50 Fun Facts About Mini Cooper

Which London fashion designer said she named the miniskirt after her favourite car, the Mini?

Mary Quant said the car and the skirt suited each other, calling both optimistic, exuberant, young and flirty. Her short hemlines became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s.

The Mini's designer said he sized its door bins to hold the ingredients of which cocktail?

Dry martini was his favourite drink, so each bin was shaped to take one bottle of vermouth and two bottles of gin. Similar bins beside the rear seats also braced the thin body panels.

In the 1969 film The Italian Job, what loot do the thieves load into three Mini Coopers?

Gold worth $4 million is split between the boots of the three cars, which then escape over rooftops, down stairs and through sewers.

Which British sitcom character drives a citron-green Mini with a matte black bonnet and a padlock?

Mr. Bean locks his Mini with a bolt-latch and padlock, and in two episodes he takes the steering wheel away with him as extra security.

Which carmaker kept the Mini brand for itself when it broke up the Rover Group in 2000?

BMW let Land Rover, MG and Rover go but held on to the Mini name, then launched an all-new hatchback under it in 2001.

In a 1999 vote for Car of the Century, the Mini finished second to which mass-produced car?

Ford Model T took the global title, with the Mini placed ahead of the Citroën DS and Volkswagen Beetle. The same contest named the Mini European Car of the Century.

The Mini Moke, a jeep-like buggy using Mini parts, is named after old slang for which animal?

Donkey is what moke means in old British slang. About 50,000 Mokes were built, and Macau's police even adopted them as official transport.

Which food company gave away 57 convertible Wolseley Hornet Minis as competition prizes in 1966?

Heinz had the cars converted by the coachbuilder Crayford, and many of the 57 were still on the road more than fifty years later.

The Mini Cooper S beat far bigger cars to win which famous motorsport event in 1964, 1965 and 1967?

Monte Carlo Rally victories went to three different drivers, each in a Mini prepared by the BMC competition department at Abingdon.

In 1972, a Mini-based promotional car for the Outspan brand was built in the shape of which fruit?

Orange was the shape, because Outspan sold South African citrus. Brian Waite Enterprises of East Sussex built the cars, and several still survive.

Which engineer, who raced cars he had modified himself in the 1930s, designed the original Mini?

Alec Issigonis trusted sharp steering and stopping power so much that, asked about crash safety, he said he did not design his cars to have accidents.

Petrol rationing in Britain after which event led BMC to rush out a tiny economy car, the Mini?

Suez Crisis fuel shortages sank sales of large cars in 1956, so the head of BMC demanded a proper miniature car built around an existing engine.

John Cooper, whose name is on the Mini Cooper, built world title-winning cars in which motorsport?

Formula One titles in 1959 and 1960 went to his rear-engined cars, and every champion since has sat in front of the engine.

Instead of conventional springs, the original Mini's suspension used cones of which material?

Rubber cones saved space inside the cabin, needed no maintenance and grew stiffer the harder they were squeezed.

The Mini Cooper getaway in the 1969 film The Italian Job races through which Italian city?

Turin grinds to a halt after the gang sabotages its traffic control centre, and the Minis dodge the jam by using pedestrian streets.

The modern Mini hatchback went into production in 2001 at the Cowley plant in which English city?

Oxford has built cars at Cowley since before the First World War, and the works was renamed Plant Oxford when it was kept on to make the new Mini.

The Mini's sharp handling, with a wheel at each corner, is famously compared to which small vehicle?

Go-kart handling came from the stiff suspension cones and the wheels' position at the very corners of the body, at the price of a raw, bumpy ride.

Mini Cooper rally winners Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen both came from which Nordic country?

Finland turned out so many fast rally drivers that they became known as the Flying Finns, and Mäkinen was one of the originals.

Minis that took the top three places in a famous 1966 rally were disqualified over which car part?

Headlights with a non-standard dimming circuit got the cars thrown out, handing victory to a Citroën that had crossed the line fifth.

BMC chief Leonard Lord wanted the Mini to drive which tiny German imports off British roads?

Bubble cars boomed while fuel was scarce, and Lord reportedly detested them so much that he vowed to rid the streets of them.

Which actor plays Charlie Croker, leader of the Mini-driving gang in the 1969 film The Italian Job?

Michael Caine also sings on the soundtrack, joining the chorus of the song that plays during the climactic car chase.

Alex Moulton, designer of the Mini's suspension, launched a small-wheeled version of what in 1962?

Bicycle design became Moulton's second success: his small-wheeled bike with its own suspension made his firm Britain's second-largest frame builder.

Which overseas country took the lion's share of the classic Minis built in the early 1990s?

Japan embraced the car as a retro-cool icon, and its buyers were especially fond of the turbocharged ERA Mini.

Which hatchback was launched in 1980 as the Mini's successor, only to go out of production first?

Austin Metro sales began in 1980, but the model, by then badged as a Rover, was dropped in 1997, three years before the last Mini was built.

Which Mini Cooper driver's 1964 rally win brought telegrams from the Prime Minister and the Beatles?

Paddy Hopkirk became a household name overnight and was given the Freedom of the City of Belfast, his birthplace.

