"On 26 August 1959, motoring history was made. Exactly 54 years ago, the first Mini was launched to the public, and its creator, Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, stood proudly alongside to show the world his – and the British Motor Corporation’s – answer to the bubble cars. As we all know, the way we looked at small cars, and what they were capable of, changed in that one single moment.
The front-wheel drive Mini could seat four passengers, and their luggage, and was capable of driving up what would become Britain’s motorway network (the Preston by-pass had been opened late in 1958, but most people will tell you that the motorway age really began with the opening of the M1 in November 1959) at its future speed limit of 70mph. It was clever, it was cheap, and in short, it was a revolution.
What fewer people will tell you is that the day of the Mini’s launch also marked the end of production of the line for the much-loved Austin A35. But then, the Mini represented the beginning of the modern era in UK car manufacturing, whereas the A35, was more like a very amiable evolution of an archaic (in comparison) concept. It might have been launched as the Austin Se7en and the Morris Mini Minor, but most people soon began calling Britain’s new mini-car by its rightful name. Mini."
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