Sir Alec Issigonis, designer of the Mini, also designed the Morris Minor, now a collector's item after 60 years, writes Bob Montgomery
LAST WEEKEND, while visiting the Motor Heritage Centre at Gaydon in the English Midlands, I chanced on one of the many gatherings of Morris Minors celebrating its 60th birthday. Walking through rows of Morris Minors of all sorts - saloons, "woodies" and the rare pick-ups - I could not help but think that perhaps this car, rather than the Mini for which he is better remembered, was the greatest achievement of designer Alexander Issigonis.
Sir Alec Issigonis, as he is best known today, was an unusual designer and very much a believer in a product being design-driven rather than market-led. For Issigonis, that meant that the total design had to be his, even if he was sometimes disappointed that the car-buying public did not always see it his way.
It was during the second World War that Issigonis began work on what would become the Morris Minor. For the first time in his career, he was in charge of the total design, and had free rein to employ several radical ideas of his own. Forsaking the conventional separate chassis and body, he designed a pressed steel body to take the stress - thus giving maximum stiffness for minimum weight, much of the strength coming from the floor pan which comprised a steel floor with integral perimeter box sections.
Issigonis also designed and built a flat-four engine especially for the Minor, but this was replaced with an existing Morris engine to save tooling and development costs.
Another important change introduced by Issigonis to his design was to adopt smaller 14-inch rims, rather than the then more usual 17- or 18-inch rims widely in use. This reduced the unsprung weight and led to a better ride and roadholding.
Typically, Issigonis was unhappy with the overall proportions of the production prototype, and recalled: "One night, in despair, I got my mechanics to cut one right down the middle: they moved the two halves apart and I stood some distance away saying 'No, that's too much, a little closer, closer - stop.'" The difference was just four inches, but the extra width increased the car's stability, as well as the space in the passenger compartment.
The resultant Morris Minor was one man's triumph - Issigonis designed every aspect, right down to the little knob that opened the glove box - and was surely the last time a single designer had total control over all aspects of the design of a car.
In all, some 1.6 million Morris Minors were built over the next 23 years. During that time, the design evolved and was improved, while larger and more powerful engines were fitted. As for Issigonis himself, he played little or no part in these changes - "When I have designed a car that pleases me . . . then I am terribly happy; but when my studies are finished, and prototypes have been built and tested and everything seems all right - then I get slightly bored," he said.
Needless to say, he did not stay bored for long, turning his thoughts and energies to the design of the Mini, but that's another story.