THE CREATOR OF AN ICONIC CAR: ALEC ISSIGONIS. Giving the Mini, ADO16 and ADO17 were all designed well before hatchbacks were popular, the beancounters no doubt would be up in arms at the thought of spending more money on tooling for an already old design. Issigonis usually won, even when entered in the 1100cc class if there was no 750cc category. Issigonis and Dowson then travelled into Austria to the mountain climb competition at the then new Grossglockner Hochalpen Pass. Sketch by the late Sir Alec Issigonis, of the original Morris Minor, circa 1946. The Mini went on to become the best selling British car in history with a production run of 5.3million cars. - Wikipedia All I know is, which car I would rather be in driving if there was any tricky situation [], DAILY MIRROR By Richard Sear No man looks less designed to start off the cult of the miniature. Oxbotica Toronto Office. The childhood . This was to be an advanced saloon with all aluminium V-8 engine, and the original plan was for Alvis to produce 5,000 cars a year, or ten times Alviss current production rate, to compete with Riley (not then a badge engineered BMC product), Rover, Sunbeam-Talbot and Jaguar. Even as Britain entered the 1960s, product planning remained something of an alien concept to its native carmakers, the majority of whom viewed such matters as being the sort of recondite nonsense invented in the United States, and best left there. Gillett was developing a freewheel device for use on cars, partly as a refinement and fuel economy device, and partly to reduce the need for double declutching gearchanges in the pre-synchromesh era. Alec Issigonis Biography | HowOld.co Dear Mr Day I have not met you but I feel I must write to explain a few points. To clarify, the Renault 4, 5 (first generation, Le Car), 6 and 16 all had longitudinally mounted engines. Alec Issigonis was born in the Year of the Horse. Engine access on the Mini was very awkward, and this was only improved on the ADO16 because Jack Daniels was able to keep Issigonis away from the detail work, which was largely done at Cowley in Oxford rather than Longbridge. I was amazed at the amount of space in that car you could even hide things in the cubbyhole under the rear seat. Your email address will not be published. Arguably, Issigonis and BL were in danger of being left behind. [3][6] His father died shortly after and Issigonis and his mother moved to the United Kingdom in 1923. He would attend the usual motor shows, but often would refuse to look in detail at the competition, so he did not become confused. Unfortunately I didnt turn out quite as brilliant, but I like to think I missed out some of the stubbornness/arrogance as well. As British subjects - his father having naturalised whilst studying engineering in London in 1897 - Issigonis and his parents were evacuated to Malta by the Royal Navy in September 1922 ahead of the Great Fire of Smyrna and the Turkish capture of Smyrna at the end of the Greco-Turkish War. Contents Early life and education Career Legacy Honours Some of his cars Alec Issigonis and Dr Alex Moulton, the creator of Hydrolastic and Hydragas suspension, with a Morris 1100, circa 1962. The third front wheel drive car from BMC was the 1964 ADO17 Austin 1800 (or Landcrab), a car which Issigonis has been quoted as identifying as the design he was most proud of, and then the Austin Maxi in 1969 with less successful results. It was at Alvis that Issigonis first worked with another of the influential characters of his career. The Renault 14 was transversely engined, from 1976. His motor industry career at Humber, and during his time there, he competed in motor racing notably designing his own lightweight version of a supercharged Ulster Austin Seven with his own front axle. Sir Alec Issigonis - Motoring Weekly Thank you very much for a wonderful biography. Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS, RDI (Alec Issigonis) was born on 18 November 1906 in Smyrna in Greece (now Izmir, Turkey) and would become world-renowned for designing the Mini and Morris Minor for BMC. My Family's Cars and Industry Pivots: Transverse Mounted Front Wheel Drive Ive often wondered how its 35 horses managed the Berkshires . It was also a specialist low volume producer of expensive, exclusive sports saloons cars not now associated with Issigonis and was at the same crossroads that so many smaller, upscale producers had been. The Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum is now home to the Issigonis Prototype 1970 Mini 9X 'Gearless', donated to the Museum by the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon, Warwickshire. The Creator of An Iconic Car: Alec Issigonis. - Mini It was a very ambitious intention, which Alvis were not capable of delivering on without importing a lot of engineering talent. [7] This ground-breaking design, with its front wheel drive, transverse engine, sump gearbox, 10-inch wheels, and phenomenal space efficiency, was still being manufactured in 2000 and has been the inspiration for almost all small front-wheel drive cars produced since the early 1960s. The Mini remains one of the most important motoring icons of the 1960s, so it's only natural that the band would want a piece