HISTORY OF MINI

MINI HISTORY

The '''Mini''' (from Latin "small") is the name of a small car produced from 1959 to 2000, and the name of its replacement (known as the New MINI) launched in 2001.

The original '''Mini''' was a revolutionary and distinctive small car designed for the British Motor Corporation (BMC) by Sir Alec Issigonis (1906–1988). It was manufactured in the United Kingdom (Longbridge and Cowley), Australia, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Spain, South Africa and Venezuela.

The Mk I Mini - 1959 to 1967

Designed as project ADO15 (Austin Design Office), the first models were marketed with the names Austin Seven (often written as SE7EN) and Morris Mini-Minor (Latin "Small-Smaller") in England. Until 1962, they appeared as the Austin 850 and Morris 850 in North America and France. The production model differed from the original prototype (affectionately named "The Orange Box") due to the addition of a front subframe, on which the engine was mounted, and by the engine being mounted with the carburettor at the back, rather than at the front, as in the prototype, due to carburettor-icing. This required an extra cog in the revolutionary transmission, which reduced the top speed from an unprecedented 90 mph to a more manageable (for the time) 72 mph. The car suspension also featured the use of rubber cones as springs – a design adapted from Issigonis's home-built racer.

All early Minis utilised a conventional four-cylinder water-cooled engine, but departed from previous auto designs by mounting the engine transversely and placing the engine-oil-lubricated transmission in the sump--all of this to allow for front wheel drive, an elegant technical innovation ahead of its time. This compact engine design "pushed" the passenger space forward, creating a surprisingly roomy interior for a car with a diminutive overall footprint. Almost all small front wheel drive cars built since the 1970s have followed this design model.

To keep manual labor costs low, the Mini was assembled with quirky welded seams that are visible on the outside of the car running down the A and C pillars and between the body and the floor pan.

The Mini also had an unusual suspension system that used rubber cones instead of conventional springs in order to save space. This lead to a rather raw and bumpy ride - but this very rigidity, together with specially designed 10-inch diameter wheels pushed out to the corners of the car, gave the Mini its famous go-kart-like handling.

In 1964, the suspension in the higher-end models was replaced by a hydrolastic system. The new suspension created a softer ride, but it also increased weight and production cost, and in the minds of many enthusiasts, spoiled the handling characteristics for which the Mini was so famous. In 1971 the original rubber suspension reappeared and was retained for the remaining life of the Mini.

The Mini etched its place into popular culture in the 1960s with well-publicised purchases by film and music stars. Members of The Beatles and even Queen Elizabeth II owned one.

The popularity of the original Mini spawned many models that targeted different markets:

* 1961 and 1969: The '''Wolseley Hornet''' (reviving a sports car name from the 1930s), also known as the '''Riley Elf'''. Intended to be a luxurious small car with a more substantial boot (trunk) and a slightly different front.

* 1961 and 1969 (UK only): the Morris Mini Traveller and the Austin Mini Countryman. Standard two-door estates with double "barn-door" style rear doors. The luxury models had wood inserts in the rear body. (This "half-timbered" styling is something uniquely and, according to some, bizarrely British.)

* The Mini Van and Pick-up. Commercial panel van and truck derivatives. Built on the estate car chassis but without side-windows and with a flat-bed, respectively.

* The Austin and Morris Mini Moke. A bizarre all utility vehicle, this Jeep look-alike was first designed for the British Army, but without a good ground clearance or four wheel drive, it proved unworthy for military use.

Sales were strong across most of the model lines in the 1960s, but the car never made money for its makers. It had to be sold at less than its production cost to compete with rivals. It is also rumored that due to an accounting error, the car was always incorrectly priced and each sale made a loss for the company.

The Mini Cooper and Cooper S

The original 848 cc engine from the Morris Mini-Minor was increased to 997 cc, boosting power from 34 bhp to 55 bhp (25 to 41 kW). The car featured a racing-tuned engine, double SU carburettors, and disc brakes, uncommon at the time in a small car. 1,000 units of this iteration were commissioned by management, intended for, and designed to meet the homologation rules of Group 2 rally racing. The 997 cc engine was replaced by a shorter stroke 998 cc unit in 1964. By the time production of the Cooper model ended in 1967, 12,274 of these popular cars had been sold to the public. A more powerful Mini Cooper, dubbed the "S", was developed in tandem and released in 1963. Featuring a 1071 cc engine and larger disc brakes, 4,030 Cooper Ss were produced and sold until the model was updated in August 1964. Cooper also produced two models specifically for circuit racing, rated at 970 cc and a 1275 cc, both of which were also offered to the public. The smaller engine model was not well received and only 963 were built until the model was discontinued in 1965. Over 40,000 1275 cc Cooper S models were produced before this too was discontinued in 1971.

The Mini Cooper S earned acclaim with Monte Carlo Rally victories in 1964, 1965, and 1967. Minis were initially placed first, second and third in 1966 rally as well, but were disqualified after a controversial decision by the French judges. The disqualification related to the use of a variable resistance headlamp dimming circuit in place of a dual filament lamp. It should be noted that the Citroen DS that was eventually awarded first place had illegal white headlamps but escaped disqualification. The driver of the Citroen, Paul Toivonen, was reluctant to accept the trophy and vowed that he'd never race for Citroen again.

The Mk II Mini - 1967 to 1970

From 1967 to 1970, Issigonis had been designing a replacement for the Mini in the form of an experimental model called the 9X. It was shorter and more powerful than the Mini, but due to politicking inside British Leyland, which had been formed from the merger of BMC and Standard-Triumph, the car was not built. It was an intriguing "might-have-been"; the car was technologically advanced and many believe it would have been competitive up until the 1980s.

