MrMad

Some history

Designed as project Austin Drawing Office project number 15, the Mini came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis.Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of large cars slumped, the market for German Bubble cars boomed. Leonard Lord, the somewhat autocratic head of BMC, reportedly decreed: 'God damn these b****y awful Bubble Cars. We must drive them off the road by designing a proper miniature car'. He laid down some basic design requirements: ...