Worldwide there have been only a handful of car designs that have become iconic, and the one that came to be the icon for British motoring has turned 60 this year.
With all milestones, modern MINI have released a special edition, this time the 60th Anniversary Mini, available in British racing green with a unique door light feature. Promoted beside an original 1959 Mini, the new Mini is grown in recent years.
Created in the late 1950s by famed automotive designer Alec Issigonis, the original Mini came about as a response to the fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis, forward thinking when few foresaw the fuel shortages of the 1970s. The brief allowed Issigonis to take the revolutionary step of turning the engine sideways, the first modern front-wheel-drive car (there had been many previous attempts, but the Mini was the first to bring a water-cooled inline 4-cylinder engine to the concept).
At first even the company behind the new car was unsure. The first models were branded the Austin Seven (a legendary British pre-war car) and the Morris Mini-Minor (an earlier vehicle also designed by Issigonis) in order to leverage the previous brand loyalty. With the help of many a British celebrity, the Mini was eventually received and taken into British hearts.
The original Mini was produced from 1959 to 2000 with very little change to the design beyond tweaks to the door hinges, addition of roll-down windows, and modified tail lights. BMW had taken over the Rover Group in the 90s and handpicked Mini to be the brand it was to keep and invest in. The new Mini was the first major redesign of the classic car despite many previous attempts. Over the years there were even attempts to completely replace the Mini, but the iconic design (and cheap price) prevailed and saw off those replacements.