Mini - short, shorter, Minissima
11/08/2018
Introduced in 1959, the Mini turned the car world on its head with its 3.05 meter shortness. The revolutionary concept was built in length, resulting in the recently portrayed Traveller/Countryman estate, as well as the Austin/Morris 1100.
In 1973, however, British Leyland presented a shortened Mini variant and called it the "Minissima". The study was shown at the London Motor Show and attracted a lot of attention.
The Automobil Revue wrote at the time:
" On the Austin stand, which was well-stocked with cars, we discovered the futuristic-looking Minissima, a city car study based on the Mini. The familiar 850 engine serves as the drive unit, which is mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. This ultra-short city car - the Mini is a full 75 cm longer - seats four people, with the rear passengers sitting facing each other at right angles to the direction of travel. The study obviously does not yet claim to be ready for production; in our opinion, two important points in particular need to be improved before then: The Minissima only has a single door at the rear; in the event of a rear-end collision, this could turn the city car into an uncomfortable, dangerous prison. In addition, it has no luggage compartment, so the occupants still have to share the sparse space with shopping nets."
The latter would certainly have been forgivable as the Minissima was only 230 cm long and therefore easily 75 cm shorter than the original Mini. The design came from Bill Towns, the mechanics from the Mini 850 Automat. Despite its modest dimensions, the Minissima was quite spacious.
At the 1974 New York Auto Show, when fuel economy was elevated to the supreme discipline, the super-short Mini reappeared as the only official "dream car", as Automobil Revue reported:
" This lone dream car was the one-door "Minissima" from British Leyland, and it goes 40 miles on a gallon of gas - it consumes only 5.88 liters per 100 km. Now you finally know what you can think about at night: the vehicle whose engine you feed drop by drop with a pipette ."
This was not the end of the concept car's career. Eventually, it was to become a vehicle for the disabled, through which a wheelchair user could drive directly into the car via the rear door. Despite interesting approaches, the project ultimately died due to high costs.
