Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. You might have a hard time finding the car in the photo above, since it's about the size of a toaster, but that tiny red object is a right-hand-drive Austin Cooper S. I chose 1965 as the arbitrary model year for this one, but my not-so-comprehensive Mini expertise places it in the 1963-69 era. Experts, please weigh in (and, yes, this could easily be some kind of Frankensteined Cooper S clone, in which case there's no telling).
I found this car parked all alone in front of Alameda High School, alma mater of Jim Morrison, Phyllis Diller, and yours truly. I saw several other vintage Minis buzzing around town that day, so there must have been some sort of secret Mini gathering on the island. I asked Mini-owning WhatWouldJesseDo, but he hadn't heard about any such event.
I'd really like to put a Honda 600 next to one of these and see which one is smaller. If this car is really a Cooper S, it should be way quicker than a 600, since it has more than twice the engine displacement.
This car is in excellent, apparently rust-free condition, and I've since found that it really does live on the island full-time (and parks on the street).