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| Turkish-born
British engineer who designed the Morris Minor 1948 and the Mini-Minor 1959
cars, comfortable yet cheaper to run than their predecessors. He is credited
with adding the word 'mini' to the English language. Overseeing the separate approaches of styling, interior packaging, body engineering, and chassis layout, Issigonis conceived the overall vehicle; specialists in his team then designed and engineered the subsystems of the car. His designs gave much greater space for the occupants together with greatly increased dynamic handling stability. Issigonis was born in Smyrna (now Izmir), and studied engineering at Battersea Polytechnic. In 1936 he joined Morris Motors to work on suspension design. His first complete car design was the Morris Minor, which brought new standards of steering and stability to small cars. A record 1 million Morris Minors had been sold in the UK by 1961. After working at Avis 1952-56 on an experimental car, Issigonis returned to what had now become BMC. In the wake of the Suez Crisis 1956, which threatened oil supplies, he was asked to design and produce a small and economical car, and the result was the Mini. His other major designs were the 1100 (1962), the 1800 (1964), and the Maxi (1969). |