The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a UK-based vehicle manufacturer, formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses.Morris-Austin Merger Company Named. ''The Times'', Friday, 29 February ...
(BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during six, from the last year of the 1950s into the last year of the 20th century, over a single generation, as fastbacks, estates, and convertibles.
The original Mini is considered an icon of 1960s
British popular culture
British culture is influenced by the combined nations' history; its historically Christian religious life, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the traditions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the impact of the British Empir ...
. Its space-saving
transverse engine
A transverse engine is an engine mounted in a vehicle so that the engine's crankshaft axis is perpendicular to the direction of travel. Many modern front-wheel drive vehicles use this engine mounting configuration. Most rear-wheel drive vehicle ...
and
front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...
layout – allowing 80% of the area of the car's
floorpan
The floorpan is a large sheet metal stamping that often incorporates several smaller welded stampings to form the floor of a large vehicle and the position of its external and structural panels.
In the case of monocoque designs, the floorpan ...
to be used for passengers and luggage – influenced a generation of car makers. In 1999, the Mini was voted the second-most influential car of the 20th century, behind the
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...
, and ahead of the
Citroën DS
The Citroën DS () is a front mid-engined, front-wheel drive executive car manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1955 to 1975, in fastback/sedan, wagon/estate, and convertible body configurations, across three series of one generation.
...
and
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...
."This Just In: Model T Gets Award" James G. Cobb, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 24 December 1999 The front-wheel-drive, transverse-engine layout of the Mini was copied for other "supermini" designs including the
Honda N360
The Honda N360 is a small front-engine, front-wheel drive, two-door, four-passenger car manufactured and marketed by Honda from March 1967 through 1970 in Japan's highly regulated kei class — as both a two-door sedan and three-door wagon.
...
(1967),
Nissan Cherry
The Datsun Cherry (チェリー), known later as the Nissan Cherry, was a series of subcompact cars which formed Nissan's first front-wheel drive supermini model line.
The Cherry featured the front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The Cherry li ...
(1970), and
Fiat 127
The Fiat 127 is a supermini car produced by Italian car manufacturer FIAT from 1971 to 1983. It was introduced in 1971 as the replacement for the Fiat 850. Production of the 127 in Italy ended in 1983 following the introduction of its replacemen ...
(1971). The layout was also adapted for larger subcompact designs.
This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by
Sir Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second most influential car of t ...
. It was manufactured at the
Longbridge
Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire.
Public Transport
Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's Co ...
plant in England located next to BMC's headquarters and at the former Morris Motors plant at Cowley near Oxford, in the Victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
, Australia, and later also in Spain (
Authi
The Authi car company of Pamplona, Spain, was founded in 1965 as a result of a collaboration between BMC (the British Motor Corporation) and NMQ ( Nueva Montaña Quijano).
BMC needed a way to sell their cars in Spain, which at the time had stri ...
), Belgium, Italy (
Innocenti
Innocenti () was an Italian machinery works, originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920. Over the years, they produced Lambretta scooters as well as a range of automobiles, mainly of British Leyland origins. The brand was retired in ...
) Chile, Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia ( IMV).SFRJ četvorotočkaši: Šta su pravili i vozili Jugosloveni? at ba.n1info.com, 23-12-2015
The Italian version of the Mini which was sold under the Innocenti marque was produced in Lambrate, a district of Milan.
The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman, and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations, including an
estate car
A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...
Mini Moke
The Mini Moke (styled "MOKE") is a small, front-wheel-drive utility and recreational convertible, conceived and manufactured as a lightweight military vehicle by British Motor Corporation (BMC), and subsequently marketed for civilian use under ...
, a
jeep
Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Motors ...
-like buggy.
The performance versions, the Mini Cooper and Cooper "S", were successful as both race and
rally car
Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
s, winning the
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeas ...
in 1964, 1965, and 1967. In 1966, the first-placed Mini (along with nine other cars) was disqualified after the finish, under a controversial decision that the car's headlights were against the rules.
On its introduction in August 1959, the Mini was marketed under the
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor.Austin Seven – Mini, www.austinmemories.com Retrieved on 16 June 2013 The Austin Seven was renamed Austin Mini in January 1962 and Mini became a
marque
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
in its own right in 1969.Michael Sedgwick & Mark Gillies, A-Z of Cars 1945–1970, 1986 In 1980, it once again became the Austin Mini, and in 1988, just "Mini" (although the "Rover" badge was applied on some models exported to Japan).
BMW acquired the
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...
(formerly
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly ...
) in 1994, and sold the greater part of it in 2000, but retained the rights to build cars using the Mini name. Retrospectively, the car is known as the "Classic Mini" to distinguish it from the modern, BMW influenced
MINI
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
family of vehicles produced since 2000.
Design and development
The Mini came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...
. Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of large cars slumped, and the market for German
bubble car
Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are oft ...
s boomed, even in countries such as the United Kingdom, where imported cars were still a rarity. The
Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 ( it, Cinquecento, ) is a rear-engined, four-seat, small city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975 over a single generation in two-door saloon and two-door station wagon bodystyles.
Launc ...
, launched in 1957, was also hugely successful, especially in its native
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
.
Leonard Lord
Leonard Percy Lord, 1st Baron Lambury KBE (15 November 1896 – 13 September 1967) was a captain of the British motor industry.
Background and education
Leonard Percy Lord was born on 16 November 1896 and was the youngest child in his family ...
, the somewhat
autocratic
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except per ...
head of BMC, reportedly detested these cars so much that he vowed to rid the streets of them and design a 'proper miniature car'. He laid down some basic design requirements – the car should be contained within a box that measured ; and the passenger accommodation should occupy of the length; and the engine, for reasons of cost, should be an existing unit.
Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second most influential car of t ...
, who had been working for
Alvis
Alvis may refer to:
*Alvis Car and Engineering Company, British luxury car and military vehicle manufacturer which later became Alvis plc
*Alvis plc (formerly United Scientific Holdings plc), a defence contractor which acquired Alvis Cars and beca ...
, had been recruited back to BMC in 1955 with a brief from Lord to design a range of technically advanced family cars in the same innovative spirit as his earlier
Morris Minor
The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in ...
to complement BMC's existing conventional models. Issigonis had set out design projects for three cars – large and small family cars and a very small economy car. His initial work was on the largest car, designated XC9001, with the smallest car, XC9003, having the lowest priority despite it being Issigonis' greatest personal interest. With Lord's dictum to produce a bubble car competitor and his revised design requirements being laid down in October 1956, work on XC9001 stopped and XC9003 became the priority. The team that designed the Mini was remarkably small; in addition to Issigonis, John Sheppard (who had worked with Issigonis at Alvis), Jack Daniels (who had worked with him on the Morris Minor), Chris Kingham (also from Alvis), two engineering students, and four draughtsmen worked on the project. Together, by July 1957, they had designed and built the original XC9003 prototype, which was affectionately named the "Orange Box" because of its colour. 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
The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized.
Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...
,
water-cooled
Cooling tower and water discharge of a nuclear power plant
Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and n ...
engine, but departed from tradition by mounting it transversely, with the engine-oil lubricated, four-speed transmission in the
sump
A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...
, and by employing
front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...
. Drive was taken down to the transmission via a conventional clutch coupled to a set of primary gears on the end of the crankshaft which gave rise to the characteristic transmission "whine" for which the Mini became famous. Almost all small front-wheel drive cars developed since have used a similar configuration, except with the transmission separately enclosed rather than using the engine oil and mounted directly onto the end of the crankshaft, but with unequal length driveshafts. The radiator was mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but with reversed pitch so that it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front wing. This location saved vehicle length, but had the disadvantage of feeding the radiator with air that had been heated by passing over the engine. It also exposed the entire ignition system to the direct entry of rainwater through the grille. Early prototypes used the existing 948-cc A-Series unit, but this provided the ADO15 with performance far greater than its price and purpose required – a top speed over 90 mph. The engine was reduced to a new 848-cc capacity with a shorter
stroke
A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...
. This reduced power from 37 to 33 bhp and caused a significant drop in
torque
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
, so provided more realistic performance, especially when the ADO15 body was widened by 2 inches (5.08 cm) over the XC9003 prototype, which blunted the car's top speed while improving its stability and roadholding. Even so, the ADO15 had a top speed of 75 mph, which was better than many other
economy car
Economy car is a term mostly used in the United States for cars designed for low-cost purchase and operation. Typical economy cars are small (compact or subcompact), lightweight, and inexpensive to both produce and purchase. Stringent design const ...
s of the time.
The
suspension
Suspension or suspended may refer to:
Science and engineering
* Suspension (topology), in mathematics
* Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics
* Suspension of a ring, in mathematics
* Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspende ...
system, designed by Issigonis's friend Dr.
Alex Moulton
Alexander Eric Moulton (9 April 1920 – 9 December 2012) was an English engineer and inventor, specialising in suspension design.
