Portfolio at NYU

Posted 04.16.03
Mini Me

By Elizabeth Varnell

Hemlines creep up and down but the tenacious mini skirt endures season after season. And its staying power rivals that of its namesake, a stylish little car that debuted on August 26, 1959.

Obsessed with the idea of getting a maximum amount of usable space out of minimal overall dimensions, Sir Alec Issigonis gave new meaning to the clown car when he created a small, economical auto large enough to transport four adults and luggage. In 1957, Issigonis began designing the vehicle in Britain to compete with German Messerschmitt "Bubble cars" and VW Beetles proliferating across the Channel in post-war Europe. After 30 months of designing and engineering, the first Mini rolled off the production line. A year later, Americans got their first models priced at $1,295, with 35 horsepower and a total weight of just 1,300 pounds.

Incredibly, the Mini was the first mass-produced car with front wheel drive and a transverse engine mounted in the front. It was also the only car in the world at the time to use a rubber spring suspension system (instead of steel springs), devised by Alex Moulton with Issigonis during his time at Alvis, a small British automotive company.

The Mini's model name changed more often than Elizabeth Taylor changed husbands. It was first launched as the Austin Se7en, and the Morris Mini Minor (later the name would change to Morris Mini). Issigonis's friend, Formula 1 champion John Cooper, convinced him to enhance the car for competitive racing. And four years after the high-performance Mini Cooper S. was born, it won the Monte Carlo Rally of 1964. The racing car was also converted into other more proletarian models. Prior to the advent of soccer moms, the Mini Van was launched in 1960. And the van led to the "Morris Mini Minor Traveller" (also Austin Se7en Countryman), dubbed the "Woody", by surfers and beach bums. Little known luxury versions like the Riley Elf and the Wolseley Hornet appeared in 1961.

The car quickly transcended German egg-shaped people movers with its utilitarian boxy shape. After winning the Monte Carlo Rally twice, the Mini became a pop icon. Steve McQueen and Enzo Ferrari gave it a spin. John Lennon bought a black one. And the Mini Cooper upstaged Michael Caine in "The Italian Job."

More than 40 years later, the Mini is back. And it makes the new VW Beetle and P.T. Cruiser look dated. The car, in production since 1959, has remained virtually unchanged°™until now. This March, BMW (who now own the Mini brand) will launch the new Mini in America. It will be the first time the car is sold on this side of the Atlantic since 1967. The new version is larger and safer, with modern engineering, modern reliability and styling heavily based on the original car. And there's already a waiting list to get one.

The BMW design group tapped American Frank Stephenson to overhaul the original Mini design. But this is no retro-model, nor is it an homage to the original as is the new Beetle. To Stephenson, retro implies "looking back, or raising the dead." He insists he has not resurrected the remains of an old design. Rather, he calls the new Mini an "evolutionary product concept," a model based on the entire history of the Mini°™a car manufactured continuously until 2000. "Just as the latest BMW 3 series is an evolution of its predecessor," Stephenson adds, "so the new Mini carries on from the classic design." His approach fit the task since the design team was asked to create the new version while the classic Mini was still in production at Longbridge, UK°™one of the original Mini plants. But Stephenson admits it's hard to redesign an icon. "We drew on the silhouette and design cues [of the original] such as the rear lights, very short overhangs, and high waistline. Clearly the distinctive two-tone roof is something that we also carried onto the new car." But other design points are quite modern. Roof support pillars are hidden behind glass, giving the car a very clean line while overtly referencing modern architecture.

And now, though BMW owns the very British automotive brand, the post-war rivalry between the Mini and Beetle has been revived. But Stephenson says BMW has the last word: "I know that the Beetle is now a front wheel drive car, and that the classic Mini was the world's first front wheel drive car, so who is referencing whom?"