Mini Cooper S
Sir Alec Issigonis (1906-88) designed the Mini, a small car produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 to 2000. It quickly became the most popular British-made car of its time and is now remembered as an icon of the 1960s. Its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers and took second place in an international poll for the world's most influential car of the twentieth century, just behind the Ford Model T.
Design and development of the revolutionary two-door Mini began as project ADO15 (Austin Drawing Office project number 15), in response to a fuel crisis in 1956. Leonard Lord, head of BMC, decreed that the car should fit within a box that measured 10 × 4 × 4 feet (3 × 1.2 × 1.2 m) with passenger accommodation taking up six feet (1.8 m) of the length, and a pre-existing engine should be used.
A small team was assembled, consisting of Issigonis, Jack Daniels, Chris Kingham, two engineering students, and four draughtsmen. Together, they designed and built the original prototype - nicknamed 'The Orange Box' - by October 1957. It was then manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia.
The Mini Mk I went through three major updates - the Mk II, the Clubman, and the Mk III - with variations including an estate car, a pickup 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 three times.
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