PADDY POWER

Between 1963 and 1976, a total of 128 Minis competed in the gruelling annual Bathurst touring car enduro race at Mount Panorama, near Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. Minis went on to win the race outright, in spectacular fashion, in 1966. Out of all those 128 Minis only 12 were Australian-built Works-entered Minis and only one of them, the one on these pages, is known still to survive. This Cooper S was hand-built by BMC Australia specifically for the 1967 Gallaher 500 and it’s the car that Brian Foley and Paddy Hopkirk drove to fourth in class, and eighth outright. It is easy to understand why previous owner Greg Coates, with help from his dad Richard, put so much effort into restoring it.

Rescue and restoration

This Mini has always been affectionately known as Paddy, after its famous Northern Irish BMC Works driver, and also as 28C because of its race number at Bathurst in 1967. After the Bathurst race, on 1 October 1967, it was sold through Sydney BMC dealership Vaughan and Lane. It was bought for Brian Lane's son, Harvey, who used it for a year as a road car. Harvey Lane’s name and address were written into the driver’s log book over the original owner’s stamp: BMC Australia pty. ltd.

It then went to Harvey’s friend, Paul Merry, who explained: “Being a good friend of Harvey's, I was able to buy it from him for $1,800 at the end of 1968, with my own modified