[Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis

[G. Mugele]

Ahem...  well Greg, you have the virtue of youth; you're not old  
enough to really have this down.   However, it was not as straight- 
forward as all that.

BMC built the Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor at a couple plants in  
England beginning in '59 or so.  The Morris quickly acquired the  
sobriquet 'Mini" in popular UK vernacular.  Very soon afterward the  
Austin also became the 'Mini.'  I can only guess that the appellation  
was the result of how people described them.  Anyway... as the  
popularity grew BMC did some badge engineering and also marketed the  
Riley Elf and the Wolseley Hornet, giving them some hideous fins and  
other awkward cosmetics.  Those poor cousins were also called Minis.    
Not long after the initial introduction, BMC upped the displacement to  
a throbbing hunk of iron displacing 998cc and called it the Austin  
Mini Cooper or the Morris Mini Cooper.   Those soon  became simply  
"Mini Coopers."  Time and popularity soon brought us many variants as  
well as more and more powerful versions.  Those sporty ones were  
labeled with things like 'S' and '1275 S.'

Around the time or shortly after BMC became British Leyland, the  
company formally adopted the Mini name and the cars were sold under  
the 'Mini' label.  Of course by then there were variants all over the  
world: Italy, Spain, Chile, New Zealand, Belgium and a number of other  
countries all had plants.  Some were factory and some were built under  
license (Innocenti). I don't know who made the Mini Moke but I suspect  
that it was an official BMC product.

In the 90s BMW became the parent company by buying Land Rover (Rover  
Group) from British Aerospace.  At that time Rover Group was owner of  
what was left of BMC.  I suspect BMW bought Rover to cover for the  
lack of an SUV in the market.  When BMW introduced the X5 they quickly  
dumped Land Rover on Ford and at the same time sold the rest of Rover  
Group
(including MG) to some British consortium.  But BMW decided to keep  
the Mini name and opted to build a new model.   The original Mini was  
out of production by 2000 or so.

The BMW Mini is related only in layout and appearance.

BTW mine was a '61 Mini Cooper.  It was grossly overpowered :) with  
that 55 HP beast under the hood.  I am amazed that I survived owning  
that incredibly fun little car: it inspired spirited driving well  
beyond my skills at the time.   These days, with 400+ HP engines  
relatively commonplace, it's hard to imagine that 50 years ago 100  
horsepower was a real handful, especially in our LBCs.

This concludes todays lecture.

Gerry






On Jan 31, 2011, at 8:22 AM, Greg Tatarian wrote:

> I'll let John answer to tell you what he wants to call his MINI, but  
> here's the deal on these cars (I know as we have a 2011 Mini John  
> Cooper Works (JCW) Hardtop;
>
> The car company is "MINI", which as owned by BMW differentiates its  
> name from the original "Mini", which, short version here, was made  
> both by Austin and Morris in the UK, and other companies overseas  
> under license during the day.

G. Mugele
mewgull at mugele.net

*** "Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things. One is that God  
loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is  
the most awful, dirty thing on the face of the earth and you should  
save it for someone you love." --   Butch Hancock