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Alec Issigonis (Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis) was born in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire (now Izmir, Turkey). His paternal grandfather, Demosthenis, had migrated to Smyrna from the Greek island of Paros in the 1830s and Constantine was a successful and wealthy shipbuilding engineer. An engineering genius and godfather of of the Mini. Excellent article. [citation needed], Issigonis was nicknamed "the Greek god" by his contemporaries. This greatly modified machine was replaced with a radical special completed in 1939, constructed of plywood laminated in aluminium sheeting. Alec Issigonis, technical director of the British Motor Corporation and Charles Griffin, chief engineer, answer questions from our technical editor. : Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis , CBE, FRS, RDI 19061118-1988102 . Below are all possible answers to this clue ordered by its rank. However, at the end of 1956, following fuel rationing brought about by the Suez Crisis, Issigonis was ordered by Lord to bring the smaller car, XC/9003, to production as quickly as possible. At the age of 30 he worked for the Morris Engineering Department and celebrated his first success with the construction of the Morris Minor. His efforts were concentrated on two things continuing to promote the 1968 9X concept to BLMC, and working on the concept of a gearless version of the Mini, using a torque converter, that was not a technical success. More importantly, the end of the agreement also marked the end of goodwill payments from the Company that covered his nursing care, and he was forced to move from his home to a smaller flat. FamousBirthdays.com - use subject to the practices disclosed in our privacy policy. the outer planets, Uranus and Neptune were not yet discovered, since the telescope had not yet been invented. Kereta ini menjadi kereta popular di Britain dan banyak negara di dunia, di samping berjaya menjuarai Rali Monte Carlo sebanyak 3 kali. . In many ways, this car was a clear, but simpler, derivative of the work Issigonis had been doing at Alvis, and Issigonis recruited some former colleagues from Alvis to BMC to develop V6 and V4 engines for the projected BMC cars, possibly using the aborted work at Alvis as a basis. In August 1971, Issigonis drove the 2 millionth ADO16 off the line, as the same time as a Mini Clubman, which was the 5 millionth front wheel drive BMC car, came off the line in the next building. This strong streak of fierce independence and lack of compromise hid his lateral approach to the design and engineering of cars. The Mini, and the other Issigonis BMC front wheel drive cars, benefited from Issigonis continuing collaboration with Alex Moulton and his suspension system developments. Lord Alfred Robens , Chairman of the National Coal Board, wearing cap and gown as he is installed as the new Chancellor of the University of . I have heard some slander about his idea of putting the gearbox in the engine sump, but otherwise, he changed transportation for the masses on a scale not seen since Henry Ford. BMC . Decades later, despite enormous further developments, the vehicle has lost none of its initial charm. He attended Londons Battersea Polytechnic before entering the University of London External Programme. In conjunction with Issigonis work, Lord contracted Pininfarina to lead the styling of BMCs new cars, starting with the conventionally engineered Austin A40 Farina in 1958. Issigonis had a reputation, deserved by all accounts, for arrogance and irascibility, an inability to suffer fools at all, and restricted his contact to as a small as a group as he could. And the 1800 the rear seat really seemed limousine-like for the size of the car. The Creator of An Iconic Car: Alec Issigonis. - Mini It really showed up typical RWD cars of the time as being great space-wasters. Please check back soon for updates. Sir Alec Issigonis ( 1906-1988 ) was an exceptional car designer who is best known for his development of the Mini.He was born in Smyrna ( Izmir ) in Turkey, the son of British-Greek parents. TOP 8 QUOTES BY ALEC ISSIGONIS | A-Z Quotes Issigonis was to use Moultons suspension ideas on all his future cars, with Moulton working in a consultancy capacity to BMC. Maybe it takes that sort of single-mindedness, bordering on obsession, to create something different, get it into production in spite of obstacles and naysayers, and make it a success. Was it to be front or rear engined? A colleague of his had a VW Polo then and kept shaking his head: Well, yes, if there were no other compact cars in the world , Mr. Roger Carr, Thank you. The above photo is a publicity shot with the first produced Mini, at his retirement in 1972. Alec Issigonis The public don't know what they want; it's my job to tell them. . An image from the 1964 Racing Car Show in the aftermath of the Mini's first Monte Carlo Rally win. When we stopped sending children up chimneys we reemployed them to work or minis. While much derided for its lack of style, I do love the huge smile he put on the front of the original 1800 Landcrab. He still worked to his consultancy agreement but did so almost exclusively from home, briefing and debriefing nominated BL engineers each morning. Updates? Here in Australia they didnt seem particularly small, but they were certainly a lot more roomy than the competition. Issigonis (just in view at the far right) was not involved in the engineering of