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Austin and MiniAustin and Mini Pictures
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It's really quite remarkable that BMW have managed to produce a modern Mini car that retains much of the distinctive character and style of a 1960s icon nearly 50 years old. Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, the original was manufactured with only minor modification for over 40 years.
The original design was strikingly different to contemporary cars. Issigonis' earlier Morris Minor seems positively antediluvian by comparison. With its compact size, good economy and maneouvrability, the Mini was a superb city car and popular in major cities such as London and Paris - the stylish French took the car to their heart. Well, if the alternative was a 2CV, you would, wouldn't you? The Mini featured a number of innovations. The four-cylinder engine was mounted transversely and drove the front wheels. The suspension used rubber cones rather than conventional springs. This firm suspension together with the position of the wheels in the four corners gave the car its fabulous handling. The location of the wheels and engine also gave remarkable amounts of space for such a compact design. The Mini's performance, especially in more powerful Cooper form, had considerable motor sport success especially in the Monte Carlo Rally. It was the star of The Italian Job and featured in many films, most notably A Shot in the Dark (with a naked Peter Sellers and, more attractively, Elke Sommer) and Mr Bean. Confirming its cult status, the Mini Moke derivative was used as the taxi in the seminal 1960s TV series The Prisoner. The Mini was developed by the Austin Motor Company. Founded in 1905 at Longbridge the company became a major automobile manufacturer. It was famous for a number of models, especially the compact Austin 7 and Austin-Healey sports cars. Austin merged with Morris to form the British Motor Corporation which evolved, through mergers with other Britiish manufacturers such as Jaguar and Rover, into the car crash that was British Leyland. Renamed as the Rover Group, it was sold, remarkably, to BMW in 1994. The acquisition was a disaster, Rover gaining the soubriquet The English Patient in Munich. In 2000 BMW managed to extricate itself from this shambles. Rover was sold to a consortium of businessmen for a nominal £10, Land Rover was acquired by Ford, and BMW retained the new Mini, built at Cowley in Oxford. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
