Hasta La Ideas

August 26th will mark the 50-year anniversary of the Mini, the iconic microcar that owes its very existence to, relevantly enough to today, an oil crisis:

The classic version of the Mini…was created by Alec Issigonis, an idiosyncratic Turkish-born Brit charged by Morris Motors to develop a competitor to the French- and German-made fuel-sippers that emerged during the Suez Crisis, when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and interrupted British fuel supplies in the region.

Morris head Lord Nuffield wanted an inexpensive “saloon” that could comfortably fit four adults, so Issigonis developed the first mass-produced transverse engine and pushed the car’s 10″ wheels to its corners in order to free up space inside the cabin….

It took British racing legend John Cooper…to popularize the cars. He decided that with some engine improvements, wider tires and a distinctive top, the cars could race. Cooper was right: The Mini beat Maserati, Ferrari and Lotus, among others, with three wins at the Monte Carlo Rally between 1958 and 1962.

The original Mini was Britain’s best-selling car ever, with 5.3 million of them hitting the road between 1959 and 2000. Read more about the Mini story here.

via forbes

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