4th April 2012 By Anthony Peacock Mini (or MINI, under its new incarnation in shouty capitals) has a history that is full of fascinating contradictions. The car is a British icon, but it was actually designed by a Greek – the legendary Sir Alec Issigonis – and is now owned by Germans. Portugal showed what it could do – but the future of the rally programme is still extremely uncertain. That’s a crying shame as from its inception in 1959, the Mini was designed to break new ground. Issigonis, a man accustomed to tearing the rule book to shreds, once famously said: “An expert is somebody who tells you what you can’t doâ€. The result was a car quite unlike anything that had come before, with front-wheel drive, unrivalled packaging, and a classless image that meant it was driven by everyone from the Queen of England to John Lennon. The reason was that it prioritised function over form... Read more here.
Good find Steve and it is a shame, but I've already said that.......several times......I'll be quite now. Jim
No boys... it's spelled Quaife, and its a differential.... And sometimes you'll find them in MINI's.... And they are wonderful mechanisms... But why does Justa Jim want to become a differential....