Early life and education
Moulton's father, John Coney Moulton, was a naturalist working in the Far East. Alex ...
at Moulton Developments Limited, used compact rubber cones instead of conventional springs. This space-saving design also featured rising progressive-rate springing of the cones, and provided some natural damping, in addition to the normal dampers. Built into the subframes, the rubber cone system gave a raw and bumpy ride accentuated by the woven-webbing seats, but the rigidity of the rubber cones, together with the wheels' positioning at the corners of the car, gave the Mini
go kart
A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance racing ...
-like handling.
Initially, an interconnected fluid system was planned, similar to the one that Alec Issigonis and Alex Moulton were working on in the mid-1950s at Alvis. They had assessed the mechanically interconnected
Citroën 2CV
The Citroën 2CV (french: link=no, deux chevaux(-vapeur), , lit. "two steam horse(power)s", meaning "two ''taxable'' horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive, economy family car, introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial d ...
suspension at that time (according to an interview by Moulton with ''
Car Magazine
''Car'' is a British automotive enthusiast magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. International editions are published by Bauer Automotive in Republic of Korea (since March 2016), Brazil, China, Greece, India, Italy (through 201 ...
'' in the late 1990s), which inspired the design of the hydrolastic suspension system for the Mini and Morris/Austin 1100, to try to keep the benefits of the 2CV system (ride comfort, body levelling, keeping the roadwheel under good control and the tyres in contact with the road), but with added roll stiffness that the 2CV lacked. The short development time of the car meant this was not ready in time for the Mini's launch. The system intended for the Mini was further developed and the
hydrolastic
Hydrolastic is a type of space-efficient automotive suspension system used in many cars produced by British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successor companies.
Invented by British rubber engineer Alex Moulton, and first used on the 1962 BMC p ...
system was first used on the
Morris 1100
Year 1100 ( MC) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 1100th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 100th year of the 2nd millennium, the 100th and ...
, launched in 1962; the Mini gained the system later in 1964. As launched, the Mini had simpler suspension made from
conical
A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex.
A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines c ...
springs of solid rubber. These were compact, saving on intrusion into the cabin space, and required no maintenance. The conical shape gave the springs a progressive action, becoming stiffer at greater degrees of compression. This gave the ADO15 a smooth ride over small bumps, but minimised roll and pitch on more uneven surfaces. It also allowed the springs to cope with the huge variance in load between an unladen car (about 600 kg or 1300 lb) and a fully laden one (just over 1000 kg or 2240 lb, or a 70% increase).
Ten-inch (254 mm) wheels were specified, so new tyres had to be developed, the initial contract going to Dunlop. Issigonis went to Dunlop stating that he wanted even smaller, wheels (even though he had already settled on 10-inch). An agreement was made on the 10-inch size, after Dunlop rejected the eight-inch proposition.
Many features were designed into the ADO15's interior to maximise its passenger and luggage space on top of the major savings allowed by the transverse engine and 10-inch wheels. Sliding windows allowed single-skin doors to be fitted, improving elbow room and reducing costs. A bracing bar was fitted across the door frame to brace the single skin and this was later adapted into a large storage bin on each door. Issigonis later said that he had sized the bins to carry the ingredients of his favourite drink, a
dry martini
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. A popular variation, the vodka martini, uses vodka in ...
in the correct proportions (one bottle of
vermouth
Vermouth (, ) is an aromatized fortified wine, flavoured with various botanicals (roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, and spices) and sometimes colored. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced in the mid- to late 18th centur ...
and 2 of
Gordon's Gin
Gordon's is a brand of London dry gin first produced in 1769. The top markets for Gordon's are the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. It is owned by the British spirits company Diageo. It is the world's best-selling London dry gin. G ...
). Similar bins were provided outboard of the rear seats, also serving a dual function of bracing the single-skin body panel. Small items could also be stowed under the rear seats, and early Minis were sold with optional
wicker
Wicker is the oldest furniture making method known to history, dating as far back as 5,000 years ago. It was first documented in ancient Egypt using pliable plant material, but in modern times it is made from any pliable, easily woven material. ...
baskets specially shaped to slot under the seats. The fixed rear parcel shelf contributed to the rigidity of the body shell, although it did preclude fitting the ADO15 with a
hatchback
A hatchback is a car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second row seating, where the interior can be reconfigured to prioritize passenger or cargo volume. ...
. The
boot
A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is c ...
lid was hinged at the bottom so that the car could be driven with it open to increase luggage space. On early cars, the number plate was hinged at the top so that it could swing down to remain visible when the boot lid was open. This feature was later discontinued after it was discovered that exhaust gases could leak into the cockpit when the boot was open.
The Mini was designed as a
monocoque
Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell".
First used for boats, ...
shell with welded seams visible on the outside of the car running down the A and C pillars, and between the body and the floor pan. Those that ran from the base of the A-pillar to the wheel well were described as 'everted' (lit., 'turned outward') to provide more room for the front seat occupants. To further simplify construction, the hinges for the doors and boot lid were mounted externally. This also saved a small amount of cabin space. It also made the ADO15 very easy to assemble from complete
knock-down kit
A knock-down kit (also knockdown kit, knocked-down kit, or simply knockdown or KD) is a collection of parts required to assemble a product. The parts are typically manufactured in one country or region, then exported to another country or region ...
s in overseas markets with only basic industry. Cars could be assembled with minimal use of jigs as the external seams made the panels largely 'self-aligning'. They also allowed panels to be stacked flat on top of one other for easy shipping. As originally built, all the structural body panels were welded to the top of the single floor pressing, but this caused major problems with water entering the cabin and was quickly changed in the first months of production.
Early prototypes were fully unitary in construction, but the cars broke apart under the high loads from the large lever ratios used with the rubber cone suspension. The design was changed to use steel subframes to carry the drivetrain and suspension for the front and rear. This also simplified production, as both subframes could be built up independently and then mated to the already-completed bodyshell. It also opened up the possibility of easily producing variants on the ADO15 as a body of any shape or design could be used provided it could accommodate the subframes.
In 1959, BMC and Alec Issigonis won the
Dewar Trophy
The Dewar Trophy was a cup donated in the early years of the twentieth century by Sir Thomas R. Dewar, M.P. a member of parliament of the United Kingdom (UK), to be awarded each year by the Royal Automobile Club (R. A .C.) of the United Kingdom "t ...
, for the design and production of the Mini.
The Mini shape had become so well known that by the 1990s,
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...
– the heirs to BMC – were able to register its design as a trademark in its own right.
Mark I: 1959–1967
The production version of the Mini was demonstrated to the press in April 1959, and by August, several thousand cars had been produced ready for the first sales. The Mini was officially announced to the public on 26 August 1959. Some 2,000 cars had already been sent abroad and were displayed that day in almost 100 countries. The key dimensions were:
* wheelbase:
*front track:
*rear track:
*length:
*width:
*height:
*unladen weight: (approx).
The first example, a Morris Mini-Minor with the registration 621 AOK, is on display at the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire. Another early example from 1959 is on display at the National Motor Museum in
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
.
The Mini was marketed under BMC's two main brand names, Austin and Morris, until 1969, when it became a marque in its own right. The Morris version was known to all as "the Mini" or the "Morris Mini-Minor". This seems to have been a play on words: the Morris Minor was a larger, well known, and successful car that continued in production, and ''minor'' is
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
for "lesser", so an abbreviation of the Latin word for "least" – ''minimus'' – was used for the new even smaller car. One name proposed for the almost identical Austin version was Austin Newmarket, but it was sold as the Austin Seven (sometimes written as ''SE7EN'' in early publicity material – with the '7' using the letter V rotated anticlockwise so it approximated the number 7), which recalled the popular small
Austin 7
The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1923 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. ...
of the 1920s and 1930s.
Until 1962, the cars appeared in North America and France as the Austin 850 and Morris 850, and in Denmark as the Austin Partner (until 1964) and Morris Mascot (until 1981). It was introduced in Australia as Morris 850 only (not "Austin"), and then later as Morris Cooper and Morris Cooper S versions, as well. The Morris name Mini (Mini-Minor) was first used for Austin's version by BMC in 1961 when the Austin Seven was rebranded as the Austin Mini, somewhat to the surprise of the
Sharp's Commercials
Sharps Commercials Ltd was a British car maker based in Preston, Lancashire. It was founded in 1922 by Paul Sharp. It changed its name to Bond Cars Ltd in 1963. The company was taken over by the Reliant Motor Co Ltd of Tamworth, Staffordshire ...
car company (later known as Bond Cars), who had been using the name Minicar for their three-wheeled vehicles since 1949. However, legal action was somehow averted, and BMC used the name "Mini" thereafter.
In 1964, the suspension of the cars was replaced by another Moulton design, the
hydrolastic
Hydrolastic is a type of space-efficient automotive suspension system used in many cars produced by British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successor companies.
