Oh those Mini Coopers

So when I first started doing research on this car, I didn't know that it was so old. Production on the Mini Cooper & Mini Rims began in 1959. It was manufactured by BMC (British Motor Company) & its successors. If you were to ask someone who just so happens to be British, they'll probably say (in a British accent, of course) that the Mini Cooper & it's Mini Cooper Wheels are somewhat the equivalent to the Volkswagen Beetle that we have here in the United States .. or North America.

The two-door car was originally designed by a guy named Sir Alec Issigonis. After this, it was then produced at the LongBridge & Cowley plants in England, the BMC factory in Australia, & then later in countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal, & all those fancy places.

The main reason that the Mini Cooper came out was because of the fuel shortage in 1956 that was caused by Suez Crisis. When the gas was high & the big cars weren't selling, the "owner" / head guy of BMC swore that he was going to get rid of all the gas guzzlers in the UK & manufacture a "proper miniature car". He then came up with some basic requirements: the box should be 10 x 4 x 4, the passenger side of the car should only take up about 6 ft, and engine would have to be an existing unit, & the Mini Cooper Rims , of course, had to be nice.

The fabrication of the Mini was shown in the April of 1959 & by that August, more than a thousand cars had been made & sold. The name "Mini" wasn't the original name for the car; it was actually Austin & some of them were named Morris. The first name came from a guy named Austin Seven & the other name from Morris Mini-Minor in Australia. One of the very first models of this car is on display at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.

There was a Mark Mini II that was manufactured with a brand new redesigned grille & I think it also had brand new designed Mini Wheels . That grille stayed on the car from that point on & the Mini Cooper Rims just enhanced as time went on. There were a lot more changes on the car that included a bigger & wider rear window.

The Mini did so well that they eventually made a Mini Van and a Mini Truck. I don't really see the difference, I guess they're just bigger? Anyway, John Cooper - who was the owner of the company - recognized the potential that Mini Cooper had. Issigonis didn't really want the car to be a fast performance car, but after meeting with some designers, they all came to a compromise & came up with an inexpensive & economical car.

Through the 1980s & 90s, the British Automotive Market took a liking to the many "special edition" Minis that they made. It was that same image that appealed to BMW so much that they decided to buy it, so I guess you can say that they really know what they're doing. Not long after it was such a big boom, Japan saw it as a retro-cool" car & had manufacturers imitate it. Now, there is only one model of the Mini - but it happens to be a very nice one; and even if it only has one model, you have a bunch of Mini Cooper Wheels to choose from .. especially the 2009 Mini Cooper Rims .

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