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Travel: Make time for Oxford’s cult car
Summary
No one had seen a car like the Mini Cooper when it first arrived. Today, 800 Minis roll off the production line daily
Buried in the bylanes of the City of Dreaming Spires, a bustling, labyrinthine pub, Turf Tavern, calls itself “Oxford’s best kept secret". That isn’t it.
Oxford’s best kept secret is that it is the home of the Mini, a British automotive brand founded in 1969 and owned by German automotive company BMW since 1994. The Mini, an icon of 1960s British popular culture, became a fashion exemplar after the automaker released several “special editions" in the 1980s and 1990s. The primary shapes, round front lights, hexagonal grill, angular chassis and roof that seemed to fit like a lid, was like nothing roads had ever seen. Who doesn’t remember the bold, zippy cars that played a starring role in films like The Italian Job and The Bourne Identity? Even today, the efficiently-sized car has a sassier persona than a regular road runner.
On a walking tour of Oxford, our guide, Richard, reveals that Plant Oxford is the largest and oldest of the company’s UK production plants. Steel panels from Plant Swindon and engines from Plant Hams Hall meet parts from across the world at the plant to produce road-ready Minis. “As many as 800 Minis are produced here each day," Richard says as he takes us around the medieval metropolis of Oxford, where life seems to revolve around the prestigious university, established in the 12th century.
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Golden-hued Oxford brings together stunning architecture, history and culture. The many historic colleges, numerous museums and galleries, eclectic bookstores, and traditional pubs are what draw visitors every year. “Oxford university, with its 43 colleges, may be the city’s most defining feature, but there’s much more to this beautiful, bookish city," says Richard. He adds that the Mini’s Oxford plant offers an iFactory experience that lets car lovers follow a Mini along its production journey.
The Mini’s history dates back to the end of the 1950s and the Suez Crisis, which drew people’s attention to the finite nature of natural resources. Local lore goes that the fear of an oil crisis inspired engineer Alec Issigonis. He “took a napkin and sketched an economical compact car that conserved resources" and the Mini “developed into a cult car over the years".
Issigonis put his creation on the road with the help of his friend, motorsports pioneer John Cooper. Cooper, who took the prototype for a spin, realised that the fuel-saving people’s car cornered like no other. He convinced his engineer buddy to ready the car for the Rallye Monte Carlo and created racing history. “The first two-door Mini, introduced in 1959 and built until 2000, transformed automotive design with its innovative front-wheel-drive layout that made the car appear bigger on the inside than the outside. In 1999, the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T," writes Giles Chapman in Mini: 60 Years. The Mini raced to the front in competitions as well, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 to 1967.
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At Turf Tavern, Kevin McMahon, the barkeep and a Mini aficionado, is extremely knowledgeable—and chatty. Issigonis was “known to be a minimiser who focused on the fundamentals while Cooper was a maximiser who aimed to make the most of the experience. The dichotomy of their approaches led to a small car that completely transformed the idea of what an automobile could be—small in size, big on driving fun," he says.
The Mini was originally built by BMC, but BMW acquired its later parent company, Rover, in 1994. The German carmaker sold most of the Rover Group in 2000, but retained the Mini brand. “In October 2000, the last and 5,387,862nd original Mini came off the production line. The next year, BMW launched the new-generation Mini, followed by other versions like Countryman, Clubman, Cooper Works, and more," McMahon says.
Plant Swindon was established by Pressed Steel Company in 1955 to help produce car bodies, he says. “Plant Oxford is the largest and oldest of the UK production plants; it marked its 110th anniversary in 2023," he says, urging me to take the car plant tour.
The 90-minute tour takes you through every step in the production process of a Mini. Starting in the body shop, it showcases how the 650 employees and 1,200 robots work together to produce the much-loved car from steel sheets. An excited throng of people enters the Press Shop, where the 350 varied pressed parts for the Mini body shell (produced by Plant Swindon) are put together by automated production presses equipped with top-class electronic control systems. Everything seems to work like clockwork, with nary a sound to be heard except for the thrum of machines at work.
Next up? The Sub-Assembly area where as many as 280 robots help assemble the doors, bonnets and tailgates for the cars. The Minis come alive in the Body-in-White facility, where body panels and sub-assemblies are brought in, after which they head to the paint shop for a coat of paint. The car takes shape in the final assembly hall, including installation, welding of the power units, and validation where the car is put through its paces.
In Mini: The True And Secret History Of The Making Of A Motor Car, Simon Garfield writes that the automobile, designed for austerity and efficiency, came to represent individuality and classlessness. “A great British manufacturing story, it is more popular throughout the world than it has ever been, a symbol of the age that created it," he writes.
In March, Plant Oxford celebrated the start of production of the new Mini Cooper. The first three-door model was driven off the production line by Charlie Cooper, grandson of auto racing legend John Cooper, whose heritage inspired the Cooper moniker, in a special event. It aims to transition an all-electric production site from 2030. Production of two new electrified models—Mini Cooper 3-door and Mini Aceman—will begin in the UK by 2026, we are told.
As we walk past the Bridge of Sighs, I spot a Mini whiz past. Even today, the Brit car, small on fuel consumption and size, continues to excite people with its big cult classic personality and vintage appeal.
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