Wizardry on Wheels a Great British Icon

The humble British icon the Mini will celebrate its 60th anniversary in August this year (2019). Lets have a look at the history of the Mini.

 

Due to the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Government announced in November that year that petrol rationing would be introduced the following month. This affected car sales in Britain, and seen the arrival of so called Bubble type cars imported which due to their small size they had excellent fuel economy. Leonard Lord the Chairman of the British Motor Corporation Ltd or BMC for short seen that there was a market for a smaller car, so he instructed Alec Issigonis to design a fuel efficient car smaller than the Austin A35 and Morris Minor which could carry four adults, and use engines already built within BMC. Alec was given just 30 months to have the new car originally coded X9003 ready for production!

 

Alec gathered a small team of engineers including Jack Daniels to work on the project. It took six months to design and have the first running prototype car built. Alec gave Leonard Lord a short drive in the first prototype car around the grounds of the Longbridge factory, at the end of the drive, Lord was happy with the new car and told Alec ''go away and build it''.

 

It is believed that only two prototype X9003 cars were built and nicknamed ''orange boxes'' because they were pained orange, to disguise them, they had Austin A35 grilles fitted. The project was renamed ADO15 the letters denoted Austin Drawing Office because all the design, development and testing was transferred to the Longbridge plant near Birmingham.I do not know if the Mini design had commenced at Cowley or Longbridge? Further prototypes and preproduction ADO15 cars were built.

 

On Wednesday 26th August 1959 the new baby BMC car was launched to the world, when all the daily newspapers published articles about the new car, this was known as Mini day. BMC had launched their new car to the world press at Chobham test track in Surrey, I guess the day before. The Austin version was called Austin Seven, and the Morris version called Morris Mini-Minor both had the same price of £497 (basic model) and were identical apart from badges and the front grille. The Mini had a top speed of 70mph and a quoted fuel economy of 50mpg, in reality 40mpg was the realistic figure. Believe it or not BMC considered developing a diesel version of the A Series engine to be used in the Mini, sadly this never became a reality.

 

Wizardry on Wheels was the advertising slogan used for the new Mini. Alex `Issigonis had re-wrote the design of a small car with the Mini which measured 10ft in length and the width was just 4ft 7in, allowing a 31ft turning circle. The 848cc 34bhp A-Series engine was mounted transverse or east-west at the front with the gearbox and final drive mounted in the sump giving the Mini front wheel-drive and allowing 80% of the Mini to carry four adults and luggage. The Mini used 10inch diameter wheels at each corner which Dunlop had to develop special tyres. The Mini used hydraulic brakes on all four wheels and independent rubber cone suspension developed by Alex Moulton. The Mini had a large amount of storage space inside the car, with deep door pockets made possible by using sliding side windows, there was even storage under the rear seat. The Mini was built at Longbridge Birmingham (Austin) and Cowley Oxford (Morris). Two versions were originally offered basic and de-luxe.

 

The new Mini was not an immediate sales success after the launch, this was not helped when things went wrong for BMC's little baby, due to rushing it into production, the development period was too short to undertake a through test programme, the first year's customers were doing the last year of testing. The main problem was the design of the floor which allowed water in, other problems: engine mountings, oil leaks contaminating the clutch, exhausts snapping, side windows falling out, and part of the front suspension breaking at alarming rates. The biggest mistake BMC made with the Mini, was no profit margin! for every Mini sold, they lost £30, and that was before warranty claims! management hoped that high production volume would deal with that! BMC managed to rectify all the problems, apart from no profit! The Mini was a very expensive car to build, something BMC management seem to overlook.

 

During the swinging sixties a whole range of new versions of the Mini were introduced: in the 1960 came the Mini van 10 inches longer than the standard Mini, followed by the estate versions Morris Mini-Minor Traveller and Austin Seven Countryman. In 1961 a pickup version of the Mini was introduced along with the upmarket Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf models for small mined snobs who found the Mini intriguing but the name of Austin or Morris offensive.

 

The most important Mini was introduced in 1961, the Mini Cooper powered by a 997cc version of the A-Series engine. BMC needed to build 1000 Coopers for motorsport homologation, they sold these Coopers within a few weeks of them going on sale! In 1962 the Austin Seven was renamed Austin Mini, in the same year the Mini won the Tulip Rally. In 1963 came the Mini Cooper S, a more powerful version of the standard Cooper model powered by a 1071cc A-Series engine. In 1964 the Mini won the Monte Carlo Rally and the same year saw the launch of the Mini Moke aimed at the Army!. The rubber cone suspension was replaced in 1964 with the Hydrolastic suspension in hope it would give the Mini a better ride, it did not and the Mini revered back to the rubber suspension.

 

In 1965 the one millionth Mini rolled off the production line, the second British car to archive this, the first was the Morris Minor which was also designed by Alec Issigonis. The Mini was the car of the sixties and the one to be seen in. Many celebrities owned Minis including: Mick Jagger, Peter Sellers, The Beatles, Lord Snowden, and Patrick Litchfield.

 

In 1966, BMC merged with Jaguar and became British Motor Holdings. In 1967, the Mk2 Mini was introduced.

 

In May 1968, British Motor Holdings (BMH) were on the brink of bankruptcy, the Labour Government persuaded the Leyland Motor Corporation to merge with BMH to form British Leyland Motor Corporation better known as British Leyland or just BL for short. Surprising the Mini was still not making a profit. To help to keep production costs down, full Mini production was transferred to Longbridge. I must mention that the last car to be designed by the British Motor Holdings and the first car to be launched by British Leyland was the Austin Maxi.