this car, but was able to start a long term friendship with Battista and Sergio Pininfarina,seenstanding next the car with Leonard Lord and George Harriman. * Commander of the British Empire (1964), Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (1967), Royal Designer for Industry (1964). Lord (later Lord Lambury, above) had big ambitions for BMC and initially tasked Issigonis with developing the basis for a range of modern family cars to replace the existing collection of BMC products. Yes, it ran like hell when operable as the owner treated it like an Army Jeep. Issigonis who designed the Mini auto Crossword Clue Austin Maxi: Big On The Inside But Not On The Outside, What a great write up Roger. All Rights Reserved. At the end of 1955, Issigonis was recruited back into BMC, this time into the Austin plant at Longbridge, by its chairman Sir Leonard Lord, to design a new model family of three cars. So Sir Alec Issigonis had an impact on my life. By 1941, Issigonis had started work on an advanced post war car, then codenamed Mosquito, which became the Morris Minor. Enter a Crossword Clue Sort by Length He was knighted in 1969 and was honored by the city of Oxford with a street named after him, Alec Issigonis Way. In 1961, he became Technical and oversaw the launch of the 1100, 1800 and Maxi all hugely advanced machines, with front-wheel drive, in-sump gearboxes, and interconnected suspension. The irony being, of all the cars built in the world that follow his layout, none carry an Austin or Morris badge. As such he was of the generation who experienced the privations of two apocalyptic world wars. The task: a car with lots of space inside with minimum dimensions outside, seats for four passengers, impeccable driving characteristics, superior fuel economy, and a very affordable price. View 6 Images. Essay on The Pure Voice in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The first application of Sir Alec Issigonis' engineering breakthrough - All Photos by Randy Stern, except otherwise noted Remember Sir Alec Issigonis? Sir Alecs design which we built won the design centre award. Sir Alec Issigonis. And a rally demon was born. A more powerful engine, bigger brakes and a few tuning tweaks later, the Classic Mini Cooper 997 was introduced. Brilliant cars! His father, a successful and wealthy shipbuilding engineer, was of Greek origin but held a British passport. - Wikipedia At the peak if his career he was by far the most well-known personality in the British motor industry, one of the most well-known names in the European motor industry, and was the first and perhaps the only car British designer who could claim celebrity status. Unique. Issigonis Prototype 1970 Mini 9X - atwellwilson.org.uk A truly great man and an honour for me. The Crossword Solver finds answers to classic crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles. Issigonis and his team produced a revolutionary car that featured a small exterior with a spacious passenger compartment and outstanding handling characteristics. At Alvis, Issigoniss main task was to lead the development of a more affordable, higher volume luxury car. Sir Alec Issigonis: an insight into the great man, from an interview originally published in Autocar magazine to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Mini. A testament to brilliant design or to the modern industrys tendencies towards aversion of risk, I wont say surely some of both. But accounts do suggest it done in a pretty crass way. . Address 8050 Alec Issigonis Way, Oxford Business Park North, Oxford, OX4 2HW. Production only finished after BMW had bailed out of Rover in 2000. Alec Issigonis - Bio, Personal Life, Family & Cause Of Death - CelebsAges Omissions? Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS terkenal kerana menjadi pencipta kereta Mini yang menjadi ikon tahun 1960-an. Alec Issigonis Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS, RDI (Alec Issigonis) was born on 18 November 1906 in Smyrna in Greece (now Izmir, Turkey) and would become world-renowned for designing the Mini and Morris Minor for BMC. However, his story proves: never give up your dreams even if life puts obstacles in your way. A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIFE OF THE MINI FOUNDER. Are you sure Renault had transverse-engine hatchbacks by 1974? If you see something that doesnt look right, contact us. In the face of all this mayhem, Mrs. Issigonis decided to migrate with Alex to Britain, a land neither knew. The Mini quickly became cult and had enthusiastic fans worldwide. Biography: Sir ALEC issigonis - The designer of Britain's favourite cars, Britain's favourite car designer . He and Frank Stephenson are both famous car designers. It was still in production when BMW, led by Bernd Pischetsreider, bought Rover in 1994. XC/9002 became ADO16 and was launched as the Morris 1100 with the Hydrolastic interconnected suspension system in August 1962. He was known for being a Entrepreneur. Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS (18 November 1906-2 October 1988) was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential development of the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1959. Back the early 2,000 B.C. Issigonis was born on 18 November 1906 in the Ottoman port city of Smyrna, the only child of Constantine Issigonis and Hulda Prokopp. The Greek Designer of the Iconic British Mini Car - GreekReporter.com 130 King Street West, Exchange Tower, Suite 1800, Toronto, Canada, M5X 1E3. Autokonstrukteur, GBPortrt mit Zigarette- 1959. Matchbox featured an MG 1100 in its 1-75 line-up for many years. Having been a passenger in an early Austin Landcrab on several occasions I can confirm they are amazingly spacious inside, front and rear. The third front wheel drive car from BMC was the 1964 ADO17 Austin 1800 (or Landcrab), a car which Issigonis has been quoted as identifying as the design he was most proud of, and then the Austin Maxi in 1969 with less successful results. In 1942, the first scale model was produced and the following year work began on a hand-formed steel prototype. Sir Alec was a combination of everything that was right AND wrong about the British car industry in his day. Issigonis designed the most enduring small cars of the twentieth century, the Morris Minor (1948) and the Mini (1959) - a testament to his insistence that 'styled' cars dated quickly. The Boudjah - Smyrna born Alec Issigonis was an engineering genius and even after his death there is a fan base for his cars. The key point to the genesis of the Minor is that Issigonis owned the whole design, including the exterior style, the interior,which had some of the starkness and simple functionality familiar from Issigoniss later designs. He worked on various projects for Morris through the war and towards its end started work on an advanced post war car codenamed Mosquito that became the Morris Minor, which was produced from 1948 until 1971. Happy birthday to the Mini - New Atlas I was mesmerized and I saw my schoolmate being dropped off by his older brother who was on his way to high school. Alec Issigonis | Bartleby The relationship got to the point where Issigonis had the ideas, did the sketches and Daniels did the formal drawings. In 1936, he moved to Morris Motors Limited at Cowley working on an independent front suspension system for the Morris 10. AROnline Keith Adams 2001-2022 - please refer to the 'Terms of use' pages. Biography: Sir Alec Issigonis - The Designer of Britain's Favourite Alec Issigonis Net Worth, Age, Bio, Birthday, Height, Facts Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alec-Issigonis. He didnt say by 1974 in regard to VW and Renault. BMC was producing over 11,000 Issigonis-designed front-wheel-drive models a week, with demand still exceeding production, which was continually increased. He became the engineering director of the British Motor Corporation in 1964, and was . This prototype never saw the light of day mores the pity. . I remember the Austin America when new, not an impressive car to me in any way . Enter the length or pattern for better results. People over the road from us had a Wolseley Six (top of the range Landcrab) when we were kids. Giving the Mini, ADO16 and ADO17 were all designed well before hatchbacks were popular, the beancounters no doubt would be up in arms at the thought of spending more money on tooling for an already old design. Probably the closest British comparison is the Jaguar Mk 1 which came out in 1955 and was produced at a rate of around 10-15,000 for thirteen years. Issigonis designed a unitary construction saloon and the V8 engine, and utilised Moultons latest interconnected rubber suspension. That's exactly what he did. Apparently Walter Chrysler could also be difficult to work with. Much ADO About Project 15: A History of the Classic Mini It was at Alvis that Issigonis first worked with another of the influential characters of his career. One thing that I learnt the hard way well not the hard way, the easy way when youre designing a new car for production, never, never copy the opposition, declared Issigonis, when asked to summarise his approach to car design. Oxbotica Toronto Office. Issigonis' creation was remarkable, but it really only became a Mini when he got a little help from his friend, motorsport pioneer John Cooper. The all-new Mini will be revealed today, on what would have been Mini creator Sir Alec Issigonis's 107th birthday. An advanced 4-speed fully automatic transmission was offered in these that lived in the sump and shared the engine oil, just like the manual gearbox. Alec completed his education at an English boarding school, and in 1925, took a two month tour, by car, of Europe with his mother before returning to take a place at Battersea Polytechnic in south London, to study mechanical engineering. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second most influential car of the 20th century in 1999. He was retired from British Leyland in 1971, memorably being given a Meccano kit for his leaving present. Due to time pressures, the interconnected suspension system that Issigonis had planned for the car was replaced by an equally novel, but cruder, rubber cone system designed by Alex Moulton. Issigonis was born in Smyrna in 1906. From London to Longbridge: The streets that made Mini 1959: The Mini Was Born. | MINI.com The first car to repeat the concept of the Mini was the ADO16, which is often considered to be Issigoniss finest hour. Alec Issigonis and Dr Alex Moulton, the creator of Hydrolastic and Hydragas suspension, with a Morris 1100, circa 1962. Issigonis's mother, Hulda Prokopp, was descended from a Bavarian brewing family who had settled in Smyrna, and established a brewery. Issigonis was giving punters what they needed, rather than what they wanted. The end of the agreement came in 1986, when Issigonis wrote directly to Graham Day, BLs then new Chairman. Humber were more interested in the sales engineer than his product, and Issigonis moved to