[Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis

Mon Jan 31 14:30:14 MST 2011

Well let me chime in here,

I do not clearly recall how it came to be, but BMW purchased the assets of 
BMC some years ago, and produced the MINI, so the MINI is a british car 
manufactured by BMW in their BMW factories, wherever. So I guess we can say 
the MINI is a Gertish car. Following that lineage, I ran into a guy in a gas 
station in Novato some years back, who drove a 1937 BMW convertable. I could 
not readily identify the make of his car, I thought maybe a Mercedes? But it 
was vaguely familiar to me, it took me a few minutes to think back to my 
three 50's Jags. We started talking, he invited me back to his shop on lower 
Grant Ave, where he showed me some other older cars he had stored, and told 
me the history / relationship of BMW and Jaguar. As I was told, late in 
World War II, during British raids on some German factories, some British 
paratroopers raided a bombed out BMW factory, walking off with a great many 
original BMW design drawings, some of which, included the familiar oval 
shaped grills and long sloping butterfly fenders of the XK series and the Mk 
I & II 3.4 and 3.8 model sedans. Upon close examination of his BMW, it 
appeared to me that I could probably remove the grill from his car and 
install it directly onto my 59 MK I  3.4 sedan, (Hummmmm) so the 
relationship between BMW and BMC and the MINI would appear to go way back, 
as it was told to me. Maybe one of our British club members can shed a 
little more light on this. Andy, Anybody?

As it happened, this gentleman was president of a national BMW club, and 
upon finding out the nature of my business, he had me mold up a reproduction 
of an original BMW tool, kit sold with the older BMW's, which he sold to 
club members, because, as many of us know, original equipment items for our 
old cars can be next to impossible to find.

Michael
64 TR4

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Clif & Deborah Williamson" <hawkview at sonic.net>
To: "North Bay British Car Club" <nobbc at autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 12:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis

> Thanks Gerry.
> But what I get from this is that the BMW Mini is not British at all. 
> Except for a few part here and there and a similar exterior design, it is 
> pretty much "GERMAN".  I think almost all manufacturers of cars buy parts 
> made in other countries, but I don't think because a Toyota or any of it's 
> parts are made in the USA, that it is an American car.  Nor a VW made in 
> Mexico, is a Mexican car.  In fact it would seem that the only thing that 
> truly has British heritage on the Mini is the name "Mini", as your 
> description below would attest.  I don't know if Cooper was the designer 
> of the BMW Mini, but even that would not change if it was British or not, 
> since Pininfarina was the designer of many non Italian cars that are not 
> considered Italian including the Jaguar, and Rolls-Royce.
> Please, don't get me wrong.  I love the Mini, British, or German.  I had 
> an occasion back in 1970 to be hitch hiking in Sweden and was picked up by 
> a Swed driving a Dodge Charger.  After a few miles of back country roads a 
> Mini came up behind and past us.  Well this Swed was not going to be 
> outdone by a little cracker box so off we went.  And after about 5 miles 
> of twisting Swedish roads he gave up.  I was so pumped up by the 
> adrenaline rush caused by the chase I was shaking when he dropped my off 
> in the middle of no where. At that point I realized, that "might does not 
> make right" and fell crazy in love with the Mini.
> Clif
> 74 JH
>
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: G. Mugele
> Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 11:03 AM
> To: North Bay British Car Club
> Subject: [Nobbc] More than you want to know about Minis
>
> 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
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