The Mini was launched in 1959 to be the British Motor Corp’s equivalent of the bubble car that was beginning to appear on our roads. They had come along as a direct result of the Suez Crisis in 1956 as petrol was being rationed. Leonard Lord the boss of BMC wanted a car that would take the bubble models off the road. So he asked Alec Issigonis, designer of the Morris Minor to come up with a design that would seat four people use an existing engine and be smaller than anything else the corporation had made. Little did they know their design would create a big debate in the future, as to which car was better, the traditional used Mini or the modern BMW version.

When designing the now used Minis Issigonis made sure that most of the car’s ten foot length accommodated its four passengers, leaving very little for the engine and gearbox. But by placing the car’s engine sideways and placing the gearbox underneath it would just manage to fit in. Issigonis wanted most of the cars weight to be at the front of the vehicle to enhance stability and with the rubber suspension this created the Mini’s well-known nimbleness.

The mini had to overcome many difficulties however for it to be successful like it became. The drive shafts within the Mini were heavily inspired by submarine’s periscope mechanisms. The tyres were created by Dunlop in order to last more than five thousand miles. Even the oil of the Mini had to be adapted to work and be shared in both the engine and the gear box.

Just two years later the Mini began to come off production lines and it was launched as the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven in August 1959. The first models were cheaper than its rivals such as the Ford Popular but people were put off by its intricacy. It was only when film stars and bands such as The Beatles began to be seen in Minis that its popularity began to take off.

The Mini is now directly associated with sixties Britain and its success was so large that it began to be manufactured all over the world. The word Mini itself also became prominent in the sixties and was shared with the popular skirt around at that time. Yet the progress of the Mini was quite slow it didn’t have wind-up windows for nine years after it was launched. It seemed that BMC wanted to focus on other cars models than the Mini Cooper such as the Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet. The Cooper was then dropped in 1971.

Despite this, the Mini kept selling and more so during the fuel crisis in 1973. Since BMW have taken over the Mini there have been significant changes to its design. The engine has been upgraded, shifting the radiator to the front of the car to make it quieter and adding safety features such as airbags and seat-belt pretensioners. Some fans of the Mini argue that the changes have stopped the new Mini from being as good as the old versions and used Mini’s still kept in good condition.

The Mini is a car that you either or like or hate. Having said that it is very significant in British history and one of the best cars Britain has ever produced. The design also has had a massive impact on any smaller cars designs on the road today. Mini enthusiasts seem to be found up and down the country, collecting both new and used Minis alike.

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Shaun Parker is an engineer with many years of experience in the car industry. Find out more about used minis at http://www.coopermini.co.uk

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