There are few cars that are quite as iconic as the style of the original Mini. It’s an tiny box of a car that almost impossibly holds 4 people. It has stupendous gas mileage, was produced for over a 40 years, became an icon of British pop culture, and was ultimately revamped in 2000 into a still regognizable Mini for the new millenium. Though it isn’t actually the very first production car with front wheel drive, people somehow continue to give them credit for it, which is an increible type of recognition in itself. So, what’s the story behind the Mini? It all starts with an oil crisis.
The Late 1950s and A Demand for Fuel Efficient Cars
In 1957 the UK was rocked by a shortage of fuel caused by the Suez Crisis. The inevitable rationing of fuel made the people of England abandon bigger cars, realizing that they could get more bang for their buck with a smaller car that had better gas mileage. The British Motor Company (BMC) got tired of the car sales trending towards imported cars like the tiny Fiat 500 and the peculiar and wildly fuel efficient bubble cars that were being produced in Germany at the time. They decided they wanted in on that revenue stream, and built their own version.
The Birth of The Mini: A Design That Must Stay Tiny
The head of the BMC challenged the designer Alec Issigonis to come up with a car that was a mere 10 feet long—and 8.5 of those feet were to be devoted to human and other cargo. In addition to keeping it tiny he was required to use an existing engine to save money. To say that Issigonis rose to the challenge is an understatement. The snub nosed Mini has wheels that were pushed out to the corners of the car to save space, and an engine where space was saved so thoroughly that the transmission and the engine shared the same lubrication. The engine was mounted transversely, which saved a great deal of hood length, and was front wheel drive, which meant that the driveshaft wasn’t hogging up additional space. And since the engine and design was relatively simple, it made Mini repair and maintenance relatively hassle free.
One of the strangest details about the early Minis apparently comes directly from the personal preferences of the designer. Issigonis was a heavy smoker who despised listening to the radio while driving. Because of this, you will find that the earliest Minis are designed without a radio, but with an ash tray.
Space Saving Front-Wheel-Drive and the Start of a Legacy
Though Minis weren’t the first production car to have front-wheel-drive (a few of them were around before, including examples from DKW and Saab) the Mini was the first “production front-wheel-drive car with a watercooled inline four-cylinder engine mounted transversely,” which requires a whole lot of caveats to claim that the Mini was the first front-wheel-drive anything. Regardless of whether or not it was actually the first, it remained popular for decades, and helped to pave the way for the popularity of front wheel drive cars. The original Mini body style was tweaked and perfected during the years of its production run, and ultimately became a symbol of British culture, with stars in the 1960s embracing the fun.
When they did finally wind down the production of the original Mini body style in 41 years later in 2000, there was a new, more modern Mini ready to take on the next millenium. The Mini Cooper (or Mini One or Mini Hatch) is the modern take on the original Mini that is still rolling off of the production lines today.
Though the original Mini may not have been the very first front wheel drive production car, the smart and fun to drive Mini has had the staying power to remain relevant for decades—something that none of the previous front wheel drive contenders can claim.