Invented by British rubber engineer Alex Moulton, and first used on the 1962 BMC p ...
system. The new suspension gave a softer ride, but it also increased weight and production cost. In 1971, the original rubber suspension reappeared and was retained for the remaining life of the Mini.
From October 1965, the option of the unique
Automotive Products
Automotive Products, commonly abbreviated to AP, was an automotive industry components company set up in 1920 by Edward Boughton, Willie Emmott and Denis Brock, to import and sell American-made components to service the fleet of ex-military truc ...
designed four-speed
automatic transmission
An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...
became available. Cars fitted with this became the Mini-Matic.
Slow at the outset, Mark I sales strengthened across most of the model lines in the 1960s, and production totalled 1,190,000.
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
purchased a Mini and dismantled it to see if they could offer an alternative. Ford determined that the BMC must have been losing around £30 per car, so decided to produce a larger car – the
Cortina
Cortina may refer to:
Things
* Cortina (tango), a short piece of music played during a tango dance event
* Ford Cortina, a medium-sized family car built by Ford of Britain from 1962 to 1982
**Lotus Cortina, a 1963–1968 performance variant on the ...
, launched in 1962 – as its competitor in the budget market. BMC insisted that the way company overheads were shared out, the Mini always made money. Larger profits came from the popular De Luxe models and from optional extras such as seat belts, door mirrors, a heater, and a radio, which would be considered necessities on modern cars, as well as the various Cooper and Cooper S models.
The Mini entered into popular culture in the 1960s with well-publicised purchases by film and music stars.
The Cooper S version was also used by some British police forces as both a uniform and plainclothes car.
File:1959 Morris Mini-Minor 850cc Rear (1).jpg, Morris Mini-Minor rear
File:Mini Original 1959.jpg, The first Morris Mini-Minor sold in Texas being delivered to a family in Arlington, Texas, in 1959
Mark II: 1967–1970
The Mark II Mini was launched at the 1967
British Motor Show
The British International Motor Show is an annual motor show held by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders between 1903 and 2008 in England, and as The British Motor Show since 2021 by Automotion Events.
Initially held in London at T ...
, and featured a redesigned grille, a larger rear window and numerous cosmetic changes. A total of 429,000 Mk II Minis were produced.
A variety of Mini types were made in
Pamplona
Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region.
Lying at near above ...
, Spain, by the
Authi
The Authi car company of Pamplona, Spain, was founded in 1965 as a result of a collaboration between BMC (the British Motor Corporation) and NMQ ( Nueva Montaña Quijano).
BMC needed a way to sell their cars in Spain, which at the time had stri ...
company from 1968 onwards, mostly under the Morris name. In 1969, a fibreglass version of the Mini Mark II was developed for British Leyland's Chilean subsidiary (British Leyland Automotores de Chile, S.A., originally the independent assembler EMSSA). The bodyshell mould was created by the
Peel Engineering Company
The Peel Engineering Company was a manufacturing company based in Peel on the west coast of the Isle of Man that primarily made fibreglass boats through its subsidiary company West Marine Ltd. and fairings for motorcycles.
Description and his ...
. Production began in 1970 and continued for a few years; these fibreglass Minis can be recognised by the missing body seams and by larger panel gaps. The Chilean market was never very large and the Arica plant was closed in 1974. The reason for the fibreglass body was to enable Leyland to meet very strict requirements for local sourcing, increasing to 70.22% in 1971.
File:1969 Morris Mini 1000 (Mk2) (8437745820).jpg, Morris Mini 1000 with larger windows and rear lights
Mark III: 1969–1976
The Mark III Mini had a modified bodyshell with enough alterations to see the factory code change from ADO15 to ADO20 (which it shared with the Clubman). The most obvious changes were larger doors with concealed hinges. Customer demand led to the sliding windows being replaced with winding windows, although some Australian-manufactured Mark I Minis had adopted this feature in 1965 (with opening quarterlight windows). The suspension reverted from hydrolastic to rubber cones as a cost-saving measure. (The 1275 GT and Clubman retained the hydrolastic system until June 1971, when they, too, switched to the rubber cone suspension of the original Minis.)
In 1969, the simple name Mini completely replaced the separate Austin and Morris brands. In April 1974, a heater became standard equipment on the entry-level Mini 850, as well, having by then already been included in the standard specification of the other models for some time.
In the late 1970s, Innocenti introduced the Innocenti 90 and 120, Bertone-designed hatchbacks based on the Mini platform. Bertone also created a Mini Cooper equivalent, christened the Innocenti De Tomaso, that sported a 1275-cc engine similar to the MG Metro engine, but with an 11-stud head, a special inlet manifold, and used the "A" clutch instead of the "Verto" type. It also used homokinetic shafts instead of rubber couplings.
The Mini was still popular in the UK, but appeared increasingly outdated in the face of newer and more practical rivals. Since the late 1960s, plans had been in place for a newer and more practical supermini to replace it, though the Mini was still the only car of this size built by British Leyland for the home market.
Mark IV: 1976–1983
The Mark IV was introduced in 1976, though by this stage British Leyland was working on a new small car which was widely expected to replace the Mini before much longer. It had a front rubber-mounted subframe with single tower bolts and the rear frame had some larger bushings introduced, all intended to improve the car's mechanical refinement and to reduce noise levels. Twin column stalks for indicators and wipers were introduced, as were larger foot pedals. From 1977 onwards, the rear light clusters included reversing lights.
In July 1979 the lower end of the Mini range was altered. The basic Mini 850 (which had featured in various forms since the original launch 20 years before) was withdrawn. Its place was taken by two models at slightly lower and slightly higher price points. The new base model was the Mini City, with black-painted bumpers, an untrimmed lower facia rail, part-fabric seats and wing mirror and sun visor only on the driver's side, plus unique 'City' body graphics and boot badge. Above the City was the new 850 SDL (Super Deluxe), which had the same specification as the standard Mini 1000 but with the smaller engine.
For August 1979 the Mini's 20th anniversary was marked by the introduction of the first true limited-edition Mini, which was the Mini 1100 Special. This was a 5,000-car run with the 1098cc engine, broadly to the specification already in production for the European market as a standard model with the same name. However this was the first time a UK-market 'round-nose' (i.e. non-Clubman) Mini had been available with the 1098cc engine, and the UK limited edition was also fitted with unique Exacton alloy wheels – the first time these were fitted to a factory-produced Mini – and plastic wheelarch extensions. Inside was the 1275GT's three-dial instrument cluster and a leather-rimmed wheel with a rectangular centre from the Innocenti Mini hatchback.
The 1100 Special and 850 City models were phased out by 1980, and during the same year the engine was upgraded to the improved A-Plus unit from the new Metro in 998cc form, which was now the only engine available in the Mini. This was then followed by a number of incremental developments.
In 1978, the Mini was one of the key cars made available to disabled motorists under the new
Motability
Motability is a charity in the United Kingdom. It oversees Motability Operations Ltd, which runs the Motability Scheme intended to enable disabled people, their families and their carers to lease a new car, scooter or powered wheelchair, usi ...
scheme.
Reports of the Mini's imminent demise surfaced again in 1980 with the launch of the Austin Mini-Metro (badging with the word "mini" in all lowercase). Faced with competition from a new wave of modern superminis like the
Ford Fiesta
The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort (later the ...
,
Renault 5
The Renault 5 is a four-passenger, three or five-door, front-engine, front-wheel drive hatchback supermini manufactured and marketed by the French automaker Renault over two generations: 1972–1985 (also called R5) and 1984–1996 (also called S ...
, and
Volkswagen Polo
The Volkswagen Polo is a supermini car ( B-segment) produced by the German car manufacturer Volkswagen since 1975. It is sold in Europe and other markets worldwide in hatchback, saloon, and estate variants throughout its production run.
Histor ...
, the Mini was beginning to fall out of favour in many export markets, with the South African, Australian, and New Zealand markets all stopping production around this time. Buyers of small cars now wanted modern and practical designs, usually with a hatchback. The Metro was therefore in essence, the Mini mechanicals repackaged into a larger hatchback bodyshell.
Although the Mini continued to be produced after the Metro's launch, production volumes were reduced as British Leyland and its successor Rover Group concentrated on the Metro as its key supermini. The original Mini's last year in the top ten of the UK's top selling cars was 1981, as it came ninth and the Metro was fifth. The arrival of the Metro also had production of the larger Allegro pruned back before it was finally discontinued in 1982. In 1982, BL made 56,297 Minis and over 175,000 Metros. Due to their common powertrain package, the Mini received many mechanical upgrades in the early 1980s which were shared with the Metro, such as the A-Plus engine, 12-inch wheels with front disc brakes, improved soundproofing and quieter, stronger transmissions. This not only modernised the Mini but, because many of its major subassemblies were now shared with the Metro, made it very cost-effective to produce despite falling sales volumes.
Mark V: 1984–1990
All cars had brake discs and plastic wheel arches (Mini Special arches), but retained the same Mark IV body shell shape.
