How many people can you fit in a MINI? What’s the longest recorded convoy? We’ve got those answers and more right here.
This, from “MINI: An Intimate Biography”… ten things you didn’t know about the legend behind the legend:
1) Issigonis's first design sketch for the MINI was actually drawn on a napkin in Switzerland. (Aren’t most great ideas originally sketched out on a napkin? A cocktail napkin, no doubt?)
2) In 1961, race driver Stirling Moss was banned for a year for speeding in a MINI, allegedly while testing it for a Sunday newspaper article. (He is a race driver, isn’t he? What did they expect him to do?)
3) In 1964, BMC tested a 2.3-liter MINI with engines at both ends. It was so fast development was dropped. (Both ends? Wonder how fast it went in reverse?)
4) Rumor has it Issigonis designed the door bins in the original MINI to hold a bottle of gin and several tonics. Or maybe it was just pints of milk. (You can’t keep a good Brit down, can you?)
5) How many people can you fit in a MINI? The record is 66, apparently. (Any takers?)
6) Longest Mini convoy? 269 cars. (We know, we know… you’re working on it, right?)
7) Joanne Westlake was the first person to be born in a Mini. (Guess naming the baby Issigonis wouldn’t have been prudent.)
8) Actor Kevin Spacey once paid $130,000 for the last classic MINI Cooper to be built. (Hey Kevin – they’ve improved it since then!)
9) Most famous death in a Mini? Marc Bolan of the band T Rex, who was in a crash in a 1275 GT. (Had they changed the door bins, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened!)
10) The breathtaking escape through the Turin sewers by gold bar-filled Mini Coopers in The Italian Job was actually filmed in Coventry, England. (That’s why they used Charleze Theron; to keep our eyes off the scenery!)
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