Icon is an overused word these days, but the much-loved Mini, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year, fully deserves the title.
21st-Century owners have already snapped up 1.4m cars, and in 2005 Mini United, a festival of all things Mini, was born.
German husband-and-wife customisers Anna Schutz and Michael Wolf with their orange Mini.
In the 60s it was the car to be seen in – everyone from The Beatles to Princess Margaret owned one – and, after winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1967, it also went on to become a hugely successful racing car.
The original Mini ended up selling over five-million cars before production ended in 2000. But you can’t kill off an icon, so when BMW introduced its new version in 2001, Mini mania continued with a new generation of car buyers.
Essential Mini facts:
1) In April 2007, the one millionth Mini rolled off the production line at Plant Oxford.
2) Mini is now sold in over 70 countries worldwide. The UK, USA, Germany, Italy and Japan make up the car’s top five markets.
3) The Italian Job, in which Michael Caine and a gang of thieves escaped a heist in a trio of Mini Cooper S’s, cemented the car’s place in British popular culture (along with the phrase “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”).
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