Issigonis' friend John Cooper, owner of the Cooper Car Company and Formula 1 Champion and rally driver in 1959 and 1960, saw the potential of the little car, and after some experimentation and testing, the two men collaborated to create a nimble, economical, and inexpensive car. The Austin Mini Cooper and Morris Mini Cooper debuted in September 1961.
The original 848cc 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 carburetors, and disc brakes, uncommon at the time in a small car. 1,000 of this iteration were commissioned by management, intended for, and designed to meet the homologation rules of, Group 2 rally racing. The 997 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 S's were produced and sold until the 1071 model was deleted in August, 1964. Cooper also produced two models specifically for circuit racing, rated at 970cc and a 1275cc, both of which were also offered to the public. The smaller engine model was not well received and only 961 were built with 970cc engines until the model was discontinued in April 1965.
MINI Cooper Convertible
Buy New & Used Mini Convertible car Mini Cars Spec, Price & Road Test
www.evo.co.uk/Mini_car_review
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Cooper and Cooper S
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Mini Mk2
Launched in 1967 the Mini Mk II introduced several improvements across the Mini range. A new squarer shaped grille distinguished the new models from the front, new rear lamps and a larger rear window were also instant recognition points.
Mechanically little changed, although a larger 998cc engine now appeared alongside the 848cc A-series. The Mk II lasted only 2 years when the wind-up window Mk III appeared in 1969 also bringing to an end the separate Austin / Morris name badges.
MK1 Mini
Monday, 2 July 2007
Design and Development
Designed as project ADO15 (Austin Drawing Office project number 15), the Mini came about because of a fuel shortage. In 1956 as a result of the Suez Crisis, which reduced oil supplies, the United Kingdom saw the re-introduction of petrol rationing. Sales of large cars slumped, and there was a boom in the market for so called Bubble cars, which were mainly German in origin. Leonard Lord, the somewhat autocratic head of BMC, decreed that something had to be done and quickly. He laid down some basic design requirements: the car should be contained within a box that measured 10 × 4 × 4 feet (3 × 1.2 × 1.2 m); and the passenger accommodation should occupy six feet (1.8 m) of the 10 foot (3 m) length; and the engine, for reasons of cost, should be an existing unit. Issigonis, who had been working for Alvis, had been recruited back to BMC in 1955 and, with his skills in designing small cars, was a natural for the task. The team that designed the Mini was remarkably small: as well as Issigonis, there was Jack Daniels, who had worked with him on the Morris Minor, Chris Kingham, who had been with him at Alvis, two engineering students and four draughtsmen. Together, by October 1957 they had designed and built the original prototype, which was affectionately named 'The Orange Box' because of its colour.
The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder water-cooled engine, but departed from tradition by having it mounted transversely, with the engine-oil-lubricated, four-speed transmission in the sump, and by employing front-wheel drive. Almost all small front-wheel-drive cars developed since have used a similar configuration. The radiator was mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but with reversed pitch so it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front wing. This location saved precious vehicle length, but had the disadvantage of feeding the radiator with air that had been heated by passing over the engine.
The suspension system, designed by Issigonis's friend Alex Moulton at Moulton Developments Limited, used compact rubber cones instead of conventional springs. This led to a rather raw and bumpy ride, but this rigidity, together with the wheels being pushed out to the corners of the car, gave the car its famous go kart-like handling. It was initially planned to use an interconnected fluid system, similar to the one which Issigonis and Moulton were working on in the mid-1950s at Alvis, but the short development time of the car meant this was not ready in time for the Mini's launch. The system intended for the Mini was further developed to become the hydrolastic system and was first used on the Austin 1100 (launched in 1962). Ten-inch wheels were specified, so new tyres needed to be developed, the initial contract going to Dunlop.
The car was designed with sliding windows in the doors, thus allowing for storage pockets to be fitted in the space where a winding window mechanism would have been. Issigonis is said to have sized the resulting storage bins to take a bottle of his favourite Gordon's Gin. The boot lid was designed with the hinges at the bottom so that the car could be driven with it open to increase luggage space. On early cars the number plate was hinged so it dropped down to remain visible when the boot lid was open.
To keep labour costs down, the car was designed 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. To further simplify construction, the car had external door and boot hinges.
All of these novel and elegant technical innovations resulted in a car with minimum overall dimensions yet maximised space for passengers and luggage.
