The ingenious Mini, of which thousands were sold under the Austin and Morris brands, comes of greater age, as it turns a mega 60 years
04 April 2019 - 05:07The last of the round-nosed Minis, built here between 1959 and 1979. This is a special moonlight edition. Picture: SUPPLIEDHere was a car so radically unlike anything else that had gone beforet that it was almost as if, with a few strokes of the pen designer Alec Issigonis had reinvented the wheel if not the concept of personalised transport.
It was launched as the ultimate low-cost British people’s car, and it was so austere it came with rubber mats instead of carpets and perspex sliding side windows instead of glass wind-up items. The starter switch was a rubber button on the floor. There was no dashboard, just one round dial plonked in the middle of a parcel shelf below the windscreen. But the price was right — the British pound equivalent of R1,050 when it broke cover here in the final month of the 1950s.
The Mini’s significance saw it voted as Number Two in the World Car of the Century competition in 1999 . The Mini Cooper, and especially the Cooper S that followed, was a giant killer of massive proportions. This little car could accelerate to 100 km/h in about 12,5 seconds and top out at just under 160 km/h, in its final 1,275cc, 70hp Cooper S form. You could instantly recognise the South African Cooper and Cooper S models by their British Racing Green colour scheme, with a white roof and gold wheels.
The Mini’s agile handling was made for motor sport. It gained immortality with a trio of victories in the Monte Carlo Rally between 1964 and 1967. Picture: SUPPLIED Other SA-specific notables that we produced here included a more expensive Wolseley-nosed Mini that used the original body, whereas in Britain it had a tiny boot. Then SA introduced its own version of the Mini Mk III in late 1969, which had a round-nose front, and the extended boot found only to be found on Riley and Wolseley models in the UK. Another variant we built here, mainly for military use, was the open-bodied Mini Moke .
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