Who makes the Mini Cooper? Here we tell you the answer of who design the Mini car, who manufacture the Mini, and who creates and make the Mini Cooper. The interesting Mini story started from 1959 when Sir Alec Issigonis designed and launched the first Mini car. In 1957, two years before the first Mini was launched, Britain was in the middle of oil crisis and demand for fuel efficient small-car is very high. At the time, president of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) Leonard Lord has decided to build a small car to support the market.

In one cold night, Lord talks to car designer Sir Alec Issigonis about his plan to build a car. Issigonis was given a task to create a British car that is able to fix in a box 10 feet long, 4 feet wide and 4 feel tall. In addition, the passenger space in the car had to comprise 60 percent of the length of the vehicle.

During that time, most of the cars had engines under 700cc and these cars are called microcars which also known as bubble cars (See also Top 10 mini cars). Issigonis worked on the Mini cars from there and an entirely new concept car was created in two years time where the first Mini 850 was launched in 1959.

In 1961, the Mini has become famous in Britain and here comes a man that foresees the potential of a Mini to become a race car. This man, John Cooper (see who is John Cooper), proposed to Issigonis with his intention to alter a Mini into a viable race car. This has resulting a simple formula where “Mini + John Cooper = Mini Cooper”. The Mini Cooper was souped-up and tuned by John Cooper in 1963 and called Mini Cooper S, a more powerful version Mini Cooper. The Mini Cooper S had won the Rally Monte-Carlo in 1964 and the winning went on 3 years continuously in 1965, 1967.

Person who makes the Mini Cooper

The first Mini is manufactured by BMC and the first model was named Austin Seven Mini. At the time all the Minis were badge under the name of Austin and Morris. The name was used until November 1969 when BMC announced both Austin and Morris names were dropped from the Mini and all models were known as “Mini”.

24 December 2000 Christmas Eve is a sad day for all the Mini Cooper enthusiasts. John Cooper died on that day and the Cooper name was licensed to BMW before his death. This makes the Mini Cooper never went anywhere. BMW produced the successor of the original Mini Cooper since April 2001. Once again the car rocks among car lovers and it has last until today. No doubt we have to salute to the person who involved in making the Mini Cooper a success.