Add CooperWorld Summary Complete the box below and press Save, if you press Cancel any changes will not be saved Editorial Welcome to the January issue of CooperWorld! Just looking back for a moment to 2024, and we celebrated a notable anniversary amongst others, that being of course, Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon’s momentous win of the Monte Carlo Rally in 33 EJB way back 60 years ago in 1964. We were also so fortunate to have the car at Beaulieu too last year, and our thanks must go to the British Motor Museum for kindly letting us have the car at our show. So, back now to 2025, and we will, once again, be celebrating a similar 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary, namely, the second win of the Monte Carlo Rally this time by the late and great driver Timo Makinen, along with Paul Easter his co-driver/navigator. The car they won the rally in was AJB 44B, and I am hoping that we will be able to also have AJB on display at our show at Beaulieu in June. Watch this space. As most of you will no doubt be aware, a group of us are also planning to celebrate the 70<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the formation of the BMC Competitions Department in Abingdon. As the three winning Monte Carlo rally winning cars are based at the British Motor Museum, we are planning to put on a display of as many ex-Works cars as we can muster, and not just Minis, ranging from 1955 right up to the early 1980s. David Hucker, who is one of the members of the group, has detailed in an article what’s lined up for the day and where we are with our plans for the display. Moving on, and we take another step back to late 2024, and the Lancaster Insurance Motor Show, which took place in mid-November. This long running show had its own celebration having been going for 40 years! As in previous years, we had a club display stand with slightly fewer cars on it than in previous years, because the organisers had to squeeze in another 30 extra clubs on this special anniversary year for them. As per last year, Geoff Bethel was the pivotal individual who, once again, pulled it together with a dedicated team of helpers to create a display of some really interesting cars. We should therefore thank these dedicated club members for stepping up and giving their valuable time to put on the display. Geoff has kindly written an article on his experiences of putting the display together for the third year running. Finally, I was reading an interesting article in an email I received in which the writer had commented on the current state of the classic car market. He confirmed what most of us know, in that sale prices have generally softened across the board, with some older vintage cars suffering greater drops in value then later built cars. He also commented on which cars were actually increasing in value. Apparently, Hagerty Insurance undertake regular market reviews based on actual sale prices and, from the information they gather, they can see which cars are going up in value and which are falling. The good news for owners of first generation MINI Cooper Ss with a supercharger is, that they are beginning to increase in value as they are becoming sought after cars. So, if you own one you might want to hold onto it! Paul Paul Sulma - Editor <strong><em>CooperWorld</em></strong>
