In the BMC Production line Sir Alec Issigonis, was nicknamed sir Alec Arragonis! Due to not being able to take criticism!
It is also likely Sir Alec was homosexual and never married
Alex Moulton was an open Homosexual.
the Electricity Council built an electric Mini in th 1980s . It was capable of 40mph over 25 miles after a 4 hour charge.
Previously, BLMC showed a Mini based Leyland Compton Electracar at the Geneva show in 1972.
When the Mini first went racing its tiny wheels made the tyres hotter than any formula one car, - well above boiling point.
There are just over 3000 screws, nuts and bolts in a Mini
The early flat topped chrome lidded Cooper ashtray in the dash rail had a squared off tag to lift the lid, later ones had a rounded lift tag.
No Mini got door switches to control the interior lamp until 1964.
alec issignis was a chain smoker so the mini had an ashtray as standard but he hated music so there was no stereo!
At Battersea Technical College, the young Alec Issigonis failed his maths exam three times
The 12" wheels standardised on Minis in 1984 gave virtually the same rolling radious as the original 10" wheels because of the lower profile tyres fitted to them.
If you parked all the Minis ever made end to end they would reach from London to Sydney, Austrailia 10,568 miles away. It would take 188 gallons of unleaded to drive there as the crow flies.
Niki Lauda's (racing driver) first racing success was behind the wheel of a Mini Cooper on a hillclimb event
The Italian Job sewer scenes (in Coventry) were shot in the tunnel from behind by a camera mounted on a Mini Moke. It was planned for one of the Minis to do a complete loop of the tunnel but after 3 attempts the Mini landed on its roof and was too badly damaged to undertake the stunt a fourth time probably due to the slippery algae on the walls. On rehearsal one Mini did manage to do a 360-degree loop, unfortunately no camera was rolling at the time, so the whirlgig stunt was the only one which defeated the crew and never made it into the film.
The first Metric threads in a mini are in the 10mm nuts used to adjust the handbrake when the set up was changed in the 80's.
The best year for Mini sales was 1971 at 318,475 cars[/li][/list]