The Mini's 25th anniversary fell in 1984 and British Leyland produced a 'Mini 25' limited-edition model, both to mark the occasion and to publicise the recent upgrades to the model. This marked the start of a turnaround in the Mini's fortunes. Basic models such as the City and the City E (using the economy-tuned drivetrain from the Metro HLE) filled in the bottom of the Austin-Rover range and still found buyers who wanted a compact
city car
The A-segment is the 1st category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined.
A-segment sales represent approx. 7-8% of the market i ...
that was easy to park and cheap to run. Low purchase and running costs also made the Mini continually popular as a first car for younger drivers, and Austin-Rover introduced a steady stream of limited editions with bright paint colours, body graphics, and trim to appeal to this market. The Mini was also becoming prized as a characterful and nostalgic car in its own right, and the London Collection of limited-edition models was more upmarket and luxurious and named after affluent or fashionable parts of London.
These marketing strategies proved very successful; Mini production actually had modest increases through the mid-1980s, from 34,974 Minis in 1985 to 35,280 in 1985 and 39,800 in 1986. In 1990 the
Mini Cooper Mini Cooper may refer to:
*Cars of the original Mini series called the "Mini Cooper", made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors 1961–1971, and 1990–2000
*Cars of the Mini (marque), including a number of different models produced ...
was relaunched - 20 years after the demise of the original model - which saw Mini production pass 40,000. Once again, it featured the long-running 1275-cc engine which had featured on the original Mini Cooper S.
In 1988, Austin Rover decided to keep the Mini in production for as long as it was viable to do so, putting an end to reports that it would be discontinued by 1991, by which time the original Metro would also be replaced.
Mark VI: 1990–1996
With the larger Metro being redesigned in 1990 to take the new K-Series engine, the Mini became the sole recipient of the classic A-Series engine with transmission-in-sump layout. The engine mounting points were moved forward to take 1275-cc power units, and includes the later Horizontal Integral Float version of the SU carb, plus the single-point fuel-injected car, which came out in 1991. The 998-cc power units were discontinued. An internal bonnet release was fitted from 1992. Production ended in August 1996 as the Mark VII replaced it.
File:1994 Rover Mini 1300i Cabriolet, front left.jpg, A 1994 Rover Mini 1300i Cabriolet
In the summer of 1991, 21 years after the fibreglass Mini built in Chile was produced, another fibreglass bodied Mini again entered production, this time in Venezuela. The producer, Facorca, intended to sell the car in the Caribbean and Central America, and also had plans for Brazilian assembly.
File:1992 Mini Cord FA 1.0 Front.jpg, 1992 Mini Cord built with a fibreglass body
Mark VII: 1996–2000
This was the final version, twin point injection with front-mounted radiator. Full-width dashboard replaces the original shelf, internal bonnet release. Introduction of
airbag
An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely quickly, then quickly deflate during a collision. It consists of the airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. T ...
on driver's side. The basic Mini was the 1.3i, the other model in the range being the Mini Cooper. The end of production in October 2000 not only signalled the end of original Mini production after 41 years, but also brought about the demise of the 1275-cc engine which had powered the Mini and numerous other BL/BMC/ARG cars for more than 35 years. The Metro had ceased production two and a half years earlier, meaning the Mini outlived the car that was supposed to replace it.
File:2001 Rover Mini Cooper Sport 1.3 Rear.jpg, Rover Mini Cooper Sport rear
Variants
The popularity of the original Mini spawned many models that targeted different markets.
Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf (1961–1969)
Released in 1961 as more luxurious versions of the Mini, both the Wolseley Hornet and the Riley Elf had longer, slightly finned rear wings and larger boots that gave the cars a more conventional three-box design.
The wheelbase of the Elf and Hornet remained at , whereas the overall length was increased to . This resulted in a dry weight of / (rubber/hydrolastic suspension) for the Elf and / for the Hornet.Hornet and Elf Workshop Manual, Part No. AKD 4062C, BMC Service Limited, Cowley, Oxford, England.
Front-end treatment, which incorporated each marque's traditional upright grille design (the Hornet's grille with a lit "Wolseley" badge), also contributed to a less utilitarian appearance. The cars had larger-diameter chrome hubcaps than the Austin and Morris Minis, and additional chrome accents, bumper overriders and wood-veneer dashboards. The Riley was the more expensive of the two cars. The name "Wolseley Hornet" was first used on 1930s saloon, coupé, sports and racing cars, while the name "Elf" recalled the
Riley Sprite
The Riley Sprite is a two-seater open sports car model produced by Riley Motors from 1935 to 1938. It followed on from the company's Imp and MPH sports cars.Body Service Parts List, Riley Elf, Wolseley Hornet, British Leyland Motor Corporation Limited, BMC Service division, Cowley, Oxford, England. Mark I models were equipped with single leading shoe brakes on the front.
In 1966 the Heinz food company commissioned, from Crayford Convertibles ( Crayford Engineering), 57 convertible Hornets to be given as prizes in a UK competition. Many are still on the road as of 2020.
Both the Elf and the Hornet went through three engine versions. Initially, they used the engine (engine type 8WR) with a single HS2 carburettor, changing to a single HS2 carburettor version of the Cooper's power unit (engine type 9WR) in the Mark II in 1963. This increased the car's top speed from . Therefore, Mark II cars also came with increased braking power in the form of front drum brakes with twin leading shoes to cope with the increased power output. Both Mark I and Mark II featured four-speed gearboxes (three synchromesh gears) with the original, long gear lever, a.k.a. "magic wand" type. Automatic gearboxes became available on the Mark II in 1965 as an option. The Mark III facelift of 1966 brought wind-up windows and fresh-air fascia vents. Concealed door hinges were introduced two years before these were seen on the mainstream Mini. The gear selecting mechanism was updated to the "Cooper" type, (which also gave a welcome increase in engine location due to the remote housing extension being directly bolted onto the back of the differential housing) as seen on Mini 1000 cars of the time. The 850s retained the "magic wand". Automatic gearboxes were available to the Mark III in 1967 again. Full-four synchromesh gearing was eventually introduced during 1968. 30,912 Riley Elfs and 28,455 Wolseley Hornets were built. Production of both models ceased in late 1969.
Vehicle identification – serial number prefix letter code:
* First prefix letter – name: R-Riley, W-Wolseley
* Second prefix letter – engine type: A
* Third prefix letter – body type: 2S – 2-door Saloon
* Fourth prefix – series of model: 1 – 1st series, 2 – 2nd series, 3 – 3rd series
* Fifth prefix (used to denote cars different from standard right hand drive): L – left hand drive
Code example: R-A2S1-154321 (Riley, A type engine, 2 door saloon, 1st series, serial number "154321")
Morris Mini Traveller and Austin Mini Countryman (1960–1969)
These models were two-door estate cars with double "barn-style" rear doors. Both were built on a slightly longer chassis of compared to for the saloon.
The early Morris Mini Traveller and Austin Mini Countryman cars had an internal fuel tank located on the left hand side of the rear load area. This is identifiable by the fuel filler cap being on the left hand side of the car just below the rear window.
In October 1961 the fuel tank was relocated to the underneath of the car and the filler cap was moved to low down on the right hand side of the car – the same configuration that was already in use on the Mini Van.
From the start of production both models had a decorative, non-structural, ash wood trim on the rear body, in the style of a pre-war
shooting-brake
Shooting brake (sometimes mis-identified as "shooting break") is a car body style which originated in the 1890s as a horse-drawn wagon used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game.
The first automotive shooting brakes were ...
. This gave the car a similar appearance to the larger Morris Minor Traveller and gave rise to these cars simply being called a woodie. It is a popular misconception that the difference between the Traveller and the Countryman is the wood trim, or that only wood-fitted models in the Austin and Morris ranges were respectively called Countryman and Traveller, with the plain versions simply being Estates, but neither of these is the case. An all steel version of both the Traveller and the Countryman without the wood trim was launched for export markets in April 1961 and for the home market in October 1962 at a lower cost than the versions with the wood trim. Estate versions of the Mini were then produced in both Austin Countryman and Morris Traveller variants, both available with or without the wooden framing. Some of these models also had front and rear folding seats that folded out flat in order to make a sleeping platform.
In October 1967 the Mk2 version was launched with the same changes as the saloon.
Approximately 108,000 Austin Mini Countrymans and 99,000 Morris Mini Travellers were built. Variations of this model were also built in South Africa, by Innocenti in Italy and by Industria de Montagem de Automoveis in Portugal.
The Mini Traveller and Countryman Register was created in 2009 to help locate and preserve the remaining Mini Traveller and Countryman cars.
Mini Van (1960–1983)
The Mini Van was a commercial panel van (in US English, a
sedan delivery
A panel van, also known as a blind van, car-derived van (United Kingdom) or sedan delivery (United States), is a small cargo vehicle with a passenger car Chassis#Vehicles, chassis, typically with a single front bench seat and no side windows beh ...
