Austin 850 Pickup - 62

The Mini is a small economy car made by the British

Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959

until 2000.

The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s. Its space-saving front-wheel drive  layout – allowing 80 percent of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and  luggage – influenced a generation of car makers. The vehicle is in some ways considered the  British equivalent of its German contemporary the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar  popularity in North America or the Fiat 500. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most  influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T. This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis. It was manufactured  at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park / Zetland British Motor  Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium,  Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Malta, Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.  The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates – the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III.  Within these was a series of variations, including an estate car, a pick-up truck, a van and  the Mini Moke – a jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 through to  1967, although in 1966 the Mini was disqualified after the finish, along with six other British  entrants, which included the first four cars to finish, under a questionable ruling that the  cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps and spotlights.  On introduction in August 1959 the Mini was marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as  the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor. The Austin Seven was renamed to Austin Mini in  January 1962 and Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969. In 1980 it once again  became the Austin Mini and in 1988 the Rover Mini.

Design and development

Designated by Leonard Lord as project ADO15 (Amalgamated Drawing Office project number  15) and the product of the Morris design team, the Mini came about because of a fuel  shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis. Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of  large cars slumped, and the market for German bubble cars boomed. Lord, the somewhat  autocratic head of BMC, reportedly detested these cars so much that he vowed to rid the  streets of them and design a 'proper miniature car'. He laid down some basic design  requirements: the car should be contained within a box that measured 10×4×4 feet  (3.0×1.2×1.2 m); and the passenger accommodation should occupy 6 feet (1.8 m) of the 10-  foot (3.0 m) length; and the engine, for reasons of cost, should be an existing unit. Issigonis,  who had been working for Alvis, had been recruited back to BMC in 1955 and, with his skills  in designing small cars, was a natural for the task. The team that designed the Mini was  remarkably small: as well as Issigonis, there was Jack Daniels (who had worked with him on  the Morris Minor), Chris Kingham (who had been with him at Alvis), two engineering students  and four draughtsmen. Together, by October 1957, they had designed and built the original  prototype, which was affectionately named "The Orange Box" because of its colour. The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder, water-cooled engine, but  departed from tradition by mounting it transversely, with the engine-oil-lubricated, four-  speed transmission in the sump, and by employing front-wheel drive. Almost all small front-  wheel-drive cars developed since have used a similar configuration, except with the  transmission usually separately enclosed rather than using the engine oil. The radiator was  mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but  with reversed pitch so that it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front  wing. This location saved vehicle length, but had the disadvantage of feeding the radiator  with air that had been heated by passing over the engine. It also exposed the entire ignition  system to the direct ingress of rainwater through the grille. The suspension system, designed by Issigonis's friend Dr. Alex Moulton at Moulton  Developments Limited, used compact rubber cones instead of conventional springs. This  space-saving design also featured rising progressive-rate springing of the cones, and provided  some natural damping, in addition to the normal dampers. Built into the subframes, the  rubber cone system gave a raw and bumpy ride accentuated by the woven-webbing seats, but the rigidity of the rubber cones, together with the wheels' positioning at the corners of the  car, gave the Mini go kart-like handling.  Initially an interconnected fluid system was planned, similar to the one that Alec Issigonis  and Alex Moulton were working on in the mid-1950s at Alvis. They had assessed the  mechanically interconnected Citroën 2CV suspension at that time (according to an interview  by Moulton with Car Magazine in the late 1990s),[citation needed] which inspired the design  of the Hydrolastic suspension system for the Mini and Morris/Austin 1100, to try to keep the  benefits of the 2CV system (ride comfort, body levelling, keeping the roadwheel under good  control and the tyre in contact with the road), but with added roll stiffness that the 2CV  lacked. The short development time of the car meant this was not ready in time for the  Mini's launch. The system intended for the Mini was further developed and the hydrolastic  system was first used on the Morris 1100, launched in 1962; the Mini gained the system later  in 1964. Ten-inch (254 mm) wheels were specified, so new tyres had to be developed, the  initial contract going to Dunlop. Issigonis went to Dunlop stating that he wanted even  smaller, 8 in (203 mm) wheels (even though he had already settled on ten-inch). An  agreement was made on the ten-inch size, after Dunlop rejected the eight-inch (203 mm)  proposition. Sliding windows allowed storage pockets in the hollow doors; reportedly Issigonis sized them  to fit a bottle of Gordon's Gin. The boot lid was hinged at the bottom so that the car could  be driven with it open to increase luggage space. On early cars the number plate was hinged  at the top so that it could swing down to remain visible when the boot lid was open. This  feature was later discontinued after it was discovered that exhaust gases could leak into the  cockpit when the boot was open. The Mini was designed as a monocoque shell with welded seams visible on the outside of the  car running down the A and C pillars, and between the body and the floor pan. Those that ran from the base of the A-pillar to the wheel well were described as 'everted' (lit., 'turned  outward') to provide more room for the front seat occupants[citation needed]. To further  simplify construction, the hinges for the doors and boot lid were mounted externally. Production models differed from the prototypes by the addition of front and rear subframes  to the unibody to take the suspension loads, and by having the engine mounted the other  way round, with the carburettor at the back rather than at the front. This layout required an extra gear between engine and transmission to reverse the direction of rotation at the input  to the transmission. Having the carburettor behind the engine reduced carburettor icing, but the distributor was then exposed to water coming in through the grille. The engine size was  reduced from 948 to 848 cc (57.9 to 51.7 cu in); this, in conjunction with a small increase in  the car's width, cut the top speed from 90 to 72 mph (145 to 116 km/h).  The Mini shape had become so well known that by the 1990s, Rover Group – the heirs to BMC  – were able to register its design as a trademark in its own right. 

1962

Engine 850 cc 4 cylinders Power 36 HP Lenght/width 3,35 m/1,49 m Weight 720 kg The collections Austin is within the  first Mark I series, developed from  1959 to 1967.