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Sorry Mab nicked your pic

I was looking at this picture and thought.

How well the mini has stood the test of time for a car who's silhouette basically never changed in 41 years of production. (clubmans aside)

And now even 62 years later it still look's current and nowhere near antiquated.

Or am i just a typical mini lover looking through rose tinted glasses lol

Is there any other cars that have stood the 60 odd years old test of time so well ?

Excluding exotics such as Jaguar Aston Martin etc

I think you need to clean the lenses on your rose tints so you can see your calculator buttons, looks like you must have hit the 4 instead of the 5 when calculation the production years.

I guess the basic shape has stood the test of time because BMW still build cars based on the original design ques, if a bit larger and chunky.

I thought the Mini was out of date back in the 1970s when everyone had shifted to straight lines, then curves came back, the straight lines, and now car design is just horrible. I can not think of one new car that is an iconic shape apart from the odd retro inspired design such as the Honda E.

I think you are right Nick.

It IS a truly timeless design.

To some extent simply because it lasted so long, but also because it has bags of character. Something lacking in most ,modern car designs.

Sorry that Mini City Photo brings back a horror story as to when i purchased a "NEW" Mini City for the Wife .. back in the day i went to fit a speaker under rear parcel shelf to find horrific Rust apparent as there was no paint not even a primer in that area & this car was Leyland NEW .. there was Rust throughout that car .. Dealer Hartwells repainted also the front end what a cock up & bodge that was ..my first new car just had to GO .. so sorry no rose tints at this location .. lets be honest if you have a early Mini its had a proper re-build or it is a pile of Rust
Can agree with the original 1950,s Design & Concept

surfblue63 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 2:06 pm I think you need to clean the lenses on your rose tints so you can see your calculator buttons, looks like you must have hit the 4 instead of the 5 when calculation the production years.

I will give them a clean been painting today must have overspray on them
Made the correction

Polarsilver wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 2:47 pm Sorry that Mini City Photo brings back a horror story as to when i purchased a "NEW" Mini City for the Wife .. back in the day i went to fit a speaker under rear parcel shelf to find horrific Rust apparent as there was no paint not even a primer in that area & this car was Leyland NEW .. there was Rust throughout that car .. Dealer Hartwells repainted also the front end what a cock up & bodge that was ..my first new car just had to GO .. so sorry no rose tints at this location .. lets be honest if you have a early Mini its had a proper re-build or it is a pile of Rust
Can agree with the original 1950,s Design & Concept

I didnt really mean the City in particular. just happened to use that image. just ment the basic mini silhouette remained more or less unchanged throughout it's production history.

Unlike the Ford fiesta, Ford Escort etc that moved with the times.

The Land Rover Series/Defender falls into the same category. Woefully out of date but ubiquitous design that people could relate to.

I think the early R50/53 MINI shape has also stood the test of time and has not dated like most of it's contemporary small car rivals. Not so sure the same will apply to the later incarnations of the MINI hatches which seem to have followed the usual modern design process of making cars bigger, bulkier and uglier with each new replacement.

mab01uk wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:39 pm I think the early R50/53 MINI shape has also stood the test of time and has not dated like most of it's contemporary small car rivals. Not so sure the same will apply to the later incarnations of the MINI hatches which seem to have followed the usual modern design process of making cars bigger, bulkier and uglier with each new replacement.

Don't think it will ever be considered as a design "icon" like the proper Mini/Landrover though, just another modern car.

The Mini shape was a functional engineering design which has become timeless over the years probably because it never really followed the fashions of car design, except maybe briefly in the 1970's with the Clubman front...

I think Issigonis is often quoted as saying:
"You design ladies clothes, they will go out of fashion in a few years, my cars will still be in fashion even when I'm dead" - Alec Issigonis.

Functional design worked well with the Mini as a small basic car but not so well with his larger BMC 1800 'Landcrab', Austin 3-litre or Maxi designs....

Overheard 2 five year old boys walking past my Mini a few years back, their comment still makes me laugh "Wow look at that funny little car from the olden days!"

nick@dunsdale wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:30 pm city.jpg

Sorry Mab nicked your pic

I was looking at this picture and thought.

How well the mini has stood the test of time for a car who's silhouette basically never changed in 41 years of production. (clubmans aside)

And now even 62 years later it still look's current and nowhere near antiquated.

Or am i just a typical mini lover looking through rose tinted glasses lol

Is there any other cars that have stood the 60 odd years old test of time so well ?