of the action as Beatles mania took hold. However, as we all know, it was no profit-maker for BMC and, during its hyper-successful first decade on the market, its maker cruelly and criminally failed to develop the concept into something that the customers truly wanted a hatchback. He persisted in this into the 1980s, competing in vain against the Austin Metro, an improved version of the BMC A series engine and seemingly oblivious to the Companys financial state. Therefore some functionality is missing. Kereta rekaannya, BMC Mini dilancarkan dalam tahun 1959. On October 2, 1988, he passed . BMC and Issigonis were awarded the Dewar Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) for the innovative design and production of the Mini. The Crossword Solver finds answers to classic crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles. August 26, 2019. Tragically, Constantine Issigonis contracted a serious illness, and died in Malta in June 1923. The 1100 benefited from someone elses external design. Another Mini! Alec Issigonis: straight from a family thrilled by technology. Fascinating lost papers from the man who created the Mini and the. But at the age of 50, he began designing one of the most iconic vehicles ever produced: the classic Mini. Alec Issigonis's mother was German, and it was on her side of the family that he was a first cousin once removed to automobile engineer and executive manager Bernd Pischetsrieder. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Sir Alec Issigonis started his career at Humber, known for their Humber Snipe and Humber Hawk models, even Queen Elizabeth II owned a Humber. Smrna was then the second city of the Ottoman Empire and had a local population of around one million, of which more than half were Greek. I am well acquainted with the brilliant/stubborn/arrogant type of engineer, I have occasionally served as a Daniels, and my own brilliant/stubborn/arrogant Grandfather could have probably used one too. Issigonis had a reputation, deserved by all accounts, for arrogance and irascibility, an inability to suffer fools at all, and restricted his contact to as a small as a group as he could. Category:Alec Issigonis - Wikimedia Commons An amazing man, and someone who would probably never rise to prominence in todays auto industry. Alec Issigonis - the genius behind the Mini and the Morris Minor - AROnline Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). This is the main reason Lord re-hired Issigonis. Alec Issigonis (Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis) was born in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire (now Izmir, Turkey). From 1925-1928 he studied engineering at Battersea Polytechnic in London. [citation needed] He considered it to be a vehicle that combined many of the luxuries and conveniences of a good motor car with a price suitable for the working classes in contrast to the Mini which was a spartan mode of conveyance with everything cut to the bone. BMC had internally identified the need to move on from the concepts behind the Minor and A30, leaving behind the classic front engine, semi-elliptic spring concept but there was little clarity on which direction was perceived to be the way to go. Issigonis - Hero or Villain? | ViaRETRO Red: Yeah, its mine. Once more details are available, we will update this section. He was also referred to as the Greek God, perhaps more openly. At the time of his retirement, 71, hatchbacks were not the thing they were 4 years later. When Alvis cancelled the project, Issigonis was invited by BMC Chairman Sir Leonard Lord to return to BMC at Longbridge, as Chief Body and Chassis engineer, and reporting to BMC Technical Director Sydney Smith. Issigonis did observe and try to improve on what he saw, but always challenged himself to be original and better. LJK Setright, in his book The Designers describes Issigonis as working as a sculptor works, moving masses into different juxtapositions until his trained eye told him they were right. Alec Issigonis, or more formally Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis CBE FRS RDI* (1906 1988), is best known as the creator of the Mini, but he also designed two other cars that have featured on CC and that are amongst the best-selling cars in British motoring history the Morris Minor and the Austin-Morris 1100 (ADO16). Here in Australia they didnt seem particularly small, but they were certainly a lot more roomy than the competition. Dr.Ing. People born under this sign are seen as warm-hearted and easygoing. Who are the richest people in the world? Young Alec grew up in a very affluent environment, with influences from Germany and Greece (he grew up speaking German and Greek), rather than Turkey and Britain. Issigonis actually sketched the Minis original design with a pencil on a tablecloth. His mother was from Bavaria. Alec Issigonis, technical director of the British Motor Corporation and Charles Griffin, chief engineer, answer questions from our technical editor. Alec Issigonis Facts for Kids - Kiddle It was designed to follow on from the Mini and 1100 as the next generation . His father, a successful and wealthy shipbuilding engineer, was of Greek origin but held a British passport.