What brand of car is a mini cooper?

They were originally Morris when they first came into production, they then went to British Leyland as a rover.

They are now part of the BMW team as BMW bought MINI for £10 of rover because of all the problems they had.

Minis were first put on sale in 1959 by BMC, badge engineered under two names as the "Morris Mini Minor" and the "Austin Seven" in 1959. They were designed to be nothing more than a small economical family runaround.

Due to the drive train arrangement (transverse front) and the rubber cone suspention system, they really were state of the art, and would handle like nothing else at the time. That's when a guy called John Cooper came in.

He ran a F1 team (he was the first to put the engine in the back of an F1 car). He realised the motorsport potential of the car, and started the seemingly never ending sporting development of the car.

So, the answer is, the "MINI" bit was a Morris brand, but the "Cooper" bit, was the name of a 1960's formula 1 team.

Not now though.

Sad really.