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I noticed about a year ago that there was a road named "Alec Issigonis Way" in the Oxford Business Park on the former site of the Morris Motors factory in Cowley, Oxford OX4 and opposite the Oxford MINI Plant. However there was no road sign, so with the help of local Oxford Mini enthusiast Tanya, the Business Park and BMW a sign was recently installed and officially unveiled!

My photos of John Sheppard (The man who drew the Mini as part of Alec Issigonis's design team) carrying out the official unveiling cermony with local Cowley, Oxford East MP, Andrew Smith, Wayne Morse of MINI, a 1959 Cowley built Morris Mini-Minor and the latest 2012 MINI Roadster built at the Oxford Plant across the road.

Oxford Mail:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/977607 ... ris_manner_/





John Sheppard with 1959 Morris Mini-Minor and 1950 Morris Minor both designed by Alec Issigonis


Alec Issigonis Way is in the Oxford Business Park built on the site of the old Cowley Plant's North Works.






Thanks to Tanya of the Mini Forum and TotalMINI for organising this day and making it all happen!

AROnline:
Issigonis honoured in Cowley
http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/2012/07 ... in-cowley/

Also some good news below for a change!
Interesting to see in Autocar magazine this week that if you add the latest annual UK MINI production numbers to those of JLR (Jaguar, Land-Rover), all once part of British Leyland, you get a total of 700,000 cars built in their combined UK factories, which is actually more than BL ever managed in any year after 1976. Other fascinating statistics are JLR alone have a higher turnover, adjusted for inflation, than BL had in its best year, 1973. Its profits, again adjusted, are 3 times what BL managed in 1969 and if you take JLRs car production figures by themselves it is making as many cars as Rover Group – with the Metro, MGF, Rover 200 etc – managed in the mid 90s.

"BMW Group this week has announced a further £250m investment in its UK manufacturing operations by the end of 2015 at its manufacturing plant in Oxford, steel body pressings operation at Swindon and engine plant at Hams Hall near Birmingham. This is to support the company’s international growth strategy for the MINI with increasing volumes and up to 10 different models in the new line-up in the mid-term. It comes on top of the £500m UK investment announced in June 2011 and means additional job security for the 5500 UK associates working in the so-called MINI UK Triangle plants."
More Details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18764730

Autocar: The British car industry's good news:
"Fifty years ago our car business was the world’s biggest outside America, but through complacency and incompetence we chucked it away.
The damage started in the ‘60s, accelerated through the ‘70s and ‘80s, and Ford capped things in 2000 by ceasing car manufacture here after 87 years.
By then, luckily, a team of foreign-based companies had moved in. The Japanese embraced the UK as a volume manufacturing site, then BMW, Volkswagen and Tata acquired our leading prestige marques and made them work. Today our industry makes 1.2 million vehicles plus two million engines a year, exports three-quarters of them, employs 770,000 people and feeds £8.5 billion into the economy."
http://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/confiden ... news-today

mab01uk wrote:

" In 2009 the plant celebrated 50 years of MINI " Mmmm........... dosen't time fly

The 1959 Morris Mini seen at the 'Alec Issigonis Way' unveiling in Oxford is now for Sale @ £12,500
Ad says Austin but it is actually a Morris........
"Sold on launch day Sept 1959 by Bournemouth BMC dealer & subsequently fully restored by them. Drives perfectly. Good history file. Ready to drive, show and cherish"
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car ... 59/224191/

mab01uk wrote:The 1959 Morris Mini seen at the 'Alec Issigonis Way' unveiling in Oxford is now for Sale @ £12,500
Ad says Austin but it is actually a Morris........
"Sold on launch day Sept 1959 by Bournemouth BMC dealer & subsequently fully restored by them. Drives perfectly. Good history file. Ready to drive, show and cherish"
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/car ... 59/224191/

There is more it say Hatchback in the advert must be very rare

That is such a fantastic picture with the Minor and the Mini Minor ...much more appropriate than with that great big red thing...

There is an ad for it in this months Miniworld which is a little more accurate. At least it is a Morris Mini-Minor with no hatchback.
I owned this car about 10 years ago and it still looks in the same nice condition as when I sold it.

That is such a fantastic picture with the Minor and the Mini Minor ...much more appropriate than with that great big red thing...

+1

The "low light" minor is superb, amazing how much more modern the '59 mini looks in comparison, you can really appreciate looking at the two even today how revolutionary the mini looked.

Spitz wrote:That is such a fantastic picture with the Minor and the Mini Minor ...much more appropriate than with that great big red thing...

Once myself and another local classic Mini entusiast Tanya had pointed at the lack of any road sign on this road on the old Cowley factory site, (even though the road had been named when the area was re-developed as a business park several years ago) it was actually BMW Oxford who showed the most interest and enthusiasm in acknowledging the history and heritage of the area and backed the official unveiling of the sign, with some help from us to get a couple of early Issigonis Morris cars and John Sheppard for the cermony.



Here is my own big red MINI next to the sign just after the official photography finished !

It also has a famous racing car manufacturer owner. He has two 59's both registered EL, one Austin and this Morris.

He brought both to Gaydon last year, here they are on our stand.

Very nice

How quickly we've forgotten (here in rain-soaked England) that only last summer the grass was all dying due to the heat and lack of rain!