More importantly, the end of the agreement also marked the end of goodwill payments from the Company that covered his nursing care, and he was forced to move from his home to a smaller flat. In 1952, just as the British Motor Corporation (BMC) was formed by the merger of Morris and Austin, he moved to Alvis Cars where he designed an advanced saloon with all-aluminium V-8 engine, and experimented with interconnected independent suspension systems. The third front wheel drive car from BMC was the 1964 ADO17 Austin 1800 (or Landcrab), a car which Issigonis has been quoted as identifying as the design he was most proud of, and then the Austin Maxi in 1969 with less successful results. After briefly working elsewhere in the early 1950s, Issigonis returned to what had become the British Motor Corp., where in 1959, in response to the Suez energy crisis (1956) and the popularity of Germanys Volkswagen Beetle, he introduced the Mini. Iconic. Alec Issigonis is a famous Entrepreneur. He did not want more conventional answers, without at least exploring some technical advances. In many ways, this car was a clear, but simpler, derivative of the work Issigonis had been doing at Alvis, and Issigonis recruited some former colleagues from Alvis to BMC to develop V6 and V4 engines for the projected BMC cars, possibly using the aborted work at Alvis as a basis. I caught up to my mate and I said thats a really cool car, what is it? Thats my BrothersMini Cooper. Moulton also designed folding, rubber suspended small-wheeled bicycles. Alexander Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna (now Izmir) in Ottoman Turkey. : Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis , CBE, FRS, RDI 19061118-1988102 . is military terminology referring to "Government Issue" or "General Issue". By 1939, Issigonis had replaced his modified Austin Seven with a more radical car of his own design, constructed of plywood laminated in aluminium sheeting, in what we would now call a composite construction. Humber were more interested in the sales engineer than his product, and Issigonis moved to Humber in 1933. In November 1971, Issigonis officially retired from BLMC, with a major ceremony at Longbridge, for which BL marshalled an example of every car for which he had led the design, of which only the Minor was no longer in production. If (and I have no evidence and make no suggestions) a young Issigonis had been outed in, say, the early 1950s, his career progression would likely have been ended even, without any prosecution. Sir Alec Issigonis. The concept of the transverse engine and gearbox combined with FWD, which had previously been used only with two-cylinder two-stroke engines by DKW (since the 1920s), Lloyd and Saab, was adapted by Issigonis for the four cylinder A-block engine for the Mini. It really showed up typical RWD cars of the time as being great space-wasters. There he developed the Morris Minor, which remained in production from 1948 to 1971. The family is almost penniless. The Mini was designed by. The end of the agreement came in 1986, when Issigonis wrote directly to Graham Day, BLs then new Chairman. Was it to be front or rear engined? Thanks for this terrific bio on one of the all-time greats in the field. His fingerprints are all over other cars, too, the Austin 1800 Land Crab and the Austin Maxi for example, but not always as successfully, as we shall see. But fearful that his freedom would be curbed in such a large company, Issigonis resigned from BMC and went to work for the much smaller Alvis company. As a matter of interest, go to this site: and click on the Letter From Dr. Alex Moulton link. Issigonis had a reputation, deserved by all accounts, for arrogance and irascibility, an inability to suffer fools at all, and restricted his contact to as a small as a group as he could. [citation needed], Issigonis was nicknamed "the Greek god" by his contemporaries. FamousBirthdays.com - use subject to the practices disclosed in our privacy policy. The Minor, Mini, ADO16 and Landcrab all had character, and were all friendly cars. Alec Issigonis was born in Smyrna (now Izmir) in Turkey on 18 November 1906 to a British-naturalized father of Greek origin and a Bavarian-born mother. View 6 Images. What a great. MINI, official partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB, has unveiled its new London 2012 special, Keith Adams Well, Christmas and Boxing Day are out of the way and the, The replacement for the Austin-Healey 3000 never took off, thanks in part to a poor, British Motor Holdings the joining of BMC and Jaguar, The cars : Mini (ADO15) development story Part One, Concepts and prototypes : BMC 9X (1968-87), Blog : Why the Italians beat us to a supermini by a decade, History : The Road to Perdition Part One, Interview : Alec Issigonis on the BMC 1100, Archive : Mini Shortlisted For Car Of The Century, Archive : Mini still sold at a loss. Yes, it ran like hell when operable as the owner treated it like an Army Jeep. I had a book about Issigonis, but its lost. In 1968, he was appointed as Director of Advanced Research of the newly formed British Leyland, and Harry Webster from Triumph became BLMCs Engineering Director. Sir Alec Issigonis started his career at Humber, known for their Humber Snipe and Humber Hawk models, even Queen Elizabeth II owned a Humber. Issigonis became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1967 and was knighted in 1969. It is really amazing, when