Introduction
The Suez Canal was the major lifeline of the oil industry for Europe in the 1950s, keeping costs down by preventing the oil manufacturers from going around the Cape of Good Hope, which would have been over eleven thousand miles. By using the Suez Canal, this trip was cut down to around sixty-five hundred miles. At this time, roughly two-thirds of the Canal's traffic was petroleum, so, when the Suez Canal was nationalized in the mid 1950s, nearly halting the flow of oil in the abridged trip. This brought to Europe's foreground the concern of a serious oil crisis. In the wake of this closing of the coral, car sales suffered terribly, and the cars that were selling were unattractive and low performing. Car companies, recognizing this issue scrambled to develop vehicles that were, if nothing else, as efficient as the technology at that time would allow. Germany was the first to introduce the fuel economy cars to the market with their "bubble cars", which were slow and very often three wheels, which Sir Leonard Lord, who oversaw The British Motor Company, detested. It was around this time that The British Motor Company rehired designer Sir Alec Issigonis, who had a hand in the design of the Morris Minor. He was given a few requirements for his design: it had to be big enough to comfortably fit four people, yet smaller than the other cars built by BMC at that time; he was also required to use a current BMC engine. The Mini developed by Issigonis was an engineering breakthrough of sorts. Issigonis took the current A-series engine from the BMC Austin, and set it transverse on a front wheel drive chassis, with the radiator placed on the left side of the engine.
The Early Mini
It was this vision of vehicular engineering that was released to the public on August 26, 1959. It was sold as either the Austin Mini Seven or Morris Mini Minor, with an introductory price of about 500 lire. The only engine offered was the fore mentioned Austin engine, which was 850cc, and producing a whopping 34 horsepower. Due to the designer's passion for smoking, but distaste for music, he included an ashtray with the Mini, but no radio option. It had sliding windows to avoid having to mount window handles on the door, and with the extra door space, large pockets. This first Mini also included a large centrally mounted speedometer. This new Mini sold over 116,000 units in its first full year of production, but not everyone was convinced of its usefulness, so BMC produced a "Mini-van" with small rear double doors, and an estate wagon version, with wood trim glued to various interior pieces, along with a Mini pickup trunk, which was very popular with small area farms. It was around this time that Ford Motor Company, having been intrigued by the sales of the Mini, purchase one, and upon dismantling it, stated that BMC must be losing money in the sales of this car, which they were.
In 1961 an F1 car builder name John Cooper finds that he likes the handling capabilities of the Mini, and after a working period with BMC, one thousand Mini Coopers are produced. One thousand was the working number because to be considered a "production vehicle" car for Cooper's racing class. Also, to deter customers from buying the Mini and paying aftermarket companies up to hundreds of pounds to dress up the Mini, the Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf are released as luxury models of the Mini. The Mini Cooper had an upgraded motor, at 977cc it produced a beefy 55 horsepower, and disc brakes were added. The Mini Cooper slowly began gaining recognition through the racing scene, and the first major win was the 1962 Holland Tulip Rally, with a Mini Cooper being driven by Stirling and Pat Moss. Later that same year a Mini Cooper being driven by Rauno Aaltonen was running toward the front of the Monte Carlo Rally, until while running second, the car flipped over.
1963 showed the introduction of the first Mini Cooper S. It featured an all new 1071cc motor, putting out 70 horsepower, which allowed it to reach speeds of one hundred miles per hour. Paddy Hopkirk took one to the lead of the Tour de France, and remained there, untouchable by others, to give it a big win. This was also the first year that the Mini became a trendy item. A few of the celebrities who purchased a Mini Cooper to keep up with the times were: Ringo Starr, Peter Sellers to Graham Hill and Enzo Ferrari (although Enzo returned his because "the steering wheel was on the wrong side" but after the car was converted to the "correct drive side" he liked it so much he ordered two more), which when pictured with their new MC, enhanced the trendy nature of the car. Also, aftermarket companies that specialized in customizing high end cars, such as Radford and Wood & Pickett, began adding options like power windows, leather seats, and wood paneled sides. Unfortunately with good endorsement came some bad publicity. The Mini Coopers were also tested strictly in nice weather, so when it was found that the floorboards leaked when driven in the rain, often to the point of getting the passengers legs wet, and an ignition system that failed when in the rain, these facts angered consumers and surprised the company. Another concern was that the Mini Cooper S had a nasty habit of using a lot of oil. In 1964 a slightly modified, 91 horsepower version of the S, called the Works spec cup car won the first of four consecutive Monte Carlo Rallies, although the Mini team was disqualified in 1966 for having non-functioning headlamps. 1964 also brought the world the Mini Moke. It was a smaller version which was intended to be used to drop from planes into battle zones by the military, but was rejected due to the lack of ground clearance. 1964 was also the year that all of the Minis got Hydrolastic liquid filled suspension which helped smooth the ride quality without hurting handling. Unfortunately, due to some issues with the reliability of the Hydrolastic suspension, it was banned in Germany, and the old suspension system was re-implemented. 1968 brought the Mini another major race victory with the British Touring Car Championship, driven by John Rhodes, and the production is moved to a larger production facility in Australia. In 1969, BMC became British Leyland, the Austin and Morris names were dropped from the Mini line, and the Mini became its own car, shortly after the release of The Italian Job, which featured Michael Caine, and three Mini Cooper S's. The Clubman, which has a newly designed interior and dashboard; and 1275GT, which is a sportier version of the same, are released. The Minis were not only popular with celebrities and the general public, but with the government as well. Fire departments and the postal service at the time purchased Minis, as well as the police departments, which used their Minis for pursuit and surveillance vehicles. By the end of the 1960s John Cooper was making roughly two pounds from the sale of every Mini Cooper sold, and because of this, when BMC became British Leyland, they announced the end of the Cooper line, with around 150,000 produced.
