The Mini was a British made car that was incredibly popular in the 1960s, the car was to Britain what the Model T Ford was to America. The Mini started out as a two door car designed by the British Motor Corporation (BMC). The car’s original design came about due to a fuel shortage, which makes the Mini a very fuel efficient car. The car carried a 4 cylinder engine which tops speeds could only reach about 75 MPH.
The First Minis
The MK1 Mini was first introduced to the public in 1957, but was often referred to as the Austin Seven. In other countries the car was known as the Austin 850 and the Morris 850 and even the Austin Partner. In the early 1960s the name was switched to the familiar MK1. The MK1 was financial loss for BMC because they sold the car at less then the production price. In the late 1960s the MKII went into production, it featured larger rear windows and a redesigned front grill. The MKII was a major success and sold almost 500,000 units. The Mini was made famous in the 1969 film, The Italian Job.
The Mini Cooper
John Cooper, owner of the Cooper Car Company, was a designer of formula one racing cars. He felt the Mini had racing potential and teamed with BMC to create the famous Mini Cooper. The car was economic, inexpensive and incredibly popular. Mini coopers have been in production since the early 60s and are still in production today.
The New MINI
In the early 2000s BMW introduced a new Mini redesigned for the 21st century. In 2001 the redesigned MK1 Mini was introduced to the world. The car is also offered in convertible form and has become fairly popular. Although the new Mini is bigger in size then the old Mini it has much worse space efficiency. The New Mini Cooper won the award of North American Car of the Year in 2003. In a life imitating art moment, the remade Mini cooper was featured in the remake of the Italian Job.
The new Minis have come under criticism because of the fact that they are actually bigger then the old Minis. The criticism is not universal, however, and the new Minis continue to be very popular although they do not have the cultural impact that the original Mini did back in the 1960s.
Related MINI Links
