Mini

Alec Issigonis’s square little car of 1959 – transverse engine, wheels at the corners and room for four.

After the Suez crisis of 1956 petrol became expensive, and BMC asked Alec Issigonis to design a small, economical car. By mounting the engine transversely and placing the wheels at the corners, he found room for four adults in a car three metres long.

The Mini Cooper won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, and the car became a symbol of 1960s London. It was built until 2000.

Materials: Sheet steel, rubber suspension

Manufacture: Made by the British Motor Corporation at Longbridge and Cowley, under the Austin and Morris names.

Wheels pushed out to the corners, only ten inches in diameter.

Visible external weld seams on the body.

Sliding windows in the doors and large door pockets on early cars.

Visible seams on the outside of the body, small 10-inch wheels and, on the early cars, sliding windows in the doors and exposed hinges.

The Mini Cooper from 1961 and the Cooper S, the open Mini Moke, the Traveller and Countryman estates, and the Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet with a larger boot.

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