Small nippy, and not a little quirky, launched in 1959 and enjoying a resurgence thanks to a revival in 2001 the 60's icon is now more popular than ever,
Britain's Mini (renamed Mini at relaunch) has had a long and interesting history during the five decades since the first Alec Issigoni dreation roled off the production line. Minis have been produced in many formats from city delivery vans to military vehicles, in the form of the Mini Moke, to canvases for artistic embellishment.
From the design board in 1959, the car had a minimalist philosophy. The first two models, called the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor, didn't evan pocess a radio. The dashboard was fitted with just three instruments: a speedometer, odometer, and fuel gauge. And even an interior heater was an optional extra. Such space-saving measures meant that 80 percent of the Mini's floor space was available to passengers, allowing the diminuitive car to hold four adults plus luggage.
The two original Mini models came from different factories. The Austin Seven was built at the Austin Longbridge plant in Birmingham, while the Morris Mini-Minor came from the Morris's Cowley plant in Oxford. The car struggled during it's first year with sales of less than 20,000 were made in 1959.
It was courtesy of Queen Elizabeth that the Mini rose to prominence following her ride in a Mini, sales began to take off. Among the first customers to discover the virtues of the compact Morris Mini van were trades people who found its size and carying capacity ideal for narrow city streets. Soon the vans were being used by the Royal Mail, resulting in over half-million mini vans finding their way onto our roads.
The Mini took to the race track when looking for a car to compete with the Lotus Elite - the car to beat in British racing events at the time - race car maker John Cooper struck a deal with British Motor to come up with a high performance Cooper model which was sold through a test run of a 1,000 units. The beefed up car, initially known as the Austin Seven Cooper, had a top speed of 84 miles per hour, compared with a maximum of 75 mph for the original Minis, and offered stronger brakes to handle the increased engine output.
The Mini had been trying to score a first place win at the Monte Carlo Rally since 1960. Paddy Hopkirk made John Cooper proud when he won Europe's most challenging rally driving a red Cooper S four years later. Teammates Timo Makinen and Rauno Aaltonen came in fourth and seventh, respectively. The Cooper further rose to fame with it's staring roll in Italian Job, a film that had a little known actor Michael Cain as the co-star!
The last of the original Minis, was made in 2000. Car enthusiasts mourned the end of a cult classic that had sold, nearly 5.4 million in the car's lifetime.
Mini lovers,as it turned out, wouldn't have long to wait until the car reappeared. In 2001, BMW relaunched the brand with an entirely new and far more sophisticated design and changed the name to MINI. The MINI was an instant hit, and in subsequent years BMW brought out derivatives, such as the 2004 convertible model.
One of the most iconic features of the Mini is its simple dashboard. The speedometer is located in the center of the instrument panel, a feature carried through on the 2001 relaunch of BMW's MINI.
With production at the Cowley plant reaching a record 200,000 units in 2005 and the MINI branded 'Mini Adventures' appeared in ads, and on the streets of major cities the world over.
In keeping with the long tradition of linking the Mini with celebrities, BMW unveiled a George Harrison MINI in May 2009. The one-off car, paid an homage to the late Beatles member, who received a Mini from Beatles manager Brian Epstein as a gift in 1966 and had it painted with Sanskrit mantras and yantras. Harrison's Mini, appeared in the Beatles film "Magical Mystery Tour."
The new MINI was given to Harrison's widow Olivia, who will auction it off later this year to raise money for Harrison's Material World Charitable Foundation, which he formed in 1973.