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The Man Behind the Mini
Sir Alec Issigonis.
Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis was born on 18 November 1906 in Smyrna (now Izmir) Turkey. He was the only child of a marine engine designer of Greek descent but British nationality, and a German mother.
Sir Alec was therefore also British, a fact of which he was always very proud. From a very early age he demonstrated a consuming interest in all things mechanical, especially engines, but he was not to see his first motorcar until he was 16 years of age. In 1922 when the Turks re-took Smyrna from the Greeks Issigonis and his parents were evacuated by the Royal Navy to Malta, where his father died. His mother, now almost penniless, having lost everything in the evacuation, brought her son to the UK.
Sir Alec never went to school (he always had private tutors) and although he was 'down' for an English public school, this was now out of the question for financial reasons and he enrolled in a three-year engineering course at Battersea Polytechnic.
His first job in 1928 was as senior and only draughtsman with a small London firm developing an automatic clutch. The Humber Company showed an interest in this development and in 1934 he joined the Humber staff in Coventry. Two years later he joined Morris Motors at Cowley, Oxford where he was eventually to become Chief Engineer. After the war he turned his mind to a small four-door saloon which would have sophisticated handling but which would be cheap to buy and run. Sir Alec Issigonis’ automotive philosophy was to provide a vehicle that carried the greatest payload in the smallest practical space.
The result was the Morris Minor which first appeared at the 1948 Motor show. The Minor was so successful it became the first British car whose sales passed the one million mark and it continued in production for 23 years.
In 1956 he was working with BMC on a new development of front wheel drive cars when the Suez crisis erupted causing petrol rationing. Demand for small economical cars suddenly soared only to be met by imports, like the tiny two-cylinder 'bubble car'. Early in 1957, Sir Leonard Lord ordered Sir Alec to do something about it. The result was the launch in 1959 of the Mini. The car with which the name Issigonis will always be associated. Now 40 years and five and a half million Minis later, the car is still one of the most popular ever built and the most successful British car ever.
Issigonis was appointed Technical Director of BMC in 1961 and Director of Research and Development of British Leyland Austin Morris Limited in 1969. When he retired in 1971 he was retained by the Company as 'Advanced Design Consultant' to work on future products.
‘One thing that I learnt the hard way – well, not the hard way, the easy way – when you’re designing a new car for production, never, never copy the opposition.’ – Issigonis. This belief explains why the Morris Minor and the Mini looked like no other car, as indeed they were not copied or inspired by existing cars.
Sir Alec received much recognition of his genius and his contribution to automobile engineering. In 1964 he was made CBE and in 1966 was awarded the Leverhulme Gold Medal of the Royal Society, of which he was made a Fellow in 1967. He received his knighthood in 1969 and was also the recipient of honorary degrees from a number of universities.
On 4 October 1988 Sir Alec Issigomis died at age eighty one. A fulfilled life found its end, but its most ingenious creation, the MINI continues to carry its signature to the world.
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