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. One tidbit I recall: when the Morris Minor design was almost finished the book showed the designer holding a brass model of the car it was decided to add a few inches of width at the centerline. Alec Issigonis Net Worth 2023, Age, Height, Relationships, Married, Dating, Family, Wiki Biography . Issigonis returned to BMC to design a range of family vehicles. Morris 1100. He remained on the BL books as a consultant until 1988, shortly before his death. It is arguably doubtful that Lord, knowing Issigonis better, would have seen him as the ideal candidate for the overall technical leadership of BMC. I caught up to my mate and I said thats a really cool car, what is it? Thats my BrothersMini Cooper. " Sir Alec Issigonis. This strong streak of fierce independence and lack of compromise hid his lateral approach to the design and engineering of cars. (The Maxi, by comparison, was a bland lump.). The XC (experimental car) code names assigned for the new cars were XC/9001 - for a large comfortable car, XC/9002 - for a medium-sized family car, and XC/9003 . It confronted the conservative image of BMC head on, even if the rest of BMC range didnt. This prototype was never manufactured because its cost was beyond Alvis's resources. [citation needed], Issigonis was nicknamed "the Greek god" by his contemporaries. The childhood . info@oxbotica.com +44 (0)1865 433 998. I have labelled it the Most Significant Car of the 1940s; it is probably the most recognised British car, apart from the Mini, and the most fondly remembered car by many British families and motorists. If it was front engined, was it to be rear wheel or front wheel drive? Constantine married a German lady whose name was Hulda Prokopp and in 1906 they had a baby who they named Alexander Arnold Issigonis, or Alec to his family. William Morris (Lord Nuffield) didnt like it, naming it the poached egg and expressed no appreciation of it to Issigonis, until 1951 when 100,000 cars had been built. Alec Issigonis was a hugely . 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. A flawed genius, yes, and BMCs failure to manage him is clear. Noch ein Mini! Independence is one of their greatest strengths, but sometimes they're overly frank with others. Diz lenda que ele considerava a rigidez . His family had to flee Smyrne to es- cape the genocide of 1922 by the Turks. Humber were more interested in the sales engineer than his product, and Issigonis moved to Humber in 1933. But it was an exciting period, and youve captured his personality and lasting impact well. the outer planets, Uranus and Neptune were not yet discovered, since the telescope had not yet been invented. However, his story proves: never give up your dreams even if life puts obstacles in your way. While the intention was for the space efficient FWD cars to replace much of the existing overlapping BMC range (that all should have been hatchbacks in retrospect), it would have been interesting to see a rear-wheel drive Cortina rival with fully-independent suspension derived from Issigoniss work at Alvis to slot between the 1100/1300 and 1800/2200. It did get Hydrolastic eventually, then lose it again. Vic Oak and Reginald Hanks, Morriss Managing Director did though, arranging a 50% salary increase for Issigonis in April 1948, to 1500 per year. It was through his mother's kinships that Issigonis was a first cousin once removed to BMW and Volkswagen director Bernd Pischetsrieder.[5]. 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. His mother was from Bavaria. Many did not even make it through the warranty period without the transmission self-destructing. Constantine was very proud of his British citizenship and Alec grew up in a traditional British type of household. Oak placed another engineer, Jack Daniels, alongside him to keep his feet on the ground. Unless it was at some very small, unique company; something like TVR comes to mind. Generation also known as The Greatest Generation. Sir Alec Issigonis hadn't even seen a car until he was 12 years old. 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 . Are you sure Renault had transverse-engine hatchbacks by 1974? I saw this tiny car among the Buicks Oldsmobiles Mercurys and Chevrolet Impalas that were the usual fare. This was partly because of the cost but also because in 1953 Ford bought Briggs UK operations and 1954 BMC bought Fisher & Ludlow. But beneath this surface, he was a sensitive and more vulnerable person, and was almost certainly (and inexcusably) the subject of some intolerance and prejudice from the UK born staff. I hope he knew that he changed the Automobile World for the better. [citation needed] Issigonis often commented to friends and colleagues that the Austin 1800 (ADO17) was the design he was most proud of, even though it never was as commercially successful as his three preceding designs. Heynes later became Technical Director at Jaguar and was a personal friend of Issigonis for many years. Professor Alex Moulton. Comprehensive article. Alexandros Arnold Constantine Issigonis, more commonly known as Alec Issigionis, was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, on November 18, 1906. Alec is also well known as, British car designer best remembered for his work on the development of the iconic Mini. They paid him to design a tractor safety cab after their own designers had 3 attempts and we built 3 failures. Issigonis was dismissive of market research, The public dont know what they want; its my job to tell them and even mathematics, derided as the enemy of every truly creative man. I had a book about Issigonis, but its lost. Issigonis made a grandfather clock from it, which kept good time. If so, that would seem vindictive on Days part. 