) rated at ¼-ton load capacity. Built on the longer Traveller chassis but without side windows, it proved popular in the 1960s UK as a cheaper alternative to the car: it was classed as a commercial vehicle and as such carried no sales tax. A set of simple stamped steel slots served in place of a more costly chrome grille. The Mini Van was renamed as the Mini 95 in 1978, the number representing the gross vehicle weight of 0.95 tons. 521,494 were built.
An Estate Van version with rear side windows was built in the late 1970's by IMA, the British Leyland factory in Portugal. It comes with a single rear window and single rear door, hinged at the top, that opens upwards for rear access.
Mini Moke (1964–1989)
A utility vehicle intended for the British Army was built with a twin-engined 4-wheel-drive. Although the 4WD Moke could climb a 1:2 gradient, it lacked enough ground clearance for military use. The single-engined front-wheel-drive Moke enjoyed some popularity in civilian production. About 50,000 were made in total, from 1964 to 1968 in the UK, 1966 to 1982 in Australia and 1983 to 1989 in Portugal. The Moke was marketed in holiday locations such as Barbados and Macau, where they were also used as police cars. "Moke" is archaic British slang for a donkey.
Mini Pick-up (1961–1983)
A pick-up truck (technically a
coupé utility
A coupé utility is a vehicle with a passenger compartment at the front and an integrated cargo tray at the rear, with the front of the cargo bed doubling as the rear of the passenger compartment.
The term originated in the 1930s, where it wa ...
by definition), in total length was built on the longer Mini Van platform, with an open-top rear cargo area and a tailgate. The factory specified the weight of the pick-up as less than with a full tank of fuel.
As with the van, the pick-up had stamped metal slots for airflow into the engine compartment. The Pickup was basic, although the factory brochure described a "fully equipped Mini Pick-up is also available which includes a recirculatory heater". Passenger-side sun visor, seat belts, laminated windscreen, tilt tubes and cover were also available at extra cost.
Like the van, the pick-up was renamed as the Mini 95 in 1978.
A total of 58,179 Mini pick-up models were built.
Morris Mini K (March 1969 – August 1971, Australia only)
Built in the Australian British Motor Corporation factory at Zetland, New South Wales, using 80% local content, the Morris Mini K was advertised as the "great leap forward". The Mini K ('K' standing for Kangaroo) had a 1098 cc engine and was the last round-nosed model to be produced in Australia, originally priced at A$1780. The Mini K was offered in 2-door saloon and 2-door van body styles. It was distinctive in having wind-up windows and a swivelling quarterlight in Mk.I-style externally hinged doors. A small round sticker with a kangaroo logo was placed on the triangular panel between the door and the front body seam. The "Kangaroo" name was supposedly coined because it is claimed that a kangaroo can go all day without drinking which the advertisers used to emphasise the frugal fuel consumption and, possibly, larger fuel tank.
Mini Beach (1961 - 1962)
The Mini Beach cars were built by the British Motor Corporation for hotels and high end customers as a promotional tool in 1961 - 1962.
Approximately 15 Beach Minis were built out of 20 planned by BMC back in the day, making it among the rarest factory Minis and wildly valuable today. One sold through Bonhams for $181,500 in 2014, and another changed hands on Bring a Trailer in 2019 for the remarkable sum of $230,000. Original Beach Minis were powered by the early Mini’s 848cc A-series motor. The Mini Beach cars were built by hand in house at Longbridge’s Experimental Department. They had no doors, no B-pillars, and a spot-welded roof. The seats were similar to a Fiat 500 Jolly and originally made of wicker. An extremely rare booted concept version was made to look more balanced, but few survive today.
Cooper Car Company
The Cooper Car Company is a British car manufacturer founded in December 1947 by Charles Cooper and his son John Cooper. Together with John's boyhood friend, Eric Brandon, they began by building racing cars in Charles's small gara ...
and designer and builder of
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
cars, saw the potential of the Mini for competition. Issigonis was initially reluctant to see the Mini in the role of a performance car, but after John Cooper appealed to BMC management, the two men collaborated to create the Mini Cooper. The Austin Mini Cooper and Morris Mini Cooper debuted in September 1961.
The engine from the Morris Mini-Minor was given a longer stroke to increase capacity to increasing power from . The car featured a race-tuned engine, twin SU carburettors, a closer-ratio gearbox and front
disc brake
A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to h ...
s, uncommon at the time in a small car. One thousand units of this version were commissioned by management, intended for and designed to meet the
homologation
Homologation ( Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work ...
rules of
Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to:
* Alkaline earth metal, a chemical element classification
* Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962
* Group 2 (racing)
The Group 2 racing class referred ...
rally racing. The 997 cc engine was replaced by a shorter stroke 998 cc unit in 1964. In 1962, Rhodesian John Love became the first non-British racing driver to win the British Saloon Car Championship driving a Mini Cooper.
A more powerful Mini Cooper, dubbed the "S", was developed in tandem and released in 1963. Featuring a 1071 cc engine with a 70.61 mm bore and nitrided steel crankshaft and strengthened bottom end to allow further tuning; and larger servo-assisted disc brakes, 4,030 Cooper S cars were produced and sold until the model was updated in August 1964. Cooper also produced two S models specifically for circuit racing in the under 1,000 cc and under 1,300 cc classes respectively, rated at and a , both had a bore and both were also offered to the public. From 1966 onwards Cooper S models featured twin fuel tanks as standard. The smaller-engine model was not well received, and only 963 had been built when the model was discontinued in 1965. The 1,275 cc Cooper S models continued in production until 1971.
Sales of the Mini Cooper were: 64,000 Mark I Coopers with 997 cc or 998 cc engines; 19,000 Mark I Cooper S with 970 cc, 1,071 cc or 1,275 cc engines; 16,000 Mark II Coopers with 998 cc engines; 6,300 Mark II Cooper S with 1,275 cc engines. There were no Mark III Coopers and 1,570 Mark III Cooper S.
An agreement between BMC and
Innocenti
Innocenti () was an Italian machinery works, originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920. Over the years, they produced Lambretta scooters as well as a range of automobiles, mainly of British Leyland origins. The brand was retired in ...
was announced in 1959 to assemble manufacture BMC cars for the Italian market. The first Mini Coopers assembled in Milan from imported
knock-down kit
A knock-down kit (also knockdown kit, knocked-down kit, or simply knockdown or KD) is a collection of parts required to assemble a product. The parts are typically manufactured in one country or region, then exported to another country or region ...
s with sales of the Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 began in March 1966. It was licensed in 1973 to Spain's Authi (Automoviles de Turismo Hispano-Ingleses), which began to produce the Authi Mini Cooper 1300. The Cooper name was discontinued from the UK Mini range at this time.
A new Mini Cooper named the RSP (Rover Special Products) was briefly relaunched in 1990–91, with slightly lower performance than the 1960s Cooper. It proved popular and a new Cooper-marked Mini went into full production in late 1991. To meet emission standards, Coopers from 1992 on were fitted with a
fuel-injected
Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines.
All comp ...
version of the 1,275 cc engine, and in 1997 a multi-point fuel-injected engine was introduced, along with a front-mounted radiator and various safety improvements. "I love my Mini Cooper," remarked
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
in 2003. "I was too scared to drive a big car in London."
Mini Clubman and 1275 GT: 1969–1980
In 1969, under the ownership of British Leyland, the Mini was given a facelift by stylist
Roy Haynes
Roy Owen Haynes (born March 13, 1925) is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jaz ...
, who had previously worked for
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
. The restyled version was called the Mini Clubman, and has a squarer front, protruding some 10cm / 4in further forward, using the same indicator/sidelight assembly as the
Austin Maxi
The Austin Maxi is a medium-sized, 5-door hatchback family car that was produced by Austin and later British Leyland between 1969 and 1981. It was the first British five-door hatchback.
British Leyland built and sold the Maxi alongside the 1971 ...
. The Mini Clubman was intended to replace the upmarket Riley and Wolseley versions. At launch all Clubmans were powered by the 998cc engine as already used in the Mini 1000, with 38bhp. A more sporting model with the 1275cc single-carburettor 59bhp engine, dubbed the 1275 GT, was slated as the replacement for the 998 cc Mini Cooper (the 1,275 cc Mini Cooper S continued alongside the 1275 GT for two years until 1971). The Clubman Estate replaced the Countryman and Traveller. The original "round-front" design Mini remained in production alongside the Clubman and 1275 GT in 850 and 1000 forms as lower-priced models in the new Mini range.
Production of the Clubman and 1275 GT got off to a slow start because the cars incorporated "lots of production changes" including the relocation of tooling from the manufacturer's Cowley plant to the
Longbridge plant
Longbridge plant is an industrial complex in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, currently leased by SAIC as a research and development facility for its MG Motor subsidiary. Vehicle assembly ended in 2016.
Opened in 1905, by the late 1960s Long ...
: very few cars were handed over to customers before the early months of 1970.
