There was a mini for sale on Facebook marketplace about a week and a half/ two weeks ago advertised as a 1962 Mini Cooper S for $6500. Knowing that the S wasn't released til 1963 my curiousity was getting the best of me and I decided to contact the seller. I was the first person to look at the car. When I arrived I started with the usual walk around and poke my head inside. I opened the passenger door (it is a left hand drive car) and it had a remote shift with factory hole in the floor. It had a three gauge binnacle with MK1 gauges and 125mph speedo. The body was in pretty good condition with a few spots of filler here and there. No major rust anywhere on the car. The door handles were longer and had the little chrome button thingy on the door. It had pop out rear quarter windows. When I opened the boot I looked at the latch and it was date coded 66. It had twin tanks and the right tank looked factory to me in how the strap mounted to the shell. When I opened the drivers door it had the smaller dimmer switch on the floor. I took my time looking at the car before I opened the bonnet. I guess I was hoping to be surprised and I was. The engine tag was missing but it had a big bore S engine with 11 stud head on top of a 22G333 gearbox with hardyspicer outputs and disc brakes. The engine had tappet covers and there were two round protrusions on the back of the block nearest the clutch. I wasnt able to see what numbers were cast in the block under them. It was then that I noticed it had hydro suspension. It also had the oil cooler and diagonal brace under the slam panel. Was I looking at a 1966 Cooper S? Both the starter and generator were date coded 66 along with the wiper motor. It was time to look at the chassis number and this is when my heart sank. The vin/chassis number was AA2S7L-086xxx or 036xxx (I can't read my own damn writing). His story on the car was that he had had it for 3 years and got it from a friend of his girlfriend who along with her dad was restoring it and lost interest. He had never started it or done anything to it and now just wanted to get rid of it so he could put the money in his truck. I told him I was interested in the car and wanted to write down some info from it and do a little research. I took down the vin number and body number and wanted to date code the glass. Not sure why but I did and all the glass was from 1966 too. The body number was A053088 which Parnells book would put it at May/June 1966. The car was amazingly original. I know people take the vin tag off older minis to put on newer Minis in order to be able to import/register them. It happens a lot. But I keep asking myself why in the world would somebody take the vin tag off of a 1966 Cooper S and then replace it with one from a 1962 standard Mini? I kept in contact with him because I wanted to know what happened to the car. I was the only person to look at it and a week after he dropped the price from $6500 to $3500 and it sold the next day. Everything about this car seems fishy to me and then to drop your price by almost half....

Has anyone had there 66 Cooper S disappear in the last few years?