Sometimes good things come from crises, and one of them was the beginning of a new way of building cars. The event was the brief 1956 Middle East war known as the Suez Crisis, which resulted in the Suez Canal being closed for seven months. As an important oil shipping route to Britain, it precipitated an oil shortage there.
In response, British Motor Corp.鈥檚 head Sir Leonard Lord wanted a really economical car to vanquish those 鈥渉orrid little bubble cars鈥� such as Isettas and Messerschmitts. To design it, he chose Alec Issigonis, a gifted Greek-born, no-nonsense, autocratic and unorthodox BMC engineer. He would be one of the last people to personally engineer a whole car.
Issigonis鈥檚 mandate was that everything could be new except the engine, which must be an existing BMC unit. In less than 18 months, Issigonis demonstrated his prototype to Sir Leonard. Lord was delighted and ordered production to begin within a year.
The car was introduced in the summer of 1959 with Austin Seven (initially spelled Se7en) and Morris Mini-Minor badges, later just Mini. With a cross-mounted engine and front-wheel drive, it set a new trend in modern automobile packaging. This brilliant stroke set the direction for much of the automotive world.
It was the ultimate in space utilization, a 鈥渢wo box鈥� layout in which one box held the entire drivetrain and the other the passengers and luggage.
Placing the BMC A-Series four cylinder engine crosswise in front, sharing the engine sump with the transmission, and driving the front wheels yielded the most compact driveline possible. Tiny 10 inch wheels and rubber cone suspension (later replaced by a more sophisticated interconnected front to rear fluid-filled 鈥淗ydrolastic鈥� type) encroached little on interior space.
It produced a car that could carry four passengers and a reasonable amount of luggage within only 3,048 millimetres in overall length and a 2,032-mm wheelbase. It weighed just 608 kilograms and provided a tolerable, if not plush, ride.
While Issigonis disdained styling, regarding it as a tool of obsolescence, the Mini nevertheless had a basic functional cuteness that was appealing almost in spite of itself.
Another Mini attribute was excellent handling. Its small size made it very manoeuvrable and easy to park. And leech-like cornering soon prompted motoring鈥檚 sportier elements to seek more performance than the tiny 848-cc, 37-horsepower engine provided. It attracted the attention of engine tuner and race car builder John Cooper, who had two Formula 1 constructor鈥檚 championships to his credit.
Cooper was an old friend of Issigonis, and while Issigonis was initially cool toward a faster Mini, he agreed to team up with Cooper to invigorate the Mini. The result was the Mini Cooper of 1961 powered by a 55-horsepower, 998-cc twin carburetor engine that raised top speed from 121 to 137 km/h.
The Mini Cooper delighted the motoring press, turned Issigonis into a performance enthusiast and found immediate favour with racers and rallyists. It was so easy to drive quickly that regular Mini owners began embarrassing drivers of expensive sports cars who found those little gnats extremely difficult to shake off.
Encouraged by this success, work soon began on an even faster Mini, the Mini Cooper S of 1963. It was initially intended for competition only and came in engine displacements of 970, 1071 and 1,275 cc. But the S was so good that customer demand dictated it be offered to the public. The 1,275-cc version became the production model.
The Mini Cooper S was a sensation, a car that could go like the wind and be flung around corners with abandon. According to Road & Track, it sprinted to 100 km/h in 10.5 seconds and reached a top speed of 158 km/h. Those buzzing little bumble bees became an overnight success in rallying and sedan racing.
The S dominated European rallying until the late 1960s, with Paddy Hopkirk being one of the fastest Mini pilots. Hopkirk was so entranced with the car that he later went into business producing rebuilt pre-1966 models. The name was almost as long as the car: Paddy Hopkirk Mini Cooper S Works Replica.
The S was also a popular choice in sedan racing, where it outran bigger and allegedly faster cars.
With the introduction of the heavier 1967 Mark II Mini the S lost some of its edge. Competition was also getting much stronger by this time.
The original Mini continued in production until 2000, and is loved by enthusiasts to this day. Those tiny muscle cars race in vintage competition where they can still embarrass bigger cars.
The Mini created such a lasting legacy that a modern version was revived in 2002 by its new owner, BMW, and has enjoyed much popularity in its reincarnated form.