Humber in 1933. Issigonis returned to BMC to design a range of family vehicles. By 1964, BMC had built over one million front wheel drive vehicles, including over 800,000 Minis and over 200,000 ADO16s, and over a third were exported. Issigonis and Dowson then travelled into Austria to the mountain climb competition at the then new Grossglockner Hochalpen Pass. Issigonis went into the motor industry as an engineer and designer working for Humber and competed successfully in motor racing during the 1930s and 1940s. Tragically, Constantine Issigonis contracted a serious illness, and died in Malta in June 1923. BMC and Issigonis were awarded the Dewar Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) for the innovative design and production of the Mini. By 1945, a full scale static prototype close to the familiar production form was completed. The gearbox sharing the sump oil worked ok, but the transmission absolutely pulverised the lubricating qualities out of the oil, and it really required changing every 3000 miles if you wanted the thing to last. Therefore some functionality is missing. Having failed his mathematics exams three times, subsequently declaring it 'the most uncreative subject you can study',[3] Issigonis decided to enter the University of London External Programme to complete his university education. But his true interest was in the 9X and its power unit, and getting a version of it accepted by BL. Ultimately, Alvis had to cancel the project, after the first prototype had been built but before the company had committed to the expenditure of production tooling. Copyright 2011 - 2023 Curbside Classics. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Alviss options for body shell production were being reduced, at the same as the estimated costs of the body manufacture doubled. Im sure this was never part of Issigoniss plan, as he was anti-style, but only the 1100 benefited from external help. [16], In 2003 he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in the United States. But there were other 20th century cataclysms that he lived and worked through as a designer - including the Suez crisis of 1956. Unfinished Sympathy - Driven To Write Shunning all offers of silver service with the management. The family is almost penniless. [3][6] His father died shortly after and Issigonis and his mother moved to the United Kingdom in 1923. Again,Issigonis was able to get close to some of the most impressive cars of the era, and take ideas and influences home. IAN NICHOLLS recalls the day the two millionth rolled off the production line [], A team of the worlds leading motoring writers, along with voters on the internet, have short-listed the legendary Mini for the ultimate motoring accolade the international Car of the [], THE GUARDIAN Lord Stokes writes about the late Sir Alec Issigonis: Alec Issigonis was a very charming and persuasive person, and a brilliant innovative engineer with a considerable capacity for [], Rover Group consultant Sir Alec Issigonis writes to chairman Graham Day. I had a book about Issigonis, but its lost. Road & Tracks test of the Austin America included the line, Superb four-speed fully automatic transmission makes more difference than youd believe possible. But they also noted that with just a few thousand miles on their test car, there was some issue (I forget what) with the trunk lock, and the outside of the engine was covered with oily black grime. It was the highlight of my career and came early as I was just 18 years old and just an apprentice engineer for a tractor company. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Issigonis had also been involved in the larger Oxford, Isis and Wolseley ranges. (I can remember seeing Austin Americas just a few years old being offered up for $50.) A truly fascinating man he was. Issigonis worked as a draughtsman and design engineer, and also in a sales and project engineer role, succeeding in securing Rover as a customer use the freewheel device on the new for 1933 Rover Ten (P1 series, above). Even as Britain entered the 1960s, product planning remained something of an alien concept to its native carmakers, the majority of whom viewed such matters as being the sort of recondite nonsense invented in the United States, and best left there. But it was an exciting period, and youve captured his personality and lasting impact well. Alec Issigonis An expert is someone who tells you why you can't do something. The image his cars achieved for BMC was arguably a factor in the survival of the company in the market place, and BMC used his personality extensively in advertising whichyou can imagine Issigonis publicly hating but privately loving. Remembering Designer of the Mini Cooper, Alec Issigonis Alexander Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna (now Izmir) in Ottoman Turkey. The cars design with its front wheel drive and independent suspension provided good road handling, but Issigonis had scant regard for passenger comfort. Young Alec grew up in a very affluent environment, with influences from Germany and Greece (he grew up speaking German and Greek), rather than Turkey and Britain. Whos the richest Entrepreneur in the world? 18 November 1906 2 October 1988", Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, " Alec Issigonis | Automotive Hall of Fame", Alec Issigonis Automotive Designer (19061988), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alec_Issigonis&oldid=1135124708, This page was last edited on 22 January 2023, at 19:54.