The original Mini was arguably the most successful, and most iconic automobiles of the twentieth century. This was a car that became synonymous with Britain at the height of its leadership in fashion and popular culture.
Towards the end of the production of the Mini a lesser known luxury high performance version was created under the ERA marque and sold through the established Rover dealer network. This was the Rover Mini ERA Turbo and it became one of the most interesting, and least known, of all the Mini variants.
Fast Facts
- English Racing Automobiles (ERA) was a British maker of racing cars that was active between 1933 until 1954.
- The name ERA was resurrected in 1986 and given to a high performance version of the original Mini.
- This ERA Mini Turbo was in production from 1986 until 2000 and 436 of these specialist cars were produced.
- One of these Rover Mini ERA Turbo cars is for sale on Bring a Trailer at time of publication.
The ERA Mini Turbo saw the resurrection of the English Racing Automobiles name. Originally ERA was founded in 1933 and continued creating and campaigning racing cars until its closure in 1954.
The ERA Mini Turbo was a new creation branded under the old original name. It was a specialized version of Britain’s iconic Mini – the original Morris/Austin Mini which entered production in 1959 and continued until 2000, having been made by British Motor Corporation (BMC – 1959-1968), British Leyland (1968-1986), and finally by the Rover Group (1986-2000).
The Mini was created to be a really small affordable car – intended to provide a “real car” with four wheels to replace the three wheeled “bubble cars” such as the Isetta, Messerschmitt and Heinkel bubble cars that had become quite popular in Britain, in that post war austerity period when most people could not afford a “real car”, nor the fuel and insurance to run one.
But as things turned out, in an unexpected turn of fate, the cheap and diminutive Mini rapidly became a fashion icon that was owned and driven by some of the most famous celebrities in Britain at that time.
The manager of The Beatles rock group, Brian Epstein, bought each member of the group a custom Mini. Perhaps the most interesting was the Mini bought for drummer Ringo Starr as it was modified so he could fit his drum kit into the back.
The celebrity status that the Mini attained must have come as a pleasant surprise to the management at BMC, it became imbued with the elusive “cool” factor in spades: a perfect accessory to compliment your fashion outfits from the Carnaby Street boutiques.
But another surprise was to give the BMC management a dose of happiness: the Mini turned out to be the outstanding rally competition car of that era. In an extraordinary paradox the Mini was transformed from a modest daily commuter to being a Monte Carlo Rally winning road rocket.
The Mini was more than just fast – it was nimble – able to reverse direction by a quick handbrake turn, small so it could make the maximum use of the available road space, and amazingly easy to control.
In the hands of a driver such as the legendary Paddy Hopkirk the Mini became the car to beat in the world’s major rally competitions, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965, and 1967.
The original high performance versions of the Mini were the Mini Cooper and the Mini Cooper S, both of which achieved success in rallying and motor racing.
There were many versions of the Mini created by small performance makers, among the better known being the Mini Marcos.
The ERA version of the high performance Mini is the car that has been described as “the spiritual successor to the Cooper and the 1275 GT”.
The ERA Mini was in production from 1989-1991. The car’s body kit was styled by Dennis Adams of Marcos and consists of bumpers that integrate the front plate mount, rear fog lights, and an exhaust cut-out as well as side skirts and wheel-arch extensions that give the car a quite aggressive road hugging look.
In its original ERA production form the ERA Mini was fitted with a turbocharged Austin Rover A-Series 1300 MG Metro engine. this engine produced 94 bhp @ 6,200 rpm. Transmission was a four speed manual transaxle and the car was stated to have a top speed of 115 mph (185 km/hr).
The ERA Mini was given upmarket trim with Connolly Leather MG Metro front seats that were made slightly narrower so they would comfortably fit into the Mini passenger compartment: grey tweed and leather seats were optional.
These cars were fitted with an ERA designed dashboard that incorporated additional instrumentation. Those instruments included oil pressure, oil temperature, coolant temperature, voltage, boost pressure, and fuel.
The 1991 Rover Mini ERA Turbo currently for sale by online auction at Bring a Trailer is equipped with air-conditioning, and a Pioneer Carrozzeria CD stereo, all beautifully integrated into the ERA dashboard.
The sale car has been fitted with a Garrett GT2860RS turbocharger and a jetted SU carburettor with a K&N air filter.
Stopping power for the Rover Mini ERA Turbo was provided by MG Metro servo-assisted ventilated front disc brakes with four pot calipers, and drums at the rear.
The sale car also has a sump guard and an aftermarket oil system.
There were 436 Rover Mini ERA Turbo cars produced.
The Rover Mini ERA Turbo stands out as one of the most interesting versions of the Mini, and yet paradoxically it has been one of the least known.
Jon Branch is the founder and senior editor of Revivaler and has written a significant number of articles for various publications including official Buying Guides for eBay, classic car articles for Hagerty, magazine articles for both the Australian Shooters Journal and the Australian Shooter, and he’s a long time contributor to Silodrome.
Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. His travels have taken him to Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan and a number of other countries. He has studied the Japanese sword arts and has a long history of involvement in the shooting sports, which has included authoring submissions to government on various firearms related issues and assisting in the design and establishment of shooting ranges.
