In Britain, police cars were smaller and usually consisted of either Wolseley or Jaguar due to their 6-cylinders and their ample room for multiple handcuffed miscreants.  It wasn’t until the MINI started to rally and won the Monte Carlo, that MINI started getting attention as a speed demon!  At this time, almost everybody wanted one, (even Princess Diana would eventually get one) including some of the urban police departments.  After all, it isn’t just the new MINIs that are known for their speed and impressive handling.  Adding to the attraction of these cars for the “coppers” was that after 1966, they were equipped with a secondary fueling tank, which would allow up to 300 miles per fill-up. 

        Beginning in 1966, police departments throughout Britain, and most notably in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Ulster (otherwise known as Northern Ireland), West Yorkshire, Metropolitan (aka London), Essex, Hampshire, Gateshead, and Pembroke County.  Liverpool carried the largest fleet with 27 Cooper S’s being added to their fleet each year. 

     Although there were several hundred of these police cars in use in Britain, to actually find one in working, restored order today is a tough task. 

  I imagine the police force doubled their staff with the introduction of the Morris Cooper S.  I know I would’ve joined the force if I was able to drive a car this Savvy, and high speed chases were just another daily part of the job!

 

 

Reference:

Facts borrowed from Peter D. Dupre

The logos roots can be traced back to the late 1940’s when Morris (AKA the British bike turned car manufacturer, Morris Motor Company) used a derivative of the coat of arms from Lord Nuffield as their logo.  In the center of a winged circle there was a red ox, standing on top of three blue waves, which is the symbol of the city of Oxford. 

In 1959, this image was morphed into the first trademark for the MINI classic, the Morris MINI-Minor.  From 1969, British parent company British Leyland, marketed the same MINI classic as a different brand with it’s own trademark.  This logo was a more modern looking emblem.

It wasn’t until 1990 that the company returned with a new logo and went back to the old Morris style.  In 1996, the logo was introduced to all MINI Classic models with a modified green background and a new style of lettering.  It is this logo, that has morphed into the trademark MINI logo we know and love today!

 

Facts borrowed from MINI – the book. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Munich/2006 Pg.165

GOLD: The Italian Job (1969)

The MINI car scene in the original 1969 Italian Job Movie was voted as the best car pursuit in history by a recent cinema poll from www.pearlanddean.com!  Phil Wicks from www.minidriving.com was one of the noted stunt drivers in the original movie.

SILVER: The Blues Brothers (1980)

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Bluesmobile chase as well as a few other great ones!

The “Blues Brothers” Police car pile-up ran a close second with quite possibly the biggest police car pile-up in movie history and a grand finale with the cruiser catapulting into the air and slicing through a semi!

Bronze: The Bourne Identity (2002)

MINI also swept away with the bronze with the car chases in Matt Damons, “The Bourne Identity,”  which featured the MINI you see pictured above.  Other movie car chase scenes I would reccommend checking out are the French Connection, Transporter and the movie Ronin has a really great car chase as well.