Early domestic market Clubmans were still delivered on cross-ply tyres despite the fact that by 1970 radials had become the norm for the car's mainstream competitors. By 1973 new Minis were, by default, being shipped with radial tyres, though cross-plies could be specified by special order, giving British buyers a price saving of £8.
The 1275 GT is often incorrectly described as the "Mini Clubman 1275 GT". The official name was always just the "Mini 1275 GT", and it was a separate, distinct model from the Clubman (although it shared the same frontal treatment as the Mini Clubman, and was launched at the same time).
In 1971, the 1,275 cc Mini Cooper S was discontinued in the UK, leaving the Mini 1275 GT as the only sporting Mini on sale for the rest of the decade. Innocenti in Italy, however, continued making their own version of the Mini Cooper for some time. While the UK-built 1275 GT was not nearly as quick as a 1275 Mini Cooper S, it was cheaper to buy, run, and insure. It was the first Mini to be equipped with a
tachometer
A tachometer (revolution-counter, tach, rev-counter, RPM gauge) is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute (RPM) on a calibrated analo ...
. It also featured a standard-fit close-ratio gearbox, and initially had 10-inch (25.4 cm) Rostyle wheels covering the 7.5inch (19.05 cm) Cooper S type disc brakes, and a boot board; both were dropped in 1974. Performance of the 1275GT was lively for the time, achieving 0– in 12.9 seconds, and the excellent mid-range torque offered a time in top gear of only nine seconds. The bluff front, however, meant that the model struggled to reach .
From 1975 the standard Clubman and Clubman Estate received the 1098cc engine (as also fitted to the
Austin Allegro
The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1973 until 1982. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. The Al ...
) with 45bhp, although Clubmans with the AP automatic transmission retained the less powerful 998cc power unit.
Throughout the 1970s, British Leyland continued to produce the classic 1959 "round-front" design, alongside the newer Clubman and 1275 GT models. The long-nose Clubman and 1275 GT offered better crash safety, were better equipped, and had better under-bonnet access, but they were more expensive and aerodynamically inferior to the original 1959 design. The Mini Clubman and 1275 GT were replaced in 1980 by the new hatchback Austin Metro, while production of the original "round-front" Mini design continued for another 20 years. At the end of Clubman and 1275 GT production, 275,583 Clubman saloons, 197,606 Clubman Estates and 110,673 1275 GTs had been made.
Australia
For the Australian market, all Minis including the Van gained the Clubman front in 1971 although the car was still basically a Mk I behind the A-Pillar.History of the Clubman GT Retrieved from miniexperience.com.au on 11 February 2010 The Australian van thus became the only Clubman Van produced anywhere in the world. From mid-1971 to the end of 1972, a Clubman GT version of the saloon was produced. This was essentially a Cooper S in Clubman body, equipped with the same disc brakes, twin fuel tanks, and twin-carburettor Cooper S 1,275 cc engine. Australian Clubman saloons were marketed under the Morris Mini Clubman name when introduced in August 1971, and as the Leyland Mini, without the Clubman name, from February 1973.
To end Mini production in Australia, a limited-edition runout model was produced – the 1275LS. Fitted with a pollution control 1,275 cc engine sourced from Europe, the LS had a single carburettor and disc brakes. Production of this model commenced in July 1978 and concluded in October 1978 with an approximate total of 810 vehicles produced.
End of production
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the British market received numerous "special editions" of the Mini, which shifted the car from a mass-market item into a fashionable icon. It was this image that perhaps helped the Mini become such an asset for BMW, which later bought the remnants of BMC as the
Rover Group
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...
. It was even more popular in Japan, which took the lion's share of the circa 40,000 Minis produced annually in the early 1990s. It was seen there as a retro-cool icon, and inspired many imitators. The ERA Mini Turbo was particularly popular with Japanese buyers.
In 1994, under Bernd Pischetsrieder, a first cousin once removed of Issigonis, BMW took control of the Rover Group, which included the Mini, fitting an
airbag
An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely quickly, then quickly deflate during a collision. It consists of the airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. T ...
to comply with European legislation.
By March 2000, Rover was still suffering massive losses, and BMW decided to dispose of most of the companies. The sell-off was completed in May that year. MG and Rover went to Phoenix, a new British consortium; and
Land Rover
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rove ...
was sold to
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
. BMW retained the Mini name and the planned new model, granting Rover temporary rights to the brand and allowing it to manufacture and sell the run-out model of the old Mini. By April 2000, the range consisted of four versions: the Mini Classic Seven, the Mini Classic Cooper, the Mini Classic Cooper Sport and—for overseas European markets—the Mini Knightsbridge. The last Mini (a red Cooper Sport) was built on 4 October 2000 and presented to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust in December of that year. A total of 5,387,862 cars had been manufactured, nearly 1.6 million of which were sold in the UK, although the majority of these were sold at least 20 years before the Mini's demise, meaning that the majority of those sold had been scrapped before the end of the original Mini's production life.
After the last of the Mini production had been sold, the 'Mini' name passed to BMW ownership.
Mini Hatch
The Mini Hatch, stylised as MINI Hatch (or MINI Hardtop in the U.S.), also sold as Mini Cooper, Mini One, or simply called the (BMW) Mini, are a family of retro-styled two-door supermini hatchback and convertible; and (from 2014) a longer, sub ...
, the new model made by BMW, is technically unrelated to the old car but retains the classic transverse four-cylinder, front-wheel-drive configuration and "bulldog" stance of the original.
The last Mini to leave the Longbridge plant did so in 2012, when a 1970s 1275GT which was used by staff to travel around the car plant was recovered from the disused tunnels under the plant. The car was damaged by a storage container falling on it and had been left without an engine or gearbox for around 30 years before being recovered during work to infill the tunnels. This car was sold at auction in July 2013 for £1400.
Timeline
* August 1959: Introduction of the Austin Seven, Morris Mini-Minor and Morris Mini-Minor DL 2-door saloons, all with transversely mounted 848 cc engine and 4-speed
manual
Manual may refer to:
Instructions
* User guide
* Owner's manual
An owner's manual (also called an instruction manual or a user guide) is an instructional book or booklet that is supplied with almost all technologically advanced consumer ...
gearbox.
* 1960: Introduction of the Austin Seven Countryman and Morris Mini-Minor Traveller 3-door estates, both with 848 cc engine from the saloon models. 116,667 cars built in the first full year of production.
* 1961: Introduction of the Austin Seven Super and Morris Mini-Minor Super 2-door saloons.
* 1961: Introduction of the Austin Mini Cooper and Morris Mini Cooper 2-door saloon, both with larger 997 cc engine.
* October 1961: Introduction of Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet variantsTimeline of the Mini (ADO15) Elf/Hornet variant Elf-hornet-register.co.uk Retrieved 15 February 2016
* January 1962: All former Austin Seven models now officially called Austin Mini.
* March 1962: pvc seat covers replaced cloth upholstery on entry level model ("basic Mini").
* 1962: "De Luxe" and "Super" designations discontinued. "Super de Luxe" designation introduced. Modified instrument panel now included oil pressure and water temperature gauges.
* March 1963: Introduction of the Austin Mini Cooper 1071 S and Morris Mini Cooper 1071 S 2-door saloons, both with larger 1071 cc engine.
* 1964: Introduction of the Mini Moke.
* April 1964: Introduction of the Austin and Morris Mini-Cooper 998, Mini-Cooper 970 S and Mini-Cooper 1275 S. 1275 S models have 1275 cc engine. Automatic transmission available as an option for the 998 cc Austin Mini-Cooper 998 and 1275 S. Previous Mini-Cooper 997 and 1071 S models dropped.
* 1965: Mini Cooper 970 S discontinued.
* October 1965: Automatic transmission now available as an option on standard Austin/Morris Mini and Morris Mini SDL.
* October 1967: Mark 2 range launched with facelift and upgraded equipment. Austin Mini range as follows: 850, 1000, Cooper 998 and Cooper 1275 S 2-door saloons and 1000 Countryman 3-door estate. Morris Mini range as follows: 850, 850 SDL, 1000 SDL, Cooper 998 and Cooper 1275 S 2-door saloons and 1000 Traveller 3-door estate. Optional
automatic transmission
An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...
available on all Austin models (except 850) and Morris Mini 1000 SDL saloon.
* September 1968: Manual four speed gear box with synchromesh on all four forward ratios introduced.
* March 1969: Launch of the Morris Mini K an Australian-only model manufactured in the Australian British Motor Corporation factory at Zetland NSW using 80% local content
* August 1969: Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet variants discontinued
* October 1969: Separate Austin and Morris badging now merged into Mini 850/Mini 1000 badging. Range reduced to: 850, 1000, Clubman, Cooper S and 1275 GT 2-door saloon and Clubman 3-door estate. Optional automatic transmission available on all except 1275 GT.
