Small Wonder Mini Article

[taffy1967]

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/small-wonder-the-mightly-mini-celebrates-50-years-1680316.html

Naturally I had to add my 2 pence worth at the bottom comment section (I know and sorry but I can't help myself, but it had to be done): -

Loved this bit though: -

For such a breakthrough the British Motor Corporation should have been charging a premium. The Mini did things that had never been done before, or done so successfully at any rate. The Austin and Morris badges the Mini wore were the most old fashioned things on it. All the extravagant things you may have read about it are right. The Mini was "wizardy on wheels" as the Daily Sketch said, and it would seat four people and their luggage in an amazingly tiny space, a Tardis-like achievement that today's hatchbacks cannot rival. (It's worth pointing out that Dr Who's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space machine didn't arrive until 1963, so maybe the time lords were inspired by the Mini, rather than the other way around. The Daleks were equipped with Mini indicator lights on their "heads", and if you ever met one you could read "Lucas. Made In England" quite clearly, Lucas being the once-famous British electrical components manufacturer.)

So it seems that even Davros himself was inspired by the Mini then? lol

;D

And this: -

The Mini's Dr Who, designer Alec Issigonis, was an asylum seeker whose family came to England during the Greek-Turkish massacres after the first world war. He was a brilliant man, trained as a draughtsman who thought freshly, perhaps because of his unconventional origins. This immigrant with an unpronounceable name gave us some very British cars - the Morris Minor and Austin 1100 as well as the Mini, or Sputnik as it was known during its gestation (like the Russian space probe, the early mini prototypes were also highly advanced and painted bright orange). At the peak of his fame Issigonis was given a knighthood. His inventiveness was compared to da Vinci's mechanical premonitions of helicopter flight and the like. In 1970 the Royal Academy staged an exhibition of his sketches.

If my comments disappear, here's what I wrote: -

The usual finger of blame pointing at BMC, Issigonis and the Mini for not making enough profit to keep things afloat and creating the beginning of the end of the British car industry is probably just a common misconception?

Well I've heard that Ford (like many other car manufacturers at the time) were kicking themselves for not thinking of the Mini concept first and the profitability claim was just the answer they were looking for to please themselves and little more?

Either way they didn't have Longbridge and the Mini production line. Plus by the mid to late 1980's, a time when the Mini faced certain death, the then new chairman (called Graham Day) described the Mini as a good little earner since the original tooling had all been paid for and as such saved it from the axe so it would continue in full production for well over another decade! With the Mini Cooper also reappearing in the Mini range too from July 1990 after an absence of almost 20 years due to the short sightedness of British Leyland.

As for the above article, well if Sean's battery terminals kept jumping off, then why didn't his Mini have the usual standard battery clamp fitted in place? Why didn't Sean also replace the door seals and how come his Mini didn't have an ignition shield fitted in place to keep the rain at bay? (Yes okay I imagine a dodgy garage binned it after setting the distributors contact breaker points?)

But another crime is to recommend the use of WD40! Yes it helps in an emergency, but it also causes more problems in the long run from attracting dust and grime and so the electrics then become dependent on it.

Okay I'm biased and apart from a few months during 1988 & 1990 (where I made the mistake of buying a more modern, larger vehicle) I haven't been without a Mini since I took up driving back in late 1984.

I've owned my current Mini Cooper for over 15 years and although it's now gone well past 99,000 miles and will be 19 years old come this November, it's still running like a dream and I couldn't bare to live without it as besides all the history and achievements that the Mini earned in it's lifetime (don't forget all those Monte Carlo Rally outright victories), there is nothing else on earth like owning and driving a real Mini.

I forgot to say how much I loved the Doctor Who (plus the Daleks) references as I'm also a major Doctor Who fan too.

And why not, it's another classic British institution to be proud of.