Australian Mini Cooper
| The legendary Mini celebrated forty years in production in 1999. Developed in response to demand for a small car in the 1950s, the Mini had been in continuous production at Longbridge since 1959 – a motor industry record.
Mini genesis The story of Mini begins in 1956, in the wake of the Suez crisis. Petrol rationing had been introduced, and this gave a short-lived fillip to the so-called “bubble” cars. To satisfy the new demand, BMC’s chairman, Sir Leonard Lord ordered a new small car. It had to be a proper car with four seats, use an existing BMC engine and smaller than the then current small cars made by BMC. Otherwise, Lord gave his designer, the legendary Sir Alec Issigonis, a free hand. A masterpiece of packaging Issigonis turned his mind to the problem of designing the smallest possible car that would still accommodate four adults and luggage. In packaging this into a car no more than three metres long, Issigonis’ masterstroke was his idea of employing a transverse engine, driving the front wheels via a gearbox and a final drive built into the sump of the engine, recognisable in the majority of today’s small cars. Rapid development The small car project was known as ADO (for “Austin Design Office”) 15 and was designed in six months during 1957. In July 1958, Issigonis invited Leonard Lord to take a test drive round the factory. After five minutes, Lord was satisfied and ordered production within twelve months and the first production cars left the assembly lines at Longbridge and Cowley in May 1959. Advanced design Apart from the revolutionary layout, Mini was in many respects very advanced with features such as all independent suspension, rubber cone suspension, 10 inch wheels to save space and rack-and-pinion steering considered unusual at that time. While the body, with external welding seams incorporated for ease of manufacture, was of unitary construction, the power unit and suspension were mounted on sub-frames. An icon for a generation Initially sold as either the Austin or the Morris Mini, sales grew slowly at first but in 1962, annual production for the first time reached more than 200,000 cars, and stayed consistently above this figure until 1977. By 1969 the name Mini had become so ingrained in the collective consciousness that Mini became a brand name of its own With the adoption of the Mini by the rich and famous as the ideal town car in the 1960’s it became the icon of a generation and, helped by a string of sporting successes in rallying, its place in motoring history was assured. The Mini in Australia The Mini was released in Australia as the Morris 850 in 1961 and immediately mirrored the success of the car in the UK. In 1963 the Mini was the third best selling car in Australia, 20,911 units were sold grabbing 7% of total passenger car sales. Complete Australian production started in late 1961 and locally built cars began to differ from their British counterparts as local components were used. The Mini Cooper was launched in October 1962 and the Cooper S in September 1965. In 1966 a Mini Cooper S driven by Rauno Aaltonen and local hero Bob Holden led a pack of Cooper S’s home to snare the first nine places outright in the Bathurst 500 mile race, a record which still stands. Variations of the basic Mini concept were also built in Australia, namely the Mini Van and the Moke. In 1971, the Mini was facelifted with the square-front Clubman treatment. In 1978 Australian production of the Mini ceased. Mini sales success Production of Mini in the UK continued unstopped from 1959 to 2000. During this 41 year period over 5.3 million Minis were produced and have been sold world-wide. The later models introduced in the 1990′ featured many improvements including an exhaust catalyst and a driver’s air bag. The Mini was still in demand around the world with over 16,000 cars sold in 1998 – with the biggest markets being Japan, Germany and the UK. The last cars are destined to become true collector’s items Birthday celebrations To celebrate this outstanding achievement, a number of events took place throughout 1999. The bumper celebration for the fortieth “birthday” of this motoring legend took place at the Silverstone motor racing circuit on August 21. Silverstone hosted the tremendously successful thirtieth and thirty-fifth anniversary events. The fortieth saw over 70,000 people and 5,000 Minis gather from all around the world to celebrate the car’s anniversary and the 50th was even bigger!! |
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REGISTERED APPROVED WORKSHOP FOR THE SPECIALIST AND ENTHUSIAST MOTOR VEHICLE SCHEME AS DIRECTED BY THE FEDERAL OFFICE OF ROAD SAFETY, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 414 Pacific Highway, Wyong, New South Wales, Australia, 2259 |