* Late 1969: The Mini MK3 is introduced in South Africa.Chris Cowan, The cars : Mini MK3, South Africa, 5 April 2020, www.aronline.co.uk Retrieved 22 January 2021 The MK3 combined the booted rear of the Riley Elf / Wolseley Hornet with the standard rounded front of the ADO15 Mini.
* 1980: The Mini becomes the Austin Mini.MINI – A MAJOR FASHION ITEM, www.retrocarsmag.com Retrieved on 3 May 2013
* 1988: The Mini becomes a marque in its own right, although V5 documents often show "Rover" as the marque, this is incorrect.
* October 2000: Mini production ends
Limited editions
From the Mark IV onward, many special limited-production editions of the Mini were offered. These included models that were created to commemorate racing victories or to celebrate an anniversary of the Mini marque. Limited editions generally came equipped with a unique combination of interior and exterior trim and special decals. Examples include Mini 1100 Special, Mini 1000 Special HL (only available in silver colour with black vinyl roof, black cloth upholstery seats with head restraints and walnut interior trim, for Portugal market only), Mini Rio, Mini Mayfair, Mini Park Lane, Mini Cooper RSP, Mini Flame, Mini Red Hot, Mini Jet Black, Mini Racing, Mini Thirty (30) which 3000 examples were produced, 2000 in Red and 1000 in Black and the Mini Monza. There was also a version inspired by ''
The Italian Job
''The Italian Job'' is a 1969 British comedy caper film, written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres around Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, r ...
'', a 1969 film famous for having a trio of Minis in its epic closing car chase.
Concepts and unproduced prototypes
From 1967 to 1979, Issigonis had been designing a replacement for the Mini in the form of an experimental model called the 9X. It was even shorter () and yet still a bit roomier. Designed as a hatchback, and Issigonis designed an all new engine, 50% more powerful than the Mini's, but due to politicking inside
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly ...
(which had now been formed by the merger of BMC's parent company
British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited (BMH) was a British vehicle manufacturing company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC). BMH was created as a holding company following BMC's takeover of both Jaguar Cars and th ...
and the Leyland Motor Corporation), the car always fell victim to other priorities.
A number of prototypes produced for vehicles based on the Mini but which never saw production are held and sometimes displayed at the British Heritage Motor Centre museum at Gaydon, Warwickshire. These included the Twini, a re-engineered four-wheel-drive Moke with two engines—one at the front and another at the back; the
Austin Ant
__NOTOC__
The Austin Ant (development code ADO19) is a small four-wheel drive vehicle that was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis for the motor manufacturer Austin. Although the Ant is widely regarded as a military vehicle, some sources suggest it wa ...
, a second attempt to produce a four-wheel-drive vehicle, this time using a transfer case; and a two-seater convertible MG edition of the Mini, cancelled due to it being perceived as competition for the
MG Midget
The MG Midget is a small two-seater sports car produced by MG from 1961 to 1979. It revived a name that had been used on earlier models such as the MG M-type, MG D-type, MG J-type and MG T-type.
MG Midget MkI (1961–64)
The first version, ...
.
In 1992, a project considering possible improvements to the Mini was started. Codenamed ''Minki'' ("Mini" plus K-Series engine), it included a redesigned dashboard, a two-piece rear door or tailgate instead of a boot, fold down rear seats,
Hydragas
Hydrolastic is a type of space-efficient automotive suspension system used in many cars produced by British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successor companies.
Invented by British rubber engineer Alex Moulton, and first used on the 1962 BMC p ...
suspension and a 3-cylinder version of the K-Series engine with a 5-speed gearbox. However, the project was cancelled by management within Rover, who decided that the cost of engineering the changes, and achieving compliance with modern crash testing standards, was too great for the production volumes that could be expected of an updated Mini.
In 1995 the idea to update the Mini again surfaced but this time with BMW management. As part of the process of deciding how to replace the Mini, a vehicle representing what the current Mini could have become, if it had been developed further over its production history, was commissioned. This resulted in the ''Minki-II'', designed to house the 1.4L MPI K-Series engine with an extensive redesign inside, but without the original Minki's tailgate. The car had to be widened by 50mm and lengthened by 50mm to accommodate the new engine and gearbox, with Hydragas suspension and dashboard from a Rover 100. The Minki-II was used for Hydragas development work, this suspension being considered at the time for the R59 project, later to become the
Mini Hatch
The Mini Hatch, stylised as MINI Hatch (or MINI Hardtop in the U.S.), also sold as Mini Cooper, Mini One, or simply called the (BMW) Mini, are a family of retro-styled two-door supermini hatchback and convertible; and (from 2014) a longer, sub ...
.
Kit cars and customisation
The cheapness and availability of used Minis make it a candidate for body replacement. There are over 120 Mini-based
kit car
A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor ve ...
s from various small companies and individual enthusiasts.
The Outspan Orange is probably one of the most unusual. It was designed and built by Brian Waite Enterprises of Bodiam, East Sussex in 1972 to promote fruit. Several still survive.
Motorsport
BMC operated a Competition Department at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, under the control of Stuart Turner, which built specially prepared Minis (mostly based on Cooper and Cooper S versions) to compete in international rallies and other motorsport. This department played a key role in ensuring the Mini's huge success in motorsport throughout the 1960s, in particular, winning the
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeas ...
in 1964, 1965 and 1967, the
1000 Lakes Rally
Rally Finland (formerly known as the Neste Rally Finland, Neste Oil Rally Finland, 1000 Lakes Rally and Rally of the Thousand Lakes; fi, Suomen ralli, sv, Finska rallyt) is a rally competition in the Finnish Lakeland in Central Finland. The ra ...
in 1965, 1966 and 1967, and dominating all of the first 9 positions in the 1966 Gallaher 500 at Bathurst.
The car also won the
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
,
1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...
,
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
,
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government).
* January 6 ...
British Rally Championship
The British Rally Championship is a rallying series based in the United Kingdom. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the Motor Sports Association (MSA) since 1999. MSA has opted not to run the series in 2015, ins ...
in 1962, 1963 and 1970, the
European Rally Championship
The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship) is an automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
The championship has b ...
Finnish Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
in 1963. The Cooper S also had some success in the
European Touring Car Championship
The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...
, winning in 1964 and 1968, the
Guia Race of Macau
The WTCR Race of Macau, previously Guia Race of Macau and WTCC Guia Race of Macau, is an international touring car race, and currently a round of the World Touring Car Cup. It is held on the temporary 6.2 km Guia Circuit on the streets of Ma ...
(a 1-2-3 finish in 1965, a 1–2 finish in 1970 and a win in 1972), and the
Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trophy ...
, winning its class in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967 and 1968. A further title was the 1971 Sun-7 Chesterfield Series. The Mini also achieved class wins at the
1963 Armstrong 500
The 1963 Armstrong 500 was the fourth running of the Armstrong 500 touring car race. It was held on 6 October 1963. After the 1962 race, the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit was too damaged to continue to stage the race, forcing it to move t ...
, repeating this feat every year until
1969
This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon.
Events January
* January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco.
* January 5
**Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...
, and having class wins at the 1964, 1965 and
1971 Sandown 250 The 1971 Sandown 250 was an endurance motor race open to Group E Series Production Touring Cars. The event was held at the Sandown circuit in Victoria, Australia on 12 September 1971 over 130 laps, approximately 250 miles (403 km).The Age, Mo ...
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo ...
,
1967
Events
January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 5
** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...
and
1969 Trans-Am season
The 1969 Trans-American Championship was the fourth running of the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series. The championship was open to SCCA Sedan category cars competing in Over 2 liter and Under 2 liter classes. 1969 marked the end of the ...
s, improving to 3rd in
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
.
The Mini Cooper S won the
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeas ...
in 1964, 1965 and 1967. Minis initially placed first, second and third in the 1966 rally as well, but were disqualified after a controversial decision by the judges. The disqualification related to the use of a variable resistance
headlamp
A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for ...
dimming circuit in place of a dual-filament lamp. Fourth placed Roger Clark's Ford Cortina was disqualified for the same reason, along with six other cars. The fifth car past the finishing line, a
Citroën DS
The Citroën DS () is a front mid-engined, front-wheel drive executive car manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1955 to 1975, in fastback/sedan, wagon/estate, and convertible body configurations, across three series of one generation.
...
, a model that had won the race previously, was awarded first place – the DS had similar headlamps, but these were standard production equipment on the car – in line with the letter of the rules. The driver of the Citroën,
Pauli Toivonen
Pauli Toivonen (22 August 1929 in Jyväskylä, Finland - 14 February 2005) was a Finnish rally car driver. He drove for Citroën, Lancia and Porsche and had many successes to his credit. Toivonen had two sons, Harri and Henri, both also racing ...
, felt that he had not really "won" the rally. BMC probably received more publicity from the disqualification than they would have gained from a victory.
