THE MINI

The Suez crisis was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 which included by French and British forces. The purpose was to remove the then Egyptian President and take control of the Suez canal, which was vital to western Europe for moving goods. Egypts had just nationalised the canal. There was a humiliating defeat for the invaders and resulted in petrol rationing in the U.K. This then created a slump in the sales of large cars and the market for German bubble cars boomed. This led to Leonard Lord, the head of BMC, and the man who detested these foreign small cars, to call for a British small car. This was the birth of the Mini. This car became a favourite with the swinging sixties celebrity set and was featured in the famous Michael Caine movie The Italian job, where Caine’s character, Charlie Croker, utters the famous line ‘ you’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off’The Mini was such an icon of the swinging sixties that executives wondered if it could be updated? The answer was yes and it has been a phenomenal success in the 21 st Century version. It has even been used in NCIS the American tv series where it was driven by action girl actress Cote De Pablo (a.k.a. Ziva David in the show). This is a mark of how the original and now the heir apparent has made an impact on society.