Production models differed from the prototype by the addition of front and rear subframes to the unibody to take the suspension loads, and by turning the engine around with the carburettor at the back rather than at the front. This required an extra gear to be placed between engine and transmission to reverse the engine direction. Making this a reduction gear had the beneficial effect of reducing loads on the gearbox and preventing the rapid wear on the synchromesh which had been a problem on early prototypes. Having the caburettor at the rear helped to reduce carburettor icing, but did expose the distributor to water coming in through the grille. The engine size was reduced from 948 to 848 cc, which reduced the top speed from an unprecedented 90 mph (145 km/h) to a more manageable (for the time) 72 mph (116 km/h) — a decision that was reversed in 1967.
Despite its utilitarian origins, the classic Mini shape had become so iconic that by the 1990s Rover Group, the heirs to BMC, were able to register its design as a trade mark in its own right.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thursday, 28 June 2007
The Origins of the Classic Mini
What amazing foresight:
It is well known by the majority of Mini Fanatics that the Mini was a car that you either love or hate. Luckily the people at the start of the Mini's life loved it....Pininfarina once joked to Issigonis: "Why don't you style the Mini a bit?", to which Issigonis quickly replied "It'll still be fashionable when I'm dead and gone". That really shows what incredible foresight Alec had.Built as direct competition to the bubble cars that were becoming increasingly popular due to the wake of the Suez crisis of 1956, which had caused petrol rationing throughout Britain. The need to conserve petrol had allowed these 'bubble' cars to take a hold of the car buying public......the Mini was built to 'drive those bubble cars off the road'. Fragments in time, the lifestory of the Mini.....a brief History. Hard to believe that all this started from a pencil drawing on a table cloth in a restaurant. Read below to find out how the Mini story came in to being.
Alec IssigonisAlec Issigonis works on derivatives of experimental vehicles, in 1956 Alec works on the XC9000 a rear wheel drive car with hydrolastic suspension and powered by a 1.5 litre over head cam all aluminium engine.In July 1957, within four months of the XC9000, Alec quickly mocks up a wooden model of his latest design called the XC9003. With a marked difference in the car length and height, it could be stated that this model bears an uncanny resemblance to the MINI (ADO 15 project).In October 1957, only eight months after putting pen to paper, or as Alec IssigonisAlec often did, put pen to newspaper...napkin or anything else easily at hand.....the first two experimental ADO15 test cars went on the road. Testing was mainly at night to avoid any press with a handy camera being present. 
NOTE: At this point the ADO15 test vehicles had the famous east-west engine layout, but it was turned exactly 180 degrees to the final model. That is, the manifold was at the front with the carb's and, the sparks plugs were found to the rear of the engine bay. This layout was dropped early on in testing due to the carb's icing up in the winter months. It is also quite interesting to note that even these first test vehicles could reach speeds of over 90 m.p.h. which was very quick in those days....and set the scene for even faster Minis to come.The daunting task that Alec IssigonisAlec had to squeeze four passengers, luggage and an engine into less than 10 foot was realised and then solve in true Issigonis style with the 1957 solution of mounting transversely...and putting the gear shafts beneath the crankshaft. In the first concept there were only two 'step-down' gears.During the latter months of development the Mini underwent a 'widening' change similar to that of its predecessor the Morris Minor. It is a little known fact that the early prototypes were very fast and as well as reducing the engine size from 948cc to 848cc the ADO15 was widened by 2" (50mm). This small percentage increase in frontal area reduced the overall speed down by a staggering 18 m.p.h.Over the months that led to the important trial in July of 1958 Issigonis and his small team of designers, which included chief draftsmen and a team of draftsmen including a handful of engineering students worked remarkable hours....drawing by day and testing by night. The actual cost of the design work was incredibly small by any standards, even in its day £100,000 . This would be unheard of today, with multi-million pound budgets.In July 1958 Sir Leonard made his historic run around the works grounds, the car itself had been one of the prototypes and had covered some 30,000 miles. But after only 5 minutes he returned to an expectant Issigonis and made an historic decision that would change motoring history. It has been written that Sir Leonard stepped out of the Mini and said "Alec, this is it, I want it in production within twelve months", to which Issigonis replied "Sir Leonard, this will cost many millions of pounds"....to which Sir Leonard exclaimed "Don't you worry about that, I shall sign the cheque's, you just get on with getting the thing to work". The rest is history.
Text by David & Gillian Morton our Cooper and S registrar
Images by kind permission of MINI press