For subway scenes in the 2003 film The Italian Job, three Mini Coopers were fitted with what?

Electric motors were needed because combustion engines were not allowed in the tunnels, so three of the film's 32 custom-built Minis were converted.

The Australian-built Mini K of 1969 took the letter in its name from which animal?

Kangaroo was reportedly chosen because the animal is said to go all day without drinking, a nod to the car's frugal fuel use.

Before the Mini, its designer created which British family car, built from 1948 until 1971?

Morris Minor development began under the wartime codename Mosquito, and it went on to become the first British car to sell over a million.

The Mini's designer was born in 1906 in Smyrna, a port city that now lies in which country?

Turkey has officially called the city Izmir since 1930; his family held British nationality and were evacuated to Malta by the Royal Navy in 1922.

Which Mini model, first sold in 2010, was the brand's first compact crossover SUV?

Countryman revived the name of a 1960s Mini estate car, and it became the first modern Mini to be assembled outside Britain.

To save space, the original Mini of 1959 mounted its four-cylinder engine in which unusual position?

Sideways across the car, with the gearbox tucked into the sump beneath it, the engine left 80% of the floor area for people and luggage.

Which type of door window on the earliest Minis freed up elbow room and space for big storage bins?

Sliding panes let the doors be a single thin skin of steel; customer demand later brought wind-up glass, which Australian-built Minis had from 1965.

The 1961 Mini Cooper stood out among small cars for having which technology on its front wheels?

Disc brakes were rare on small cars then, and the Cooper paired them with twin carburettors and a tuned engine giving 55 bhp instead of 34.

Which flag's pattern is built into the rear lights of later third-generation Mini hatchbacks?

The Union Jack tail lights became standard equipment with the model's 2021 update, a nod to the car's British roots.

The first-generation modern Mini Cooper S boosted its engine's power with which device?

Supercharger power gave way to a turbo for the sake of efficiency, and the last supercharged special edition was hand-finished by Bertone in Italy.

The last classic Mini was built in October 2000 at the Longbridge plant in which English city?

Birmingham's Longbridge works stood next to the old BMC headquarters, and the final car, a red Cooper Sport, was presented to a heritage trust.

The Mini Moke began life as a lightweight parachute-droppable vehicle pitched to which organisation?

The British Army turned it down because of its poor ground clearance and low power, so the Moke went on sale to the public instead.

Mini Mokes made many appearances in which 1960s British TV series starring Patrick McGoohan?

The Prisoner helped give the Moke its cult following, and the car that featured in the series sold at auction in 2021 for £69,750.

A Mini crossover run by the X-raid team won which off-road event four years running from 2012?

Dakar Rally victories began in 2012 with Stéphane Peterhansel at the wheel, and the fourth win in 2015 came with every Mini reaching the finish.

The 1960 Mini Traveller estate wore decorative, non-structural rear trim made from which wood?

Ash framing echoed pre-war shooting brakes and earned the car the nickname woodie; a cheaper all-steel version soon followed.

Which Italian firm, famous for its Lambretta scooters, also built Minis under licence in Milan?

Innocenti later launched its own rebodied hatchback on Mini mechanicals, and for a time there were plans for it to replace the British original.

Mini Coopers filled the first nine places in the 1966 Gallaher 500 at which Australian circuit?

Mount Panorama at Bathurst saw rally star Rauno Aaltonen and local racer Bob Holden win by a lap as Minis swept the leading positions.

The 2001 Mini's petrol engine came from Tritec, a joint venture with which American carmaker?

Chrysler set up Tritec with Rover in 1997 and built the engines in Brazil, where the same unit was also made for some of its own cars.

What was the name of the Riley-badged twin of the Wolseley Hornet, a luxury Mini with a longer boot?

Elf was Riley's second choice: the firm wanted to call the car the Imp, but Hillman had already registered that name.

Minis made for Chile from 1970 met strict local-content rules by using bodies of which material?

Fibreglass shells, taken from a mould made by Peel Engineering, can be recognised by their missing body seams and larger panel gaps.

Which tyre maker won the first contract to make tyres for the original Mini's ten-inch wheels?

Dunlop first turned down the designer's request for even smaller eight-inch wheels, and the ten-inch size was agreed instead.

Mini's first crossover SUV, launched in 2010, was assembled by Magna Steyr in which country?

Austria's city of Graz was home to the production line, and the 250,000th example was built there in March 2013.

The Mini Van sold well in 1960s Britain because, as a commercial vehicle, it escaped which cost?

Purchase tax, Britain's sales tax of the day, did not apply to commercial vehicles, so the van was a cheaper way into Mini ownership, and more than half a million were built.

After quitting the United States in 1968, the classic Mini sold until 1980 in which nearby country?

Canada went on selling Minis after tougher 1968 safety and emissions rules ended American sales, though later cars needed high bumpers and seat-belt buzzers.

A playful extra gauge on the second-generation Mini Convertible records the minutes the car spends in which state?

With the roof down, the gauge counts up minute by minute; Mini marketed it as the Openometer on the soft-top first sold in 2009.