 

The Mini would be the star of new Paramount film in 1968 and released in June the following year. The film was The Italian Job Written by Troy Kennedy Martin, Directed by Peter Collinson, Produced by Michael Deeley, Music by Quincy Jones and starring Michael Caine, Noel Coward and Benny Hill along with three red, white and blue Mini Cooper S cars, plus a Harrington Legionnaire Bedford VAL coach registered ALR 453B. Paramount approached British Motor Holdings prior to the Leyland merger to ask if they would supply the cars in return they would have the best free advert. BMH said they would supply six Coopers at trade price! An interesting fact, Mk1 Coopers were used in the film, rather than Mk2 models. The film cost £3,5 million to make and due to poor advertising was not the success that Paramount thought it would be, hence there was no sequel.

 

Alec Issigonis commenced work in 1967 on pet project coded 9X to replace the Mini, in 1969 the first and only prototype 9X was built. It was slightly smaller than the Mini and had a hatchback. Sadly management at BL decided not to put 9X into production, due to the huge costs it would have taken.

 

In 1969, the two millionth Mini rolled off the production line, in the same year the Mk3 Mini was introduced along with a new model, the Mini Clubman. To round off 1969, the Mini become a marque in it's own right.

 

British Leyland replaced the Mini Cooper in 1971 with the Mini 1275GT to save paying John Cooper a £2 royalty! The three millionth Mini rolled off the production line 1972. During the seventies the Mini went through a series of improvements both mechanically and to the interior trim. In 1975, the Labour Government took over British Leyland as they were on the brink of bankruptcy. The Government invested £1.8 billion into BL, which would see a new range of cars designed for the eighties. One project was LC8 the replacement for the Mini, which became the Austin Metro launched in 1980. The four millionth Mini rolled off the production line in 1978. To help promote the Mini, a number of well known celebrities were used in television commercials including Kenneth Williams, Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan, Spike was a Mini enthusiast and owned many different types of Minis, indeed the very last Mini he owned a 1988 yellow Mayfair model is advertised for sale by Brooklands Cars for £49,996. Production of the estate version of the Mini ceased at the end of the seventies.

 

I mentioned that the Austin Metro was launched in 1980, management decided that production of the Mini would be discontinued in 1982, this did not happen because the Mini was still popular and making a profit.

 

The car division of BL was renamed Austin Rover during the early eighties. The Mini gained 12in diameter wheels in 1984. The five millionth Mini rolled of the production line in 1986, in the same year British Leyland was renamed the Rover Group, and the car division became Rover Cars. This was so the Government could sell off each part of the company.

 

British Aerospace bought Rover Cars in 1988, and in 1990, the Mini Cooper was re-introduced. In 1994, British Aerospace sold Rover to BMW, the future looked good for Rover with a huge investment by the new owners. Towards the end of the nineties it was announced that a new Mini was under development. BMW decided to sell Rover due to huge losses, the company was bought from BMW by a management led team. The sad news, was the new Mini would be launched by BMW in September 2000, production of the original Mini ceased on the morning of 4th October 2000, 41 years after it was launched, 5,387,862 Minis had been built in 41 years! The very last Mini off the Longbridge production line that day was a Mini Copper which was driven by sixties model Twiggy.

 

BMW built a brand new assembly plant on the site of the old Cowley factory to build the new Mini, the post code of the Mini Plant is OX4 6NL if you go onto Google Maps and type in the post code you will be able to see images of the Mini Plant.

 

My view shows 621 AOK a Morris Mini-Minor in old English white which is the very first production Morris Mini-Minor built at the Cowley factory at the end of March 1959, chassis number 101 (no VIN numbers back then!). Some people claim that the first production Mini was built at Longbridge, the first built there was on 3rd April 1959. The location of 621 AOK is a Boulevard in Oxford called St Giles which diverts at the end into Woodstock Road. Apart from car manufacturing, Oxford is also famous for the ITV Detective Drama series Inspector Morse created by Colin Dexter and staring the late John Thaw as Inspector Morse, John Thaw also started in another ITV Detective Drama series from the seventies The Sweeney.

 

Copyright BMW Group

 

Notes:-

 

British Motor Corporation Ltd (BMC) was formed in 1952 with the agreed merger of Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation who owned Morris, Morris Commercial, MG, Riley, Wolseley, Nuffield Tractors, and S.U. Carburettor Co.

 

In 1966, British Motor Corporation merged with Jaguar Cars Ltd and became British Motor Holdings. In May 1968, Leyland Motor Corporation at the request of the Labour Government merged with British Motor Holdings to form British Leyland Motor Corporation. In 1975, the Labour Government took over British Leyland Motor Corporation, and it was renamed British Leyland or BL for short.

 

During the life of British Leyland, the car division had various names: Leyland Cars, Austin Rover, and Rover Cars. When Rover Cars was sold to British Aerospace, it was renamed Rover Group, when BMW sold the company to the management buyout in 2000, the company was renamed MG Rover.

 

Three years after British Motor Corporation Ltd was formed all new car designs was transferred to the Longbridge plant, which was much more modern than the Cowley plant. At this stage all new car projects were allocated ADO designations and then a number, the Mini was ADO15. The letters denote Austin Drawing Office.

Done