A brief history of the Mini Cooper
The original Mini was designed by Sir Alex Issigonis in 1959 for the British Motor Corporation (BMC) who was seeking a product to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle, a vehicle which was selling rather well at the time due to the fuel shortage brought about by the 1956 Suez Crisis.
The little Mini quickly gained popularity and caught the attention of John Cooper, the owner of a company specializing in building Formula 1 and rally cars. Being a friend of Sir Alex, he attempted to persuade him to place more emphasis on the performance of the popular little car for competition purposes. At first, Issigonis was hesitant but finally agreed to the idea, and the first Austin/Morris Cooper appeared in 1961, with the S version following in 1963.
To say that the Mini Coopers got off to a flying start in competition would be something of an understatement. The cars took Monty Carlo Rally victories in 1965, 1966 and 1967. In fact, they also took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the 1966 event, before being disqualified on a minor technicality by the French judges.
Sadly, production of the original Mini ended in October 2000; the last car off the line was a Cooper Sport which now resides with the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust.
The Italian Job - Remake!
In 2003, an American production company attempted a remake of the original film. Although they assembled a pretty impressive cast (Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland) and added a lot of modern-day high-action film stunts, it never quite captured the flavour of the original. In my opinion, Mike Clark, film critic for USA Today, summed it up best when he described it as "a lazy and in-name-only remake."
The original Mini was designed by Sir Alex Issigonis in 1959 for the British Motor Corporation (BMC) who was seeking a product to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle, a vehicle which was selling rather well at the time due to the fuel shortage brought about by the 1956 Suez Crisis.
The little Mini quickly gained popularity and caught the attention of John Cooper, the owner of a company specializing in building Formula 1 and rally cars. Being a friend of Sir Alex, he attempted to persuade him to place more emphasis on the performance of the popular little car for competition purposes. At first, Issigonis was hesitant but finally agreed to the idea, and the first Austin/Morris Cooper appeared in 1961, with the S version following in 1963.
To say that the Mini Coopers got off to a flying start in competition would be something of an understatement. The cars took Monty Carlo Rally victories in 1965, 1966 and 1967. In fact, they also took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the 1966 event, before being disqualified on a minor technicality by the French judges.
Sadly, production of the original Mini ended in October 2000; the last car off the line was a Cooper Sport which now resides with the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust.
The Italian Job - Remake!
In 2003, an American production company attempted a remake of the original film. Although they assembled a pretty impressive cast (Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland) and added a lot of modern-day high-action film stunts, it never quite captured the flavour of the original. In my opinion, Mike Clark, film critic for USA Today, summed it up best when he described it as "a lazy and in-name-only remake."
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