My digest reception has been a little intermittent recently, so I'll hope
you'll excuse possible duplication, but I couldn't let this important event
pass unnoticed.
Today the last Mini will roll off the assembly line at Longbridge, 31 years
after the first one. In this time 5,000,000 have been built, apart from
production in Belgium, by Innocenti in Italy, plastic bodied ones in Chile,
Mokes in Portugal and countless other derivatives all round the world. Its
tranverse engine and transmission set the mechanical layout for all small
cars to come (although they may have got the gearbox wrong) and showed that
small cars could be roomy, fast and cool, if not profitable.
Its success turned Issigonis into a celebrity, and he was quick to claim all
the credit for it. But he was more than a little lucky. The Mini was born
out of the post-Suez bubble-car boom, and Issigonis himself called it his
"midwife's car". Not a great image! When it was launched it was dismissed as
a bubble-car. It was not very fast, indeed the engine capacity was reduced
from 998 to 850cc before launch to keep the speed down. Its eventual success
was down to four things, only one of which Issigonis had a hand in (the
rubber suspension he had experimented with on his hillclimb car): handling,
receptiveness to tuning because of its light weight, which John Cooper
discovered, its suitability as a city car, and its image, boosted by people
like Pete Sellers, the Beatles etc.
Bye bye Mini - a great little car!
Paul.
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