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. MINI, official partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB, has unveiled its new London 2012 special, Keith Adams Well, Christmas and Boxing Day are out of the way and the, The replacement for the Austin-Healey 3000 never took off, thanks in part to a poor, British Motor Holdings the joining of BMC and Jaguar, The cars : Mini (ADO15) development story Part One, Concepts and prototypes : BMC 9X (1968-87), Blog : Why the Italians beat us to a supermini by a decade, History : The Road to Perdition Part One, Interview : Alec Issigonis on the BMC 1100, Archive : Mini Shortlisted For Car Of The Century, Archive : Mini still sold at a loss. I hardly ever drove a Mini or an 1100, but many miles of driving a Landcrab made me understand why it was so very good, in spite of some engineering shortcuts. Alec Issigonis. Alexander Issigonis was born into the Greek community of Smyrna (now Izmir) in Ottoman Turkey. The Austin/Morris Mini was They represent many years of design study in attempts to produce the best value for money in the field of small car design. Oxbotica Toronto Office. He died in October 1988, aged 82. Sketch by the late Sir Alec Issigonis, of the original Morris Minor, circa 1946. Humber was the upscale brand of the Rootes Group, but also the name of the main car building company in the Group. I saw about 3 Americas in the wild that I can remember, and 1 example of the earlier MG 1100 Sport Sedan. I am well acquainted with the brilliant/stubborn/arrogant type of engineer, I have occasionally served as a Daniels, and my own brilliant/stubborn/arrogant Grandfather could have probably used one too. He also had plans for a flat four cylinder engine, and at frequentlychallenged convention and Morris Motors conservatism. A truly fascinating man he was. I was amazed at the amount of space in that car you could even hide things in the cubbyhole under the rear seat. The Crossword Solver finds answers to classic crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles. Corrections? View 6 Images. Issigonis continued to work as Engineering Director at the Austin-Morris Division of BMC, and as Technical Director of BMC in 1965. Sir Alec Constantine Issigonis, born in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire on November 18, 1906, is famous for designing the beloved Mini Cooper motor car. . This greatly modified machine was replaced with a radical special completed in 1939, constructed of plywood laminated in aluminium sheeting. Alternate titles: Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis. in there was a 1 hr "The Mini Man " -Sir Alec Issigonis 1906 - 1988 by great friend and car fanatic Peter Ustinov. Alec's grandfather Demosthenis migrated to Smyrna from the Greek island of Paros in the 1830s. Smrna was then the second city of the Ottoman Empire and had a local population of around one million, of which more than half were Greek. He did not want more conventional answers, without at least exploring some technical advances. Shunning all offers of silver service with the management. Essay on The Pure Voice in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The car was launched at the 1948 London Motor Show, alongside the Land Rover and Jaguar XK120, and the rest is pure CC history. Another thing Sir Alec did not think was important perhaps? Alec Issigonis was already known for his popular and respected Morris Minor. He excelled in mechanical drawing, but failed his mathematics exams three times. He then moved on to Alvis, where he worked on the development of a luxury saloon, but the project had to be discontinued for cost reasons. Kereta rekaannya, BMC Mini dilancarkan dalam tahun 1959. As a matter of interest, go to this site: and click on the Letter From Dr. Alex Moulton link. The first front wheel drive car from BL after Issigoniss retirement was the Austin Allegro, still with the gearbox in the sump and without the obvious hatchback. That Alvis is one of those missed opportunities that ultimately doomed the company. Thanks for this terrific bio on one of the all-time greats in the field. He was a race car driver during the 30s and 40s. It really showed up typical RWD cars of the time as being great space-wasters. 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. It interested me as I had the honour of working with sir Alec for around 3 months. From 1925-1928 he studied engineering at Battersea Polytechnic in London. After these cars, and the formation of British Leyland in 1968, Issigonis was sidelined by a new influx of engineers led by Triumphs Harry Webster. Issigonis was to use Moultons suspension ideas on all his future cars, with Moulton working in a consultancy capacity