The reintroduction of the Cooper to the Mini range in 1990 proved to a masterstroke. In October 1990, the regular production model had arrived to replace the special-edition RSP, and before long it was accounting for 40 per cent of Mini sales. Remarkably, it had also lowered the age profile of buyers by around five years. But sales were still a fraction of the 1970s heyday, and there were still outside threats to the Mini’s existence.
It had been known that new emission regulations coming in for 1992 would spell the end, but a new single-point injection system was developed in just over a year and was fitted to Coopers from October 1991. The same year also saw Rover commission a limited run of 75 Cabriolets, produced by Lamm Autohaus in Germany, paving the way for a production model in