In rallycross, the Mini finished on the podium in the first ever race, at
Lydden Hill Race Circuit
Lydden Hill Race Circuit (formerly known as Lydden Circuit) is a motorsport venue in Denton with Wootton, about half-way between Canterbury and Dover in Kent, England. The mile-long circuit is mainly used for Rallycross, Drift, Saloon and Spo ...
in February 1967, winning races in the
FIA European Rallycross Championship
FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used.
Fia or FIA may also refer to: People
* Fia Backs ...
in 1974 and 1975. The car competed as late as the
1979 Australian Rallycross Championship The 1979 Australian Rallycross Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing titleone make motor racing championship, having been introduced in 1966. As of 2014, classic Minis are still raced, with other one make races in the UK, Europe and Asia, and in classic events such as the Goodwood Members Meeting. In 2012 a Mini broke the
land speed record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regul ...
. A Mini was used to set a record at the Chateau Impney Hill Climb.
International Rally victories
British Saloon Car Championship titles
European Touring Car Championship titles
Australian endurance racing class wins
Awards
BMC and Issigonis were awarded the
Dewar Trophy
The Dewar Trophy was a cup donated in the early years of the twentieth century by Sir Thomas R. Dewar, M.P. a member of parliament of the United Kingdom (UK), to be awarded each year by the Royal Automobile Club (R. A .C.) of the United Kingdom "t ...
by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) for the innovative design and production of the Mini.
The Mini has won many other awards over the years, including second place in 1999's "Global" Car of the Century award, behind only the Model T Ford. In the same competition, run by the prestigious Global Automotive Elections Foundation, the Mini was selected "European Car of the Century". ''Grassroots Motorsports'' awarded Mini with the Editors' Choice award in 2002. The Mini also received awards for "Car of the Century" (''Autocar (magazine), Autocar'' magazine 1995) and "Number One Classic Car of All Time" (''Classic & Sports Car'' magazine 1996).
In the end 5.3 million Minis were sold, making it the most popular British car ever made.
Sales
At its peak, the Mini was a strong seller in most of the countries where it was sold, with the United Kingdom inevitably receiving the highest volumes. The 1,000,000th Mini came off the production line in 1965, with the 2,000,000th in 1969. The 3,000,000th Mini came off the production line in 1972, with the 4,000,000th in 1976.
It dominated the mini-car market until the arrival of the Hillman Imp in 1963. It outsold the Imp. Competition arrived with the more modern and practical Vauxhall Chevette of 1975, but the Mini continued to sell well until its "replacement"—the Austin Metro, Metro—arrived in 1980. By this time, the Mini's design had been overtaken by numerous more modern and practical vehicles.
Although the Metro did not replace the Mini, production figures for the Mini dipped during the 1980s, and interest in the design was not revived until the reintroduction of the Mini Cooper in 1990. This helped sales of the Mini through the 1990s, to the end of production on 4 October 2000.
A total of 1,581,887 Minis were sold in the UK after its launch in 1959. The last new one to be registered was sold in 2004, some four years after the end of production.
The highest price ever paid for a Mini was at a Bonhams auction in 2007, when a works rally-prepared Mini (DJB 93B) sold for £100,500 ($196,980).
United States and Canada
Between 1960 and 1967, BMC exported approximately 10,000 left-hand drive BMC Minis to the United States. Sales were discontinued when stricter federal safety standards were imposed in 1968 and the arrival of the larger and more profitable Austin America. Mini sales fell in the 1967 calendar year and the US importer was expecting the forthcoming Austin America to find a larger market. The America was also withdrawn in 1972 due to slow sales and the introduction of bumper-height standards. Mini sales continued in Canada until 1980. MkIII variants, as with their UK counterparts remained badged as a "Mini" (no distinction between Austin or Morris), and in 1976 with the takeover of British Leyland, became British Leyland Minis (MkIV). Leyland Minis also were subject to stricter government regulation with high bumpers, large turn indicators, warning buzzers and lights for seat belts and also a fitting of air pollution pumps which required a specially designed radiator.
Today the U.S. Government exempts cars older than 25 years Grey import vehicle#United States, from all import laws, so older Minis can be freely imported. The Government of Canada, Canadian government applies a similar rule after 15 years.
Safety record
Issigonis designed the Mini with an emphasis on Automobile safety#Active and passive safety, active safety. Asked about the crashworthiness of the Mini, he said: "I make my cars with such good brakes, such good steering, that if people get into a crash it's their own fault" and "I don't design my cars to have accidents".
In July 1965 British Motor Corporation, BMC announced that following "comments by safety experts" about the Mini's external door handles, these would be modified on new cars so that the gap between the handle and the door panel would be effectively closed.
Nicholas Faith states in his book that Murray Mackay, one of the UK's leading motor vehicle crash and safety researchers, was critical of the pre-1967 Mini's Automobile safety#Passive safety, passive safety features, including the protruding filler cap, the door latch, and the vulnerability of the passenger space to engine intrusion.
The Mini was withdrawn from the American market because it could not meet the 1968 U.S. safety regulations and emission standards, and although often updated, not sufficiently to comply with U.S. regulations. It continued to be sold in Canada until 1980.
The Mini was modified during its production to improve its safety. In 1974 a prototype Mini experimental safety vehicle was built, the Mini Clubman SRV4. It featured a longer crumple zone, a "pedestrian friendly" front-end, run-flat tyres, strengthened door sills, extra internal padding and recessed door handles, the latter having been used earlier on Australian-built Minis owing to local laws. William Daniels (automotive engineer), Jack Daniels, one of the original Issigonis team, is stated to have been working on further safety improvements for the Mini when he retired in 1977. Several times it was thought that safety regulations would stop Mini production. Safety improved in 1996, with the introduction of
airbag
An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely quickly, then quickly deflate during a collision. It consists of the airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. T ...
s and side-impact bars. The Mini, challenged by increasingly demanding European safety and pollution standards, was planned by British Aerospace to be taken out of production in 1996, but BMW chose to invest to keep the Mini legal until the launch of a Mini Hatch, new model.
In January 2007 ''Which?'' magazine listed the Mini City in its "Ten worst cars for safety (since 1983)" list, alongside other economical, lightweight, fuel-efficient cars like the Hyundai Pony, Hyundai Pony 1.2L, Fiat Panda, Fiat Panda 900 Super, Suzuki Alto, Suzuki Alto GL, Daihatsu Domino, Citroën AX, Citroën AX 11 RE, Zastava Koral, Yugo 45 and 55, Peugeot 205, Peugeot 205 GL, and the
Citroën 2CV
The Citroën 2CV (french: link=no, deux chevaux(-vapeur), , lit. "two steam horse(power)s", meaning "two ''taxable'' horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive, economy family car, introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial d ...
6.
A UK Department for Transport statistics publication, presenting estimates of the risk of driver injury in two-car injury collisions, based on reported road accident data, estimated that the 1990–2000 Mini was one of two small cars (the other being the Hyundai Atos, Hyundai Atoz), which, with an estimated 84% of drivers likely to be injured, presented the greatest risk of driver injury; the average risk for the small car category was 76%.
50th anniversary
Several key events marked the 50th anniversary of the Mini in 2009. On 13 January 2009, the Royal Mail released a limited edition of stamps entitled "British Design Classics", featuring an original, egg-shell blue, MK1 Mini, registration XAA 274. On 17 May, a world record parade of 1,450 Minis congregated at Crystal Palace, London, Crystal Palace as part of a London to Brighton run. The following week, 10,000 Minis and 25,000 people attended an anniversary party at Silverstone Circuit on the border of Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.
Between 7 and 10 August 2009 approximately 4000 minis from around the world congregated at Longbridge Birmingham to celebrate the 50th anniversary. On 26 August 2009, smallcarBIGCITY launched in London to provide sightseeing tours of the capital in a fleet of restored Mini Coopers.
See also
* Mini (Mark I)
* List of Mini-based cars
* List of best-selling vehicle nameplates
* London to Brighton events
* List of Mini limited editions
*
Mini Hatch
The Mini Hatch, stylised as MINI Hatch (or MINI Hardtop in the U.S.), also sold as Mini Cooper, Mini One, or simply called the (BMW) Mini, are a family of retro-styled two-door supermini hatchback and convertible; and (from 2014) a longer, sub ...
* International Mini Meet
References
External links
Austin Memories nbsp;– History of Austin and Longbridge
Heritage Motor Centre nbsp;– A collection of British heritage cars and artefacts, including many historic Minis, Mini prototypes, and an Issigonis collection.
*
Issigonis and the 1,000,000th mini (Pathé News, Pathé newsreel)
The Last Minis – The history of the Mk.7 Mini models produced from 1996 to 2000
Audio recording of a Mini 1000 engine (Automatic model) circa 1971
{{Rover Cars
1960s cars
1970s cars
1980s cars
1990s cars
2000s cars
BMC vehicles
British Leyland vehicles
Austin vehicles
Front-wheel-drive vehicles
Issigonis vehicles
Mini vehicles
Rally cars
Touring cars
Cars introduced in 1959
Cars powered by transverse 4-cylinder engines
City cars