The Mini was launched in 1959 by the British Motor Corporation, sold as both the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini-Minor. Designed by Alec Issigonis, it packed four seats into a car just ten feet long by mounting the engine transversely and driving the front wheels, a layout that most small cars have followed ever since.
In 1969 British Leyland made Mini a marque in its own right, replacing the separate Austin and Morris names. The car was built at Longbridge and at Cowley in Oxford, as well as in many overseas plants, and Mini Cooper S versions won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967. The last classic Mini left the Longbridge line in October 2000, after more than forty years in production.
BMW bought Rover Group in 1994, and when it sold the rest of the business in 2000 it kept the Mini name. In 2001 BMW launched an all-new MINI built at Plant Oxford, the former Morris Motors works at Cowley. MINI is still built at Oxford today.
Mini Moke
Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis as a lightweight, air-dropable military vehicle for British forces, the Mini Moke ultimately found fame as a cult leisure car. Utilizing standard Mini mechanicals—including the iconic A-Series engine and front-wheel-drive floorpan—encased in a simplified, open-topped utility body, it was initially manufactured at Longbridge in Birmingham from 1964 to 1968. Though rejected by the armed forces due to its low ground clearance, its rugged charm made it a global hit in warm climates, leading to extended production runs in Sydney, Australia, and Vendas Novas, Portugal, after UK assembly ended.
