Having recently seen a large number of classic Minis pouring out of the city in the bright morning sunshine, no doubt heading for adventure, I was reminded of how small these Minis really are.  Once a ubiquitous sight on every street, their numbers have now dwindled to such an extent that it is increasingly rare to see one in regular use.  How compact they are, yet the interior space belies their diminutive dimensions.  I remember – on a journey with Alex Moulton – finding one parked up in a side street.  He was delighted to see it.  “Ah, a Mini! Just look how small it is! Tiny!”  He proceeded to examine it in some detail, perhaps remembering those heady days in the late 1950s working on these ‘pocket rockets’ with his friend and collaborator Alec Issigonis. 

The story is well known.  Issigonis designed cars with a maximum of internal space within as small a footprint as possible.  The innovative features of transverse engine, front wheel drive and Moulton’s rubber suspension meant that the ‘engine room’ only took up 20% of the car’s length, leaving the other 80% for passengers and luggage.  The British Motor Corporation dubbed it ‘Wizardry and Wheels’ and to get so much into a length of only ten feet (just over three metres) really was remarkable. 

Every detail was considered as the design team ‘fought for every quarter-inch’.  Early models even featured storage baskets under the rear seat base and sliding windows to allow of the fitment of commodious door pockets.  Issigonis would quip that these door pockets were capable of carrying the ingredients of a perfect dry martini – twenty-seven bottles of gin and one of vermouth!

Contrast this with the cars of today, where the ‘reverse tardis’ effect is all too common.  Large, bulky, imposing – even aggressive – on the outside, yet often small, cramped and dark on the inside.  Modern cars represent progress in many ways, but at least as far as packaging is concerned, those 1960s Issigonis cars (all of them on Moulton suspension) are still the leaders of the pack.  Alec Issigonis was uncompromising on getting this right, and it still shows today. 

Some would say he took this principle to extremes and a little give-and-take would have improved some aspects of the Mini.  Certainly anyone who has struggled with maintenance and repair of the mechanical parts under the tiny bonnet will have wished for an extra inch of space here and there, and would it really have been to the detriment of the car?  Mercifully, after a few teething problems, the innovative drivetrain proved to be durable and reliable, at least by the standards of the day.

Alex Moulton converted his 1966 Morris Cooper S into a miniature limousine.  With one seat in the front for the driver, and one in the rear for himself, he was able to travel in comfort and continue working during his weekly journeys to Coventry and Longbridge.  This was his innovative answer to the 1970s oil crisis, and one that does not look out of place today.  To smooth the ride his Mini was also fitted with his own Hydragas suspension; the rubber cone suspension being perhaps too bouncy whilst trying to write notes.  Government ministers would later benefit from this when the Leyland Princess was introduced in 1975.

You can read more about Alex Moulton and the Mini here.