Updated 998 cc and 1275 cc models were produced after the introduction of the Mk II body type in 1967. Production of the 998 cc variant ended in 1969, with over 55,000 cars sold. The 1275 cc variant soldiered on, adopting the slightly modified Mk III body type in 1969–70, until January 1972. The Cooper company was quick to develop and sell a conversion kit for export models, which registered steady sales until 1975.

A bewildering variety of Mini types were also made in Pamplona, Spain by the Authi company from 1968 onwards, mostly under the Morris name.

The Mini was arguably the star of the 1969 film ''The Italian Job'' which featured a car chase in which gang of thieves drove three Minis down staircases, through storm drains, over buildings and finally into the back of a moving bus. This movie was remade using the new MINI in 2003.

The Mini Clubman

In the early 1970s, under the ownership of British Leyland, the Mini was given a facelift. The restyled version was called the Mini Clubman, and sported a modern, more square look. A new model, dubbed the 1275 GT, was slated as the replacement for the old Mini Cooper S. The Clubman Estate took over where the Countryman and Traveller left off. British Leyland continued to produce the classic 1960s designs, however. This was a smart move, as the Clubman was nearly universally panned, and faded away quickly.

The Mk III Mini - 1971 to 2000

In 1971, the Mini Cooper design was licensed in Italy by Innocenti and in 1973 to Spain by Authi (Automoviles de Turismo Hispano-Ingleses), which began to produce the Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 and the Authi Mini Cooper 1300, respectively.

In the late 1970s, Innocenti introduced the Innocenti 90 and 120, Bertone-designed hatchbacks based on the Mini platform. Bertone also created a Mini Cooper equivalent, christened the Innocenti de Tomaso, that sported a 1275 cc turbocharged engine.

Reports of the Mini's imminent demise surfaced again in 1980 with the unsuccessful launch of the Austin Mini-Metro (badging showed the word 'mini' in all lowercase). In 1981 in New Zealand, the Mini starred in a "road trip" movie directed by Geoff Murphy called ''Goodbye Pork Pie''. By this time, however, the Mini was beginning to fall out of favor in many export markets. South African, Australian, and New Zealand production all stopped around this time. In New Zealand, assembly lines switched to the newly popular Honda City.

Through the 1980s, the British market enjoyed numerous "special editions" of the Mini, which shifted the car from a mass-market item into a fashionable icon. It was this image that perhaps helped the Mini become such an asset for BMW, which later bought the remnants of BMC as the Rover Group. It was even more popular in Japan, where it was seen as a retro-cool icon, and inspired many imitators at major Japanese automakers.

A new Mini Cooper named the RSP (Rover Special Products) was briefly relaunched in 1990 to 1991, with slightly lower performance than the 1960s Cooper. It proved so popular that the new Cooper-marked Mini went into full production in late 1991. From 1992, Coopers were fitted with a fuel-injected version of the 1275 cc engine, and in 1997 a multi-point fuel injected engine was introduced, along with a front mounted radiator and various safety improvements.

In 1994 under Bernd Pischetsrieder, a nephew of Issigonis, BMW took control of the Rover Group, which included the Mini, fitting an airbag to comply with European legislation. By 2000, Rover was still suffering massive losses, and BMW decided to dispose of most of the company: MG and Rover went to Phoenix, a new British consortium; and Land Rover went to Ford. BMW kept the Mini brand name and now sells a completely new Mini, technically unrelated to the old car.

Production of the original Mini outlasted its major competitors, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroën 2CV, and the Austin Metro, at least in Europe. The final Mini rolled off the assembly line in October 2000. A total of 5.3 million cars had been manufactured.

Even after production ended, the Mini continued to be a cultural icon and shows up in movies such as ''The Bourne Identity (1997)'' as a beat-up but suprisingly capable vehicle for a car chase, or as in ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)'' as a collectable fashion icon garaged alongside other classic sports cars.

Unproduced prototypes

Minis in the United States

Between 1960 and 1967, approximately 10,000 BMC Minis were imported to the US. Sales were discontinued when stricter federal emission standards were imposed; BMC felt that it would be too expensive to make the Mini's engine compliant. Ironically, similar legislation was later introduced in Europe, and the A-series engine, with minor modifications, proved perfectly capable of complying with it.

Despite this, a small band of enthusiasts keep the legacy of the original car alive in the US, where cars more than 25 years old are generally exempt from emissions regulations. Minis that were originally sold in the US are becoming hard to find, so most of the restored Minis now running in the US have been imported - typically from Australia or New Zealand where the climate has limited the amount of rust formation and left hand drive cars are available for relatively low prices.

The new MINI

When production of the Mini ceased in 2000, BMW (the new owner of the name) announced the successor to the Mini - which is variously called the BMW MINI or the 'new' MINI. The word 'MINI' is always written in capital letters when referring to the new car.

The BMW MINI is US emissions compliant and has been sold in the United States since 2002 at a rate of around 30,000 vehicles per year (2004 figures).

Source: Wikipedia

	Model	Year	KM's	Location	Price
	mini cooper	2002	50,650	Victoria, Australia	$23,990 AUD
	mini cooper s	2002	89,876	Victoria, Australia	$28,990 AUD
	mini cooper	2002	58,400	Victoria, Australia	$25,888 AUD
	mini cooper chilli	2004	47,804	South Australia, Australia	$22,450 AUD
	mini cooper s	2004	65,963	Queensland, Australia	$30,900 AUD