The Mini

The Mini was a small, two-door, four-seat car built over a single generation that lasted four decades. It was produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC), then by British Leyland, then by the Rover Group, and finally, for a short time, under BMW ownership. The car came in saloon, estate, convertible, and other body styles. From 1959 into 2000, with a brief pause in the 1990s, about 5.38 million Minis of all types were built.

Initially sold under the Austin and Morris names—as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor—the Austin Seven was renamed the Austin Mini in 1962. In 1969, Mini became its own marque. Today, it is called the "Classic Mini" to separate it from the modern MINI family, which BMW has produced since 2001 after buying the Mini name when Rover Group was sold in 2000.

Sir Alec Issigonis designed the car for BMC. Its space-saving layout—a transverse engine, integrated sump transmission, and front-wheel drive—allowed 80% of the floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage. This design influenced many later "supermini" cars, such as the Honda N360 (1967), Nissan Cherry (1970), and Fiat 127 (1971), and was also adapted for larger subcompact cars. In 1999, the Mini was voted the second-most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T and ahead of the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle. It is also seen as an icon of 1960s British popular culture.

The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman, and the Mark III. Within these were variations including an estate car, a pick-up, a van, and the Mini Moke, a jeep-like buggy. The performance versions—the Mini Cooper and Cooper "S"—were successful race and rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965, and 1967. The Mini was built in England at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham (next to BMC's headquarters) and at the former Morris Motors plant in Cowley. It was also manufactured in Australia (Victoria Park/Zetland BMC Australia factory), Spain (Authi), Belgium, Italy (Innocenti, as the Innocenti Mini), Chile, Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia (IMV). In 1980, British Leyland launched the Austin Metro as the Mini's follow-up, but the Mini outlasted it and continued production at Longbridge until October 2000.

**Design and development**

The Mini was born from a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis. Petrol was rationed in the UK, large car sales fell, and German bubble cars boomed, even in countries like the UK where imported cars were rare. Leonard Lord, head of BMC, reportedly hated these bubble cars so much that he vowed to clear them from the streets and design a "proper miniature car." He set basic requirements: the car must fit in a box 10×4×4 feet (3.0×1.2×1.2 m); passenger space must take up 6 feet (1.8 m) of the 10-foot (3.0 m) length; and the engine, to save cost, had to be an existing unit.

Alec Issigonis, who had been working at Alvis, was recruited back to BMC in 1955. Lord asked him to design a range of technically advanced family cars in the same innovative spirit as his earlier Morris Minor, to complement BMC's existing conventional models. Issigonis started design projects for three cars: large and small family cars, and a very small economy car. He first worked on the largest car, designated XC9001, while the smallest car, XC9003, had the lowest priority—even though it was Issigonis' greatest personal interest. When Lord demanded a bubble car competitor in October 1956, work on XC9001 stopped and XC9003 became the priority. The team included John Sheppard (who worked with Issigonis at Alvis), Jack Daniels (who worked on the Morris Minor), Chris Kingham (also from Alvis), Charles Griffin (from Cowley), Vic Everton (from the body-jig shop), Ron Dovey (who built the bodies), Dick Gallimore (who laid out experimental bodies), and George Cooper (who checked layouts). By July 1957, they had designed and built the original XC9003 prototype, nicknamed the "Orange Box" for its color. Leonard Lord approved the car for production on 19 July, and XC9003 became project ADO15.

The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder, water-cooled engine, but mounted it transversely, with the engine-oil-lubricated four-speed transmission in the sump, and used front-wheel drive. Drive went through a conventional clutch to a set of primary gears on the end of the crankshaft, which created the characteristic transmission "whine" the Mini became known for. Almost all small front-wheel-drive cars since have used a similar layout, except with the transmission separately enclosed and mounted directly on the crankshaft, and with unequal-length driveshafts. The radiator was mounted on the left side of the car so the engine-mounted fan could be kept, but with reversed pitch so it blew air into the natural low-pressure area under the front wing. This saved length but fed the radiator with air heated by the engine, and exposed the ignition system to rainwater entering through the grille. Early prototypes used the existing 948 cc A-Series unit, but this gave the ADO15...