DATABASE: BMW MINI

Of all the cars we might consider here under the modern classic tag, this has to be the most controversial: even the New Beetle – which was wildly different from its namesake – suffered little more than disinterested mumblings from the rear-engined air-cooled VW brigade, but the new Mini aroused unbridled hatred from owners of the original. Even today, nearly 20 years after the car was unveiled there are still those who insist on referring to the car as ‘Bini’ – the B referring of course to BMW.

There’s no excuse for intolerance but there is a reason for it, in that the new Mini – or all-capitals MINI as BMW would prefer you to call it – had its origins in a time of crisis for its maker. The project began in Longbridge, was subsequently taken over to Munich and then returned to Britain, only to be finished off back in Germany before being made production-ready at the Cowley plant. And as we all know, by the time it hit production the Mini brand was no longer a part of the surviving Rover group and had become a BMW marque.

In truth the history of the new Mini goes much further back than the Rover/BMW tangle, right to the early days of the Issigonis original. At launch in 1959 the Mini amazed the world with the lateral thinking and clever