Mick wrote:
Weren't the majority of Coopers assembled here from CKD kits?
Does that change anything??
As far as I know the Australian Coopers came off the same assembly line as the 850s. Trim was Australian and quite different to the English Coopers. Pretty sure none of our Coopers had Old English White wheels. My earliest Cooper is within the first 300 produced in Australia and has the same body type as Australian produced 850's except for the special brackets and remote gear change hole (magic wand hole has a cover spot welded over it). It may have been that the mechanicals were supplied ex UK as CKD kits though. Seem to remember reading somewhere that the engines were imported as a complete unit.
On the other hand my 850 is definitely a CKD kit and was most likely one of the prototypes assembled in Australia during 1960. The body shell has quite a few differences to the later Australian produced 850s.