[Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis

Mon Jan 31 13:08:22 MST 2011

Thanks Gerry.
But what I get from this is that the BMW Mini is not British at all.  Except 
for a few part here and there and a similar exterior design, it is pretty 
much "GERMAN".  I think almost all manufacturers of cars buy parts made in 
other countries, but I don't think because a Toyota or any of it's parts are 
made in the USA, that it is an American car.  Nor a VW made in Mexico, is a 
Mexican car.  In fact it would seem that the only thing that truly has 
British heritage on the Mini is the name "Mini", as your description below 
would attest.  I don't know if Cooper was the designer of the BMW Mini, but 
even that would not change if it was British or not, since Pininfarina was 
the designer of many non Italian cars that are not considered Italian 
including the Jaguar, and Rolls-Royce.
Please, don't get me wrong.  I love the Mini, British, or German.  I had an 
occasion back in 1970 to be hitch hiking in Sweden and was picked up by a 
Swed driving a Dodge Charger.  After a few miles of back country roads a 
Mini came up behind and past us.  Well this Swed was not going to be outdone 
by a little cracker box so off we went.  And after about 5 miles of twisting 
Swedish roads he gave up.  I was so pumped up by the adrenaline rush caused 
by the chase I was shaking when he dropped my off in the middle of no where. 
At that point I realized, that "might does not make right" and fell crazy in 
love with the Mini.
Clif
74 JH

-----Original Message----- 
From: G. Mugele
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 11:03 AM
To: North Bay British Car Club
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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