Morris Mini-Minor
Decades ahead of its time, the brilliant British Mini-Cooper set the example for tens of millions of roomy, efficient, front-drive, transverse-engine cars, including 1991 models. It was the creation of Sir Alec Issigonis, who helped put Britain on wheels after the war with his small 1948 Morris Minor. With the Mini, he wanted to provide enough room for four adults in an inexpensive, highly economical, decent performing, shoebox-size car.
So he designed the Mini with a unit body, front-wheel drive, sideways-mounted engine, combination transmission and driving axle, rubber springs to allow a compact suspension and small 10-inch wheels. The cute, $1,400 Morris Mini-Minor was a blast to drive and became the car of young Londoners in the Swinging Sixties - along with the masses. A Mini-Cooper S race version that soon followed was a giant killer. The Morris Mini-Minor's production continues, and current ones are much the same as the 1959 model. It was that good.
But it was an Englishman, Sir Alex Issignois, who created the first truly modern front-wheel-drive automobile-the wonderful Morris Mini-Minor of 1959. The Morris Mini-Minor was a tiny box, but there was something very different about it-the engine and transmission were mounted sideways up front to maximize the interior passenger space. Morris Mini-Minor was a breakthrough design-one of the greatest in the history of the automobile. The maneuverable, eminently lovable Mini still populates the streets of London, as the Citroen deux chevaux does in Paris.