you think of it, that some 60 years later his basic vision rolls off of assembly lines all over the world. He was knighted in 1969 and was honored by the city of Oxford with a street named after him, Alec Issigonis Way. Alec completed his education at an English boarding school, and in 1925, took a two month tour, by car, of Europe with his mother before returning to take a place at Battersea Polytechnic in south London, to study mechanical engineering. I have labelled it the Most Significant Car of the 1940s; it is probably the most recognised British car, apart from the Mini, and the most fondly remembered car by many British families and motorists. Did they aim to build in greater volume, to compete with emerging brands such as Jaguar, or did they retreat further upmarket or even entirely into other activities? In August 1959 the car was launched as the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven, which soon became known as the Austin Mini. Alec Issigonis, or more formally Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis CBE FRS RDI* (1906 1988), is best known as the creator of the Mini, but he also designed two other cars that have featured on CC and that are amongst the best-selling cars in British motoring history the Morris Minor and the Austin-Morris 1100 (ADO16). . Im sure the Renault 4, 5, 6, and 16 had longitudinal engines. The ease of driving it, attributable to Issigoniss careful and thoughtful suspension and steering design, as well as the comparatively low weight of the car, were factors in that as well as the comfort and space it provided. I remember the Austin America when new, not an impressive car to me in any way . in there was a 1 hr "The Mini Man " -Sir Alec Issigonis 1906 - 1988 by great friend and car fanatic Peter Ustinov. Here in Australia they didnt seem particularly small, but they were certainly a lot more roomy than the competition. The last sighting was of a 71 America, in 81, and looking very well cared for. Styled by Pininfarina, it was launched as the Morris 1100 in 1962, and a year later as the Austin 1100, and the clean, classical lines of the car served BMC well. To get to this point wasnt easy. Perhaps it was a trait that ran in the family. . Alec Issigonis. All Rights Reserved. Issigonis and Dowson then travelled into Austria to the mountain climb competition at the then new Grossglockner Hochalpen Pass. His father, a successful and wealthy shipbuilding engineer, was of Greek origin but held a British passport. Alec Issigonis was born in Turkey. In conjunction with Issigonis work, Lord contracted Pininfarina to lead the styling of BMCs new cars, starting with the conventionally engineered Austin A40 Farina in 1958. It had one option an AM radio, hung below the dash. Family Life His father died in 1922, at which point he and his mother moved to the U.K.. Associated With He and Frank Stephenson are both famous car designers. Fascinating piece and what a character! Contents Early life and education Career Legacy Honours Some of his cars His love/hate relationship with the companys products stayed with []. But this also reflects Issigoniss personal characteristics he was a strong minded, stubborn and arrogant man who did did not always have a lot of respect for others opinions and suggestions. Probably the closest British comparison is the Jaguar Mk 1 which came out in 1955 and was produced at a rate of around 10-15,000 for thirteen years. The mini leaked like a sieve because of the way hed designed the sills and had to be redesigned. Striving to ensure that as much space as possible was allocated to the passengers, Issigonis used Moultons compact rubber suspension and had Dunlop build 10 inch wheels and tyres just for the Mini purely for reasons of space efficiency. He was a race car driver during the 30s and 40s. John Daly, Your email address will not be published. The original Minor design was so narrow they had to chop it lengthways and widen it. Just re-watched the documentary about Issigonis, which has a great deal on the lightweight special It was 1999 channel 4 a full evenings programmes devoted to the 40th anniversary of the Mini. Issigonis' creation was remarkable, but it really only became a Mini when he got a little help from his friend, motorsport pioneer John Cooper. Towards the end of WW2, he began work on the Mosquito project, which ended up being launched in 1948 as the Morris Minor. The war prevented this design from going into production but it was later used on the MG Y-type. The Minor was, of course, a huge success, for Nuffield and for Issigonis. Who are the richest people in the world? [4] As you know I was away when the little ceremony took place to mark your retirement and I have, of [], Sir Alec Issigonis, designer of the Mini, among other cars, is to remain design consultant with British Leyland after he goes into semi-retirement at the end of the month. By placing an A series four cylinder engine transversely with the gearbox underneath in the sump and sharing the oil, and moving the wheels to the corners, he saved so much space that it was possible to accommodate a four seat car within a length of 10 feet. Discover what happened on this day. Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (Greek: , )CBE FRS RDI (18 November 1906 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. Learn more. In 1942, the first scale model was produced and the following year work began on a hand-formed steel prototype.