Brief History About MINI
The Mini was built from 1959 under the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in England.
The Mini was the brainchild of Leonard Lord, who assembled a group of designers and engineers to build the Mini. The main designer was Alec Issigonis and with his team, they set about building a spacious, yet small economical car with clear requirements for its design. What they built was a design and engineering marvel. Originally given the name of Morris Mini Minor or the Austin Seven Mini, sales of the small car took off.
In 1961/62 the small car was renamed to Austin Mini. Also in 1961 John Cooper of the Cooper Car Company, got involved with helping to build the Mini Cooper and produce a much more performance oriented Mini. The Cooper Mini’s were soon being used for motorsport events and in 1962, John Love won the British Saloon Car Championship driving a Mini Cooper. It has also won the Monte Carlo Rally several times, as well as numerous other motor racing events.
In 1969 Mini became a brand in its own right.
The long standing classic shaped Mini has been available with various body styles and performance levels and has had several owners and badge changes throughout its lifetime, until its production ended in 2000.
In 2001 Mini’s owner BMW sold the Rover Group, which it had purchased in 1994, but retained the rights to the Mini brand, launching the BMW Mini that same year. Since then the Mini has seen many changes and grown quite noticeably in size. Mini Coopers are still available through BMW, but you can also get even more with a John Cooper Works Mini. JCW was setup in 2000, by Michael Cooper, the son of John Cooper and provides the next step on from the BMW Cooper prepared Minis.
Classic Cooper & Cooper S 1961-2000
JCW (John Cooper Works) 2005 on
