MGOC Spares stock a huge range of parts & accesories for your Classic Mini! Browse through our section below to find your next essential part.
The Classic Mini - A brief history
In the aftermath of WWII and continued rationing until 1953, the UK car market was awash with sales of small economical micro cars. Cheap to buy, awful to drive, but super-efficient. Chairman of the British Motor Corporation, Leonard Lord, approached Alec Issigonis in 1955 to work on project XC9001, a medium sized family saloon car, which bore a noticeable resemblance, albeit on a larger scale, to the soon to be Mini.
In 1957, Lord told Issigonis to stop work immediately on project XC9001 and concentrate on a smaller car design. Originally known as project XC9003, by spring 1957 Issigonis and his team started work on project ADO15. The essential and main premise of the design was that it had to seat 4 adults in comfort, plus a good amount of accompanying luggage. Lord’s only caveat to the design was that it must incorporate an existing engine within the BMC range. Aside from this, Issigonis and his team were given free reign to design the car.
An icon of the 1960s pop culture, it was design masterpiece with several ingenious concepts to maximise space. A transversely mounted engine with the gearbox placed underneath alongside front wheel drive allowed 80% of the floorpan to be used for passengers & luggage.
The production of the Mini ran from 1959 until 2000 with over 5.3 million cars being produced.