Little ray of sunshine ; MINI COOPER S CONVERTIBLE BMW knows what the British like... the top down, even just for an hour

Summary

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Who buys the most convertibles in Europe? The Italians? The Spanish? The sundrenched Maltese? No, it's the Germans and us: the two rainiest, most built-up and un-summery countries in the world. The reason being, if you only see the sun for five minutes a year you're so desperate for a tan you want to tear the roof off your car before it goes behind a cloud again. Mini (British marque, run by Germans) know this.

So in its convertible you can opt for an 'openometer' showing how long you've had the roof down since you've owned the car. Mine says an hour and a quarter. Good old British summer, eh? Actually, I've got a confession to make. I have spent most of this week in a Mini but it wasn't this one. See, I've just bought a 1964 Mark 1 Cooper S with the original 1,071cc engine and SU carburettors; the business. This was the model that won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967 and would have won in 1966 if the French hadn't got the hump and disqualified us for having clear headlights. Funnily enough the eventual winner, Citroen, had clear headlights, too. Ah, the French. I suppose you can't blame them: that was the year we won the World Cup. They must have been spitting blood.

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Extract

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Little ray of sunshine ; MINI COOPER S CONVERTIBLE BMW knows what the British like... the top down, even just for an hour

Hopefully Mini won't mind me mentioning a car that's 45 years out of date. After all, this August is the 50th anniversary of the iconic English brand.

Anyway, this is the second generation BMW M...

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