This picture, taken at this year's annual Southern African Mini celebrations shows Ryno Verster's 1964 Cooper "S" 1071 cc leading the way during the parade laps at the Zwartkop Race track.
Thanks to Ryno Verster the Historian for the Mini club of Southern Africa, we can present this incredibly detailed timeline.
In many ways, this fascinating story reflects the Mini's life back here in the UK, although it is a shame that production/import could not continue into the new millennium as it did here in the UK. Many South African Mini enthusiasts still feel that the Mini should never have ended when it did.
For more recent developments/updates on the history of South African Minis, please also visit www.minisa.co.uk
This picture, taken at this year's annual Southern African Mini celebrations shows Ryno Verster's 1964 Cooper "S" 1071 cc leading the way during the parade laps at the Zwartkop Race track.
Select a year from the menu below:
| The Beginning | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | |||||||||
| The 'sixties | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
| The 'seventies | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
| The 'eighties | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 |
Note: All data taken from CAR Magazine, Technicar Magazine, South African Motoring Mirror, Die Motor and 1984/85
edition of Auto Data Digest, 10th edition compiled and edited by Bill Calcutt, Oscar Peruch and Paul Barker. Personal word
of thanks to my friend Andre Wasserman who so kindly made his collection of very valuable old CAR editions available for
this research...on more than one occasion. Another most useful source of research/information is a table that Brian Hastie,
Products Manager, MINI and Projects at BMW compiled from official NAAMSA statistics.
Written by Ryno Verster, Historian of the Mini Owners Club of Southern Africa.