The Hard Years
Since the Cooper name had been dropped from the Mini line, BL added the Metro line, adding more modern amenities, causing the Mini Metro to be more of a luxury car than a race car. Sales dipped more and more, with barely enough sales level to keep the Mini name going. Other companies began making Mini knock offs, especially in Italy, but Mini managed to issue the Mini with a variety of lines in their many markets. More colors were added with the Mini-van, the Clubman, and the 1275GT, to attempt to keep the consumer market interested in the Mini line. Even with the slow fade of the Mini from the international racing scene, a Mini wins the 1979 British Saloon Car Championship. In an attempt to get more attention, Mini reinstated the Austin name, with a great deal of buzz. In 1980, the Austin Mini Metro is launched on a current Mini chassis platform, and this model lasted strong until 1998, then named the Rover 100, ironically being halted even though the original Mini, which had been viewed as having grown old, was still going strong. In a constant effort, as with any car company, BL did their best to keep up with modern technology by upgrading to twelve inch wheels and disc brakes on al models in 1984. In 1985, Rover purchased the Mini line, and in a further attempt to keep the Mini alive, Rover began issuing special editions of the Mini, and in the 80s and 90s, over 40 special models were issued. These special editions are credited with being the only thing that kept the Rover Mini in production, with some of the more popular being the Anniversary Editions, which actually began with the 1979 1100 Special, and the mid 80's Mini 25 and Mini 30, which celebrated milestones in Mini production. 1986 was the year that had the honor of seeing the five-millionth Mini coming off the assembly line. But for Mini enthusiasts the high of seeing the five-millionth Mini was countered, sadly, with the passing of Sir Alec Issigonis in 1988 at the age of 88 years old.
Return to Cooper
In 1990, Rover was looking for something to revamp the name, and the sales of the Mini line, and what better to do so than what made the Mini great some 29 years earlier; The John Cooper moniker. The 1990 Mini Cooper quickly became the best selling car in the Rover lineup, especially in Japan. The twin white bonnet stripes, with Cooper's signature on them set this new Mini off from the other Minis offered by Rover. The new Mini Cooper also included a 63 horsepower 1275cc carbureted engine, which was changed to the same engine, but with fuel injection, in 1991. In these early 90s models, the base model Mini was still available and while it also had the 1275cc engine, it only built 53 horsepower. 1992 brought the first Mini Cooper to have emissions controls, as it was sold with a factory catalytic converter. To this point, the Mini, regardless of the model name, was the same basic vehicle, and still carried the major designs features of Sir Alec Issigonis" original Mini. But, in 1997 a few major changes would stray the Mini and the Cooper from Sir Alec Issigonis" engineering breakthroughs. The radiator was moved to a front mount setup, and twin-point injection was added. This was standard in both the Mini and Cooper models, and safety items like door reinforcements beams and driver/passenger impact airbags were added. Even with the modernization of the Mini and the addition of the Cooper to the lineup, the Rover Mini just was not selling as it should, and on October 6th, 2000, the company discontinued production. So even with the return to the Cooper moniker, the Mini ended production, completely, for the first time in forty-one years.
Rebirth of a legend
With the conclusion of the Rover Mini, and the Mini name being completely out of production in 2000, the name was going to waste. That is, until the management of BMW seized the chance to have the name, and they purchased the rights, and in 2001, BMW corporation released the MINI and the MINI Cooper to the world, once again. This new MINI was no longer powered by a British engine, but by a 1.6 liter Chrysler engine producing 90 horsepower in the base model and 115 horsepower in the MINI Cooper. While the design of the new MINI line is similar to the Mini of old, the new BMW MINI differs in size, but without compromising the handling quality. The new MINI does offer a much smoother ride and better ride quality than the older models, and the new MINIs are especially more comfortable on long rides. In 2002, the MINI Cooper S was released, offering a supercharged 160 horsepower engine, which brings the Mini name back around full circle to a compact performance car, that also makes for a quality daily driver thanks to the roominess and efficiency. The MINI kept going with the same relative driveline and styles, as a modernized version of the original Mini lines, with a hundred or so extra horsepower on the supercharged model, through the 2005 model year, with a scheduled change of format coming from the BMW engineers in either 2006 or 2007.
Conclusion
The Mini Cooper name, since its earliest mention in the early 1960s, has stood for curve straightening handling capabilities, pavement tearing power, and pocket book saving fuel economy, combined with the roominess to serve as a quality family car. Thanks to the Rover company, and more importantly to the BMW corporation, the Mini name has overcome all of the hardships that a truly legendary item of motoring history much endure in order to secure its place in both the automobile history books, and in the hearts of true driving enthusiasts worldwide.
