[Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis

[Alan and Paula Spencer]

Good lecture!  FYI, my understanding is that BMW acquired Rover in order to
gain 
access to the advanced valve technology that Rover shared with Honda
through 
their joint venture.  Honda was as outraged as most of Britain that
Rover would 
sold off as it was.

Cheers,

Alan 
________________________________
From: G. Mugele <mewgull at sonic.net>
To: North
Bay British Car Club <nobbc at autox.team.net>
Sent: Mon, January 31, 2011
11:03:25 AM
Subject: [Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis

Ahem... 
well Greg, you have the virtue of youth; you're not old enough to 
really have
this down.  However, it was not as straight-forward as all that.

BMC built
the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor at a couple plants in England
beginning in '59 or so.  The Morris quickly acquired the sobriquet 'Mini" in
popular UK vernacular.  Very soon afterward the Austin also became the
'Mini.'  
I can only guess that the appellation was the result of how people
described 
them.  Anyway... as the popularity grew BMC did some badge
engineering and also 
marketed the Riley Elf and the Wolseley Hornet, giving
them some hideous fins 
and other awkward cosmetics.  Those poor cousins were
also called Minis.  Not 
long after the initial introduction, BMC upped the
displacement to a throbbing 
hunk of iron displacing 998cc and called it the
Austin Mini Cooper or the Morris 
Mini Cooper.  Those soon  became simply
"Mini Coopers."  Time and popularity 
soon brought us many variants as well as
more and more powerful versions.  Those 
sporty ones were labeled with things
like 'S' and '1275 S.'

Around the time or shortly after BMC became British
Leyland, the company 
formally adopted the Mini name and the cars were sold
under the 'Mini' label.  
Of course by then there were variants all over the
world: Italy, Spain, Chile, 
New Zealand, Belgium and a number of other
countries all had plants.  Some were 
factory and some were built under
license (Innocenti). I don't know who made the 
Mini Moke but I suspect that
it was an official BMC product.

In the 90s BMW became the parent company by
buying Land Rover (Rover Group) from 
British Aerospace.  At that time Rover
Group was owner of what was left of BMC.  
I suspect BMW bought Rover to cover
for the lack of an SUV in the market.  When 
BMW introduced the X5 they
quickly dumped Land Rover on Ford and at the same 
time sold the rest of Rover
Group
(including MG) to some British consortium.  But BMW decided to keep the
Mini 
name and opted to build a new model.  The original Mini was out of
production by 
2000 or so.

The BMW Mini is related only in layout and
appearance.

BTW mine was a '61 Mini Cooper.  It was grossly overpowered :)
with that 55 HP 
beast under the hood.  I am amazed that I survived owning
that incredibly fun 
little car: it inspired spirited driving well beyond my
skills at the time.  
These days, with 400+ HP engines relatively commonplace,
it's hard to imagine 
that 50 years ago 100 horsepower was a real handful,
especially in our LBCs.

This concludes todays lecture.

Gerry






On Jan
31, 2011, at 8:22 AM, Greg Tatarian wrote:

> I'll let John answer to tell you
what he wants to call his MINI, but here's the 
>deal on these cars (I know as
we have a 2011 Mini John Cooper Works (JCW) 
>Hardtop;
> 
> The car company is
"MINI", which as owned by BMW differentiates its name from 
>the original
"Mini", which, short version here, was made both by Austin and 
>Morris in the
UK, and other companies overseas under license during the day.

G. Mugele
mewgull at mugele.net

*** "Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things. One is
that God loves you and 
you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is
the most awful, dirty 
thing on the face of the earth and you should save it
for someone you love." --  
Butch Hancock
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