The Austin Mini. A little car with a big heart and a huge history; an icon of the sixties, an icon of the British motor industry, an icon of....well, of all things iconic. Who doesn't love the Mini?
Seemingly born of an unholy union between a Coke bottle and a roller skate, the Mini was conceived in 1957, gestated for an appropriately elephantine two years, and uttered it's first throaty post-production roar in 1959.
Created in response to a Suez crisis-led call for greater fuel efficiency, the Mini quickly became the darling of motorists in Britain, particularly in swinging London, and then, in very short order, the world.
City drivers fell in love with the Mini's nippy zippy performance, easy parking, tight turning circle, and downright miserly, fuel-sipping economy. So did town drivers, country drivers, and pretty much everyone else. The original Mini delivered 50 mpg at 50 mph, held its own on the motorway (just, top speed was 72mph), turned on a pin, and could park up in spots that today would struggle to fit anything bigger than a mobility scooter.
Famous Fans
Film stars bought Minis, rock Gods flocked to scoop them up, even Royalty got behind the wheel. Paul McCartney had one, back before he was even a Sir. So did Goldie Hawn, Peter Sellers, Prince Charles, Steve McQueen, and even - I kid you not - Enzo Ferrari. Apparently Enzo's Mini was a personal gift from Mini designer Alec Issigonis, and the great Italian manufacturer particularly liked it because being front-wheel-drive gave it excellent traction for winter driving.
A Mini Cooper was also the star of New Zealand's most famous (and only) Road Movie, Goodbye Pork Pie.
So what do you do, as a car maker, having conquered the world with a short, stumpy, 848cc, 34 horsepower bubble on 10-inch wheels, that it seemed as if everyone who encountered it, just simply adored? Well, make it go faster, of course.
In fact, it wasn't the Mini's creators who, in 1961, decided that the delightful wee beastie needed an upgrade to wingless jet fighter status, but rather John Cooper, motor racing legend, race car builder, and co-founder of the Cooper Car Company.
Putting the Mean in the Machine
Cooper didn't just give his name to the pocket rocket version of Britain's newest and most popular little oddball people mover; he gave it a bigger engine, way bigger carburetors, a close-ratio gearbox, and three chequered flags at the Monte Carlo Rally, in 1964, 1965, and 1967. The Mini Cooper only didn't take all three podium slots in the 1966 race because some malcontent or other in the rule-making department decided that the headlights didn't meet the code.
Cooper's modifications included stroking the Morris engine out to 997cc, fitting disc brakes to the front (a rarity in those ancient times), and replacing the standard carby with a stonking pair of SU squirters. These tweaks to Issigonis' basic box on wheels ramped the power up to 55 bhp, pushed the top speed out to 84 mph, and probably did something to the fuel economy as well - but by then, no-one cared. Passion isn't about economics.
From 1963 until 1971 the Mini Cooper continued to evolve, and continued to win hearts and races. The engine grew to a whopping 76 bhp, 1275cc growler that propelled the 'S' model from zero to 60 in 10.2 seconds, and peaked out at 97 mph.
A Global Phenomenon
Cute cuddly Minis, and their record-breaking Cooper-ized evil twins, rolled off production lines in England, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands, Chile, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. Even Venezuela, Yugoslavia, and New Zealand got in on the act, putting them together from CKD kits.
Come the Year 2000, some six million Minis, including more than 125,000 Cooper and Cooper S variants, had whizzed out of the factories, burning cross-ply rubber and yelling "Yee-ha!"
By then, the basket-case that was lots of the British manufacturing industry through the 1980s, had seen the Mini name change hands and brands several times, from Austin to Morris and back again, and from BMC (British Motor Corporation) to BMH (British Motor Holdings), to Leyland, to Rover. In 1994 BMW bought the whole lot, with the Germans re-launching the Mini as a stand-alone marque in 2000.
The Future is Even Faster
Today the Mini isn't quite so miniature as once it was, but the Cooper and Cooper S are still part of the range, and under the skin they're essentially still the go-karts on steroids that wowed and wooed a generation of petrol heads.
There's an electric Mini nowadays as well, of course; but that aside, there's also a turbocharged, 2.0-liter, 231 bhp behemoth of a donk in the latest iteration of the ubiquitous Mini Cooper, that's guaranteed to keep yet another regeneration of mankind's speed demons fizzing at the bung for a few more years to come. Nought to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 6.1 seconds, and a ton-and-a-half 153 mph top speed, should be plenty enough to get you into trouble - and out of it again.