The Mini Cooper Story. This clearly resulted in short oil provisions and then, the popularity of sma

The idea behind the genius mind of Alex Issigonis when he designed the Mini, was to create a people’s car, as Volkswagen did it before with Ferdinand Porsche’s drawings, but he did not realized that his magnificent creation was going to change the concept of motoring forever.

Issigoni’s idea was a response to the Middle East crisis, when Arabs started to realize that they could have control over the world energy supplies. In 1956 they decided to take control of the Suez Canal and later they blew up the pipeline that from Syria provided nearly the twenty percent of the United Kingdom oil supply.

This clearly resulted in short oil provisions and then, the popularity of small cars started to extend in all Europe.

The Fiat 500 in Italy and in Germany the microcars or “Bubblecars” as the BMW Isetta and Messerschmitt, started to get the little European roads by storm.

Apart from that, the cars with engine with no more than 1.000 cc when up nearly four times in that period.

For alec Issigonis, the best example to follow was the evolution of the Fiat 500, that’s the new Fiat 600, that can accommodate four people with no issues.

Issigonis idea was to place the engine and gearbox into a space no longer that two feet of the complete length of the vehicle. His idea was to place it transversely.

The production of the Mini started on May 8, 1959 at the Cowley premises, and the launch was decided to be three months later, in august 26, the same day that the Austin A-35 went out of production.

Amazingly the price was established in 496 pound sterling, that’s 93 pounds cheaper than Ford’s new car for the same segment, the Anglia 105E that was launched at 589 punds. For that time it was a lot of money considering the total price of the car.

The Mini body was all steel unitary built, being the body pressings made by Fischer and Ludlow Ltd, a company established in 1954.

John Cooper was aware of Issigoni’s development and he contacted BMC, trying to persuade them to loan him with an early production unit, as Cooper had the feeling about the racing potential of this little machine.

Morris was already John Cooper’s provider of the engines for his Formula Junior cars, so there was already a deep relationship between both.

Cooper did a prototype with the Mini, in which he changed the series engine and placed a 997 cc of the Formula Junior engines he was already using. Also he replaced the front drum brakes for 7 inches Lockheed disc brakes. Cooper was creating a little monster.

All tests were a success, so Cooper asked for Issigonis support in order to ask BMC to produce a limited edition of one thousand units required to meet the homologation for Group 2 regulations.

Cooper got an answer that never expected from Issigonis, and the argument was that he created a car that was never designed to be a racing car, so he would not help with this project.

Cooper did not stoped with Issigonis lack of cooperation and went straight to Sir George Harriman, BMC managing director, and he agreed to do the thousand units and granted a royalty fee to John Cooper for every unit.

The production started in mid- 1961, and the models could be distinguished from the outside due to the two tone colors that were available for the very first time in a Mini and a slightly different grille. But the greatest change was that they were equipped with twin SU carburettors.

The total production was not the 1000 units that originally John Cooper asked, but of a total of 24,860 Mini with 997 cc, until they were replaced with the new 998 cc types.

Bt the big change came with the development of the new 1071 cc power plant and with this improvement, the Mini Cooper S was able to move to the 1.100 class. This little beast was able now to reach top speeds of 95 mph.

The great worldwide success arrived in 1964 when Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon won the famous Montecarlo Rally.

In March 1964 the 1.275 cc version was launched and was an instant success.The Mini Cooper racing results were amazing but in 1968 Ford introduced the Escort Twin Cam and the opponent was now taking laurels.

BMC merger with Leyland the same year that the Escort was a threat for the Minis and the financial crisis of the group, finally led to the close down of the famous Competition Department in October 1970.

Approximately one third of all the Mini Cooper production was destined to the UK market, while during the history, lots of Minis were exported and now is a true Cult car.