and rally
courses.
As early as 1960, big-name racing drivers like Graham
Hill, Jack Brabham