Excluding exotics such as Jaguar Aston Martin etc

My mum had a City identical to that, FRN769W, bequeathed to her by her Uncle. It was a cracking car, i drove it when i passed my test, it went REALLY well, one of the best 998s I've driven. Sadly it ended up red and white and a rally car.

SMOKE GREY wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:15 pm

nick@dunsdale wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:30 pm city.jpg

Sorry Mab nicked your pic

I was looking at this picture and thought.

How well the mini has stood the test of time for a car who's silhouette basically never changed in 41 years of production. (clubmans aside)

And now even 62 years later it still look's current and nowhere near antiquated.

Or am i just a typical mini lover looking through rose tinted glasses lol

Is there any other cars that have stood the 60 odd years old test of time so well ?

Excluding exotics such as Jaguar Aston Martin etc

My mum had a City identical to that, FRN769W, bequeathed to her by her Uncle. It was a cracking car, i drove it when i passed my test, it went REALLY well, one of the best 998s I've driven. Sadly it ended up red and white and a rally car.

Looks like it disappeared from the road around 1992....a Mini City of that era is now a rare car to see in original standard spec.
FRN769W
✗ Untaxed
Tax due: 27 February 1992

I’d say the Mk1 Escort still looks the biz, in fact the curves of a good few 60s cars still look great, it’s the boxy cars of the 70s and 80s that look terribly dated.

There a design that still looks fresh.

When you see classic cars of the 1950/60/70's in modern traffic they do now look very small, narrow and vulnerable now we are so used to seeing bulky modern cars and oversized SUV's as the norm. I was following an MGB GT the other day and it looked much smaller and narrower than I remember when they were a common sight on the roads. The other thing I usually notice when following classic cars in traffic including early Minis is the smell of exhaust fumes, many seem to be running far too rich or stuck on choke.....or maybe I have just got used to the cleaner exhaust emissions of modern vehicles? I remember being a passenger as a kid in my dad's car when he would be trying to overtake a bus or lorry belching out visible stinking diesel exhaust fumes especially going up hills!

mab01uk wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:45 am When you see classic cars of the 1950/60/70's in modern traffic they do now look very small, narrow and vulnerable now we are so used to seeing bulky modern cars and oversized SUV's as the norm. I was following an MGB GT the other day and it looked much smaller and narrower than I remember when they were a common sight on the roads. The other thing I usually notice when following classic cars in traffic including early Minis is the smell of exhaust fumes, many seem to be running far too rich or stuck on choke.....or maybe I have just got used to the cleaner exhaust emissions of modern vehicles? I remember being a passenger as a kid in my dad's car when he would be trying to overtake a bus or lorry belching out visible stinking diesel exhaust fumes especially going up hills!

Have you tried fitting a modern car in a 60's or 70's or even 80's single garage.

Cars are so wide now even a medium sized hatchback wont fit in or barely fit in

I have one customer with a Mazda 6 that has to get out of the car and push it as he cant open the doors once its in the garage.

He has no parking at all outside his house but has rented a lockup that he has had since the 70's

Cars are all far too big nowadays. I reckon they should be taxed like they are in japan by LENGTH!

If they were, I'd be selling my 4.93M long Volvo V90 fricken quick!!!!

miniminor wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:05 am There a design that still looks fresh.

images (2).jpeg

Not as fresh as this

miniminor wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:21 pm Overheard 2 five year old boys walking past my Mini a few years back, their comment still makes me laugh "Wow look at that funny little car from the olden days!"

Best comment on this thread and shows how strong our rose tinted specs are.

I think the mini is timeless due to it's incredibly long production run, so it doesn't seem stuck in the '50s, '60s, '70s.... and it's familiarity.

I think the the thing that ages most designs is bumpers. The introduction of integrated bumpers was a HUGE development in post war car design, even more so when they went body coloured. That is really when everything started to look the same between manufacturers. and to a lesser extent chrome, which can be deleted / darkened)

Look at any classic without seperate bumpers (or where removing them is not obviously detrimental to the design) and many classics with good proportions can look contemporary.

Best example is the Porsche 924 and 928s, sedigned in the early to mid '70s. They still look very much more recent in design. The 914 also. Aside from the Wire wheels, the Lotus Elite of 1957 (or the Ferrari 250SWB of the same year) could be launched today with very little modification and still look amazing. As would the Elan.

The Ginetta G15 (with it's split Beetle front bumper and an elf / hornet rear removed) could look like a contemporary design.

As noted above though, all need to be scaled up by at least 25%, as that is what would make them stand out. They're all minis now!

Al