September 13, 2007
Despite its iconic looks and a history that included racing success and a star turn in the 1969 caper movie “The Italian Job,” the Mini was on life support when BMW bought English automaker Rover Group’s assets in 1994.
Since then, BMW has overseen development of two generations of the new Mini Cooper and built three factories for the brand in England.
Mini has sold more than 800,000 of the new cars since they went on sale in 2001, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared with the 5.4 million Minis that Rover and its predecessors built between 1959 and 2000.The original Mini went on sale in August 1959. Its tiny size with a long wheelbase and short overhangs, wide track, front-wheel drive layout and transverse engine were revolutionary at the time and influenced automotive development for a generation. The car was the brainchild of legendary English engineer Alec Issigonis, who died in 1988.
By Mark Phelan