When Mini Mastered the Monte
In 1964, the Mini’s victory on the Monte Carlo Rally laid the foundations of its iconic status and changed rallying forever. John Davenport relives an epic event with the team’s key figures
Taken from Motor sport, February 2004, How Paddy Hopkirk won the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally: key figures relive epic victory
It was the last weekend of January, 1964. Bruce Forsyth and Tommy Cooper flanked Joan Regan on the revolving stage that marked the finale of Britain’s most popular televised show, Sunday Night at the London Palladium. The glamorous Tiller Girls stood alongside them, but for once only two of the long-legged high kickers were on the stage’s central podium. And they were sharing it with two nervous-looking gentlemen in dark suits and ties and a little red car with a white roof. The men were Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon and the car was their 1071cc Mini Cooper S, which days earlier had won the Monte Carlo Rally. Just like that!
To us, now, a Mini winning the Monte doesn’t seem such a strange idea. Back then, it was simply amazing. That such a small car—an innovative piece of engineering from a British company and driven by a British crew — could triumph on the world’s most prestigious rally was something to marvel at. And to celebrate.