The sensation for the company appeared in August – the Morris Cooper S to give its correct title. It’s hard to describe this remarkable small car without going into time-worn superlatives, so I’ll let Australian Motor Manual take it away; ‘Never before has a car provided so much fun. You just cannot help but drive all day with a grin from ear to ear. The Mini is a classless car, the Cooper S even more so. Sports cars have become obsolete overnight, for all they have left is the sky as a roof. Perhaps that is enough. Fantastic stability, performance and roadholding have never been offered at such bargain basement prices.’ The Cooper S was the first Australian produced car with lap-sash front seat belts as standard equipment. It is thought in many circles that the Australian Cooper S of 1965 through to 1970 was the best production Cooper S in the world… While Ford’s Cortina GT 500 took the honours in that year’s Bathurst, the Cooper S blitzed its class which was a portent of things to come. Both the Mini DeLuxe and the Morris 1100 were a touch above 75% Australian content, and the Cooper S about 66%. The future looked promising, as the next two years proved, but 1965 was the most profitable and biggest share of the market since the 1950s. The year ended with the announcement of the Austin 1800 in November, giving the company a hat-trick with its three transverse engined, fluid suspended dare-to-be-different motorcars. The icing on the cake was the epic journey taken by a team of four led by Evan Green in an Austin 1800 and a Morris Mini DeLuxe through Central Australia in the height of summer.