Rover Mini 1.0

...& when they dispensed with Rover in the year 2000 they retained the rights to the Mini name & released its successor. By this time the old model which would never pass new emission & safety legislation finished production 5.3 million cars & over 40 years after it had been released.

DRIVING AN ORIGINAL MINI

Stepping into an old Mini for the first time comes as a shock after being in a modern car. The doors look so thin, ...
...adequate, although later fuel injected Rover Minis were quiet good & fuel consumption was always a strong point with a Mini.

Steering isn't power assisted, but it doesn't need to be as the Mini is lightweight & the steering feels so accurate & responsive. That's more than can be said for the gear change, when cold it can be notchy & when hot, less notchy. The gearboxes are never quiet, you are always aware of a slight whining noise ... more

In the 1950s economical motoring was either a motor bike, bubble car or another three wheeled car. The three wheeled cars could be driven with just a provisional driving license but in 1956 after the Suez Canal crisis in the Middle east that effected oil supplies to the UK & prompted the British government to release ration coupons for fuel, a British company made a decision on small economical cars that changed the whole small car market for good.

The British Motor Corporation (BMC for short) decided in 1956 to build a new small car that would change the buying habits of the British public & it certainly did. What was conceived became the original Mini & no one at the time realised what effect it would have on other future small car designs.

The man in charge of the project was chief designer Alec Issigonis; he already had designed the Morris Minor 1000 in 1948 & in 1956 started to work on his new baby. He was told that the new car had to fit into a crate that measured 10' x 4' x 4'!! If there was just one thing he designed into the new Mini that revolutionised the way small cars were made it was where he mounted the engine.

Small cars were nothing new at the time but they weren't really all that well designed. They would be small in size but cramped for passengers & more of a compromise than anything else. Their long bonnets would house the engines leaving little space for passengers. What Issigonis did was instead of fitting the engine in the car in a traditional 'North - South' direction & taken up a lot of bonnet space, he broke with tradition & turned the engine 'East -West' direction (Transverse) thus shortening the bonnet & increasing the passengers area to 80% of its length.

The only problem he did encounter was where to place the gearbox; in the end he fitted it below the engine using the sump as a gearbox with both components sharing the same oil. Although this worked quite well it wasn't universally adopted.

If that wasn't enough Issigonis also dispensed with suspension springs & shock absorbers & fitted another great British invention of hydraulic suspension designed by Dr Alex Moulton. Later models adopted a 'dry' suspension design which proved to be more reliable & cost effective.

All this in a car no more than 10' long, when it was released to the public in 1959 it was one of the most advanced small cars in the world & made the direct competition look possibly archaic & a bubble car positively dangerous.

The original Mini was a big commercial success in the swinging 60s winning the hearts of the British public; the Mini broke all the class divisions. It was bought by the working class, middle class, upper class, royalty, pop stars, sports stars & film stars. It became a huge sporting success in rallying & more versions followed, vans, pick-ups, estate cars (Countryman & Clubman) utility versions (Mini Moke), luxury versions (Wolseley Hornet & Riley Elf) & sporty versions (Cooper S & 1275GT).

The Mini could do now wrong but it became very embarrassing when Ford got a hold of a Mini & stripped it down to work out how much it cost to make & came to the conclusion that BMC were losing £30.00
on every one they made.

All through the 1970s, 1980s & even the 1990s it sold in decent numbers, improvements were made but the little car kept it original looks & character. In the late 1990s it became a big hit in Japan but in the same decade the company making the Mini (now called Rover) were taken over by BMW who started the design of a new Mini for the 21st century & when they dispensed with Rover in the year 2000 they retained the rights to the Mini name & released its successor. By this time the old model which would never pass new emission & safety legislation finished production 5.3 million cars & over 40 years after it had been released.

DRIVING AN ORIGINAL MINI

Stepping into an old Mini for the first time comes as a shock after being in a modern car. The doors look so thin, no impact absorbing crash structures here, once inside you do feel a little vulnerable.
However, once inside its quite roomy considering it's modest outside dimensions. Depending on the age of the Mini depends on the level of trims inside, early ones has loads of oddment space, basic centrally mounted dials, sliding windows & a starter button on the floor! Later ones had wind up windows, less oddment space, dials in front of the driver & a proper starter switch on the dash.
They all had a steering wheel sitting at an unusual angle; it was a bit like driving a commercial vehicle or bus being a bit flat as opposed to near vertical in most other cars. You soon get used to it but it got a bit tiring on long journeys.

Starting up the Mini & the first thing you notice as you drive off is the engine noise; Mini's were never quiet cars. There is very little noise insulation between the passenger's area & the engine so the noise can be tiring after a while. Performance can be best described as adequate, although later fuel injected Rover Minis were quiet good & fuel consumption was always a strong point with a Mini.

Steering isn't power assisted, but it doesn't need to be as the Mini is lightweight & the steering feels so accurate & responsive. That's more than can be said for the gear change, when cold it can be notchy & when hot, less notchy. The gearboxes are never quiet, you are always aware of a slight whining noise from them, nothing is wrong it's just a characteristic of their unique design.

On rough roads you would swear there is no suspension in the vehicle as it crashes over bumps but the advantage is the handling which is incredible. The Mini feels like its on rails & it becomes a lot of fun throwing it around corners at speeds you would never push another small car.

The best thing about the original Mini is parking it, being so small you can place it in the smallest of spaces too small for the average car. As you would expect the boot is small & there is no hatchback facility. To may matters worse the boot also houses the fuel tank & the battery, so you need to be smart to pack a weeks worth of shopping into a Mini boot. One advantage is the boot lid is hinged from the bottom so bulky items can be carried with the lid down & the items on top.

BUYING A MINI

They are cheap to run, cheap to insure & parts are still readily available for most mechanical items although cosmetic items can be hard to find now. If you are good at DIY most jobs are relatively easy to carry out on a Mini once you get used to them. As an apprentice mechanic I worked on many Minis & never had so much cut fingers, grazed knuckles & swore so much in my life.

Tiny they are & some jobs demand amazing patience & understanding. Some jobs require special tools which can be hired out from local tool suppliers or owner's clubs.

Look out for corrosion as Minis rust everywhere, in particular the inner & outer sills, floor, rear sub frames & front wings. Just about every Mini leaked oil from the engine or gearbox but they are easy & cheap to fix. If you drive one & the transmission suffers a loud whining noise, walk away from it as it will be expensive to repair requiring a new gearbox & end housing.
Early hydraulic suspension models leak & collapse, later 'dry' ones suffer annoying clicking noises from their worn out joints, but they are quiet cheap to repair.

Don't neglect a Mini on its servicing as the front ball joints will fail, along with rear radius arm bushes, mainly due to lack of lubricant. Mini electrics are usually quiet reliable as are the engines if regularly serviced.

Most Minis had a plastic shield at the front to prevent water coming in contact with the engine electrics, if the cover is missing rain water will soak the electrics & the car won't start.

Early Minis had drum brakes all round but the front brake cylinders are known to leak & on models without dual circuit brakes it can mean sudden brake failure! Later models featured disc brakes & they were more reliable in general. Handbrake cables seize up on their pivot points but this is quiet easy & cheap to fix.

All in all, the Mini was a 20th century motoring icon, its fun & full of character which is sadly missing on modern cars. Put up with a few comprises & you will have a lot of fun owning & driving the original Mini. 

...less