The History of the Mini

An engineer with the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in the 1950s had a dream that a small car would be put outside the house of every working person.  The car that Alec Issigonis designed eventually stood outside everything from a palace to a hovel.  With a limited budget, he often sketched engineering plans on the back of envelopes, Issigonis and his team worked against the clock to get the car into production.  Sir Alec died in 1988, but his car lives on.

The Mini was attractive to both tuners and racers.  Leading this group was John Cooper.  In 1959 and 1960 he was the World Champion Formula One racing car constructor and had had personal success in his 500cc special.  Cooper felt strongly enough to go to the chairman of BMC, to ask if he could build a run of four seater GTs, after a brief meeting the chairman said ‘yes, go away and do it’.

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