The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Copporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 untill 2000. The originalll is considerd a British icon of the 1960s and its space saving front wheel drive layout (which allowed 80% of the area of the car's floor pan to be used for passengers and loggage ) influenced to its German contemporary , the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar prolularity in North America. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th country , behind the Ford MOdel. The destinctive two door car was designed for BMC by sir Alec Issigionis . It was manufactured at her Long bridge and Cowley plants in England , the victoria Park/Zetland British Motor Corporation(Australin) factory in Sydeny, Australia and later also in spain, Belgium, Chile, Italy , Malta, Portugal, South Africa , URugray, VEnezuela and YUgoslavia.
Rally four from 1964 through to 1967 lathouht in 1966 the Mini awas disqualified after the finish , along with six other British entrants , which included the first four cars to finish, under a questoinable rulling that the cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps.
Design and Development
Designed as project ADO15(Austin Drawing Office project number 15), the Mini came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Sue Crisis. Petrol was boomed . Leonard Lord, the somewhat autocratic head of BMC , reprotedly detested these cars so much that he vowed to rid the streets of them and disign a proper miniture car . He down some basic design requriements the car should be contained wihtin a box that measured and passenger accommodation should occupy 6ft of the 10 ft length and the engine for reasons of cost should be can unit. Issigonis who had been woriking for Alvis, has been recruited back to BMC in 1955 and with his skills in desinging small cars. Despite its utillitatian origins the classic Mini shape had become so well know that by the 1990s, Rover Group-the heirs to BmC -were able to register its design as a tade mark in its own right.
Production models differed fro, the prototypes by the addition of front subframes to the unibody to take the suspension loads and by having the engine monuted other way roud with carburattor at the back than at the front . This layout required an extra gear between engine and transmission to revers the then evposed to water coming in through the grille .The engine size was reduced from 948 cc to 484 this in , conjunction with a small increase in the car's width , cut the top speed from 90 mph ( 145 km/h) to a more reaonable ( for the time) 72mph (116 km/h).
In the United States
Minis that were originally sold in the US are becoming hart to find, so most of the restored Minis now runing in the US have been imported by induvidual enthsiasts--typical from Autarlia or New Zealand where the climate has limited the amount of rust fomation and cars are available for relatively low prices . There is increasiing diffculty in finding cars that are old enough to meet the 25 year emission exemption and yet are still in a reasonable condtition . This has led some imorters to place the vehicle identification number (ViN0 plates from older cars onto Minis that ar less than 25 years old-claiming that the cars was"repaired" by replacing every single pat with the exception of he VIN plate. Such vehicles are termed"re-VINs and are surprisingly common. This may leave such impotters open to accuslation of a "Ship of Theaseu" fraud such as befell the late Boyd Clddington from the state of California.
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