Mini Cooper

 Mini Cooper

 Mini Cooper

The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (which allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers The vehicle is in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German contemporary, the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar popularity in North America. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century, behind the Ford Model T

This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis.[9][10] It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Portugal South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations including an estate car a pick-up truck a van and the Mini Moke a jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 through to 1967 although in 1966 the Mini was disqualified after the finish along with six other British entrants, which included the first four cars to finish under a questionable ruling that the cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps and spotlights Initially Minis were marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor until Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969 The Mini was again marketed under the Austin name in the 1980s

Mini Cooper

CooperS Classic Car Design And development as project ADO15 (Austin Drawing Office project number 15), the Mini came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis. Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of large cars slumped, the market for German Bubble cars boomed. Leonard Lord, the somewhat autocratic head of BMC, reportedly decreed: 'God damn these bloody awful Bubble Cars. We must drive them off the road by designing a proper miniature car'. He laid down some basic design requirements: the car should be contained within a box that measured and the passenger accommodation should occupy 6 ft (1.8 m) of the 10 ft (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.

Mini Cooper

The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder water-cooled engine, but departed from tradition by mounting it 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, except with the transmission usually separately enclosed rather than using the engine oil. 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 that 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. It also exposed the entire ignition system to the direct ingress of rainwater through the grille.