With August 26th 2024 marking 65 years since the launch day to the public of the Mini (August 26th 1959), we thought we’d put together a selection of facts about the classic Mini you may not be aware of. Feel free to borrow some of these for your next pub or car club quiz!

Where shall we be-gin?
The door pocket capacity was said to be perfectly sized for a bottle of Gordon’s Gin. It’s worth noting it wasn’t until 1967 that drink driving laws became part of the UK Road Safety Act.

OK – let’s go
The first production Mini 621 AOK still exists and is on display at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The last off the line, the Cooper Sport bearing the registration of X411 JOP is also on display alongside.

What’s in a name?
When the Mini was launched in 1959, it was sold as the Morris Mini-Minor and Austin Se7en/Austin Seven. The Morris badged car was made at the Morris factory at Cowley, Oxfordshire and the Austin Seven was made at the Austin factory in Longbridge, Birmingham.

Silence is golden?
Alec Issigonis, the designer of the Mini, was an avid smoker but a man who believed music was unnecessary and therefore used the proposed radio space for a sumptuous ashtray instead.

A Stirling job
World-famous racing driver Stirling Moss was banned from driving for a year in 1961 after being caught speeding whilst on a test drive in a Mini for a newspaper review.

Keeping it in the family
Speaking of the Moss family, Stirling’s sister Pat Moss made up half of Mini’s first all-female racing duo. Her co-driver Ann Wisdom was pregnant in 1962 when they won the Tulip Rally.

A famous car for famous faces
The Mini is a small car with a large famous following and owners have included all four of The Beatles (Spice Girl ‘Ginger Spice’, Geri Halliwell, now owns Ringo Starr’s Radford-built Cooper S), Steve McQueen, Enzo Ferrari, Madonna, Mick Jagger and millennial pop sensation Ed Sheeran.

A 20th century influencer
At the end of the 1990s, the Global Automotive Elections Foundations took on the onerous task of deciding the most influential cars of the 20th century. The Mini was placed second, with the Model T beating it to the top spot through the legacy of the famous Ford and its status as first affordable production car.

A record breaker
The Mini has been used in all sorts of record-breaking challenges including a 2007 caper whereby 269 examples drove together in a planned act in Vancouver. Another Mini record-breaking moment was set when 28 female gymnasts crammed themselves into a Mini Cooper…all at the same time! We reckon the Vancouver record would be an easier one to beat.

Inspiring the fashion of the swinging sixties
The Mini was so loved by 60s fashion designer Mary Quant, that she borrowed the name for her daring female fashion must-have; the mini skirt. Quant was said to told journalists ‘neither is any longer than necessary’.

Style through the decades
Quant’s love affair with the Mini didn’t end at pinching the name for her daring fashion creation and she came on board with Mini in the 1980s for the Mini special edition ‘Designer’. This car sported quirky special features and was fitted with black and white striped seats with red trimming to compliment the red belts. The steering wheel was finished with Quant’s signature daisy as seen across her collections.

Twice as nice
There were over 5 million classic Minis made and if they were placed end to end, they would exceed 40,000 miles, which would take you twice around the British coastline!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Fiat’s Chief Engineer at the time of launch completely dismissed the Mini as a rival because he thought the car was ‘too ugly’. However he couldn’t be more wrong, because…

British best seller
Despite never bringing great profits to British Motor Corporation, British Leyland or Austin Rover, the Mini is the best-selling single model of any British car in history.

Utterly smashing
Being at the smaller end of the market, crash protection concerns were raised by journalists and when pressed on this, Issigonis told them ‘I make my cars with such good brakes and steering that if people get into a crash, it’s their own fault’. Not something we’d imagine would sit well with the NCAP safety rating team!

Army dropout
Although nifty in their design, the Mini derived Mini Moke wasn’t a lost cause after being rejected by military. The vehicle found a fan base with those who liked a recreational or quirky utility vehicle and a sizeable 50,000 were made in the UK between 1964 and 1968. The vehicle then found an enthusiastic following in Australia, being a great choice for beach buggies and fair-weather motoring.

‘A Series’ of engines
Over the span of its production life, the humble classic Mini was powered by seven sizes of the A Series engine - 848cc, 970cc, 997cc, 998cc, 1071cc, 1098cc and 1275cc.

Mr Bean’s famous machine
Who could forget Mr Bean’s iconic 1972 Mini 1000? Rowan Atkinson is a die-hard car fanatic and has participated in many races including those at Goodwood. He wanted to make the main character’s car a staple focus of the series and picked the Mini because he thought the car was ‘funny’ and had a BMC connection through learning to drive in his Mother’s Morris Minor. Due to the hi-jinx and a notable incident with a tank, there was more than one Mini used in the series and there were around six used across the entire series. The main car now resides in private ownership and is often seen at various classic car events.

Royal seal of approval
The Mini Cooper has found an adoring audience with all walks of life and various members of the Royal Family, past and present, have been spotted in a Mini Cooper including the late Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III.

The final hurrah
The final Mini off the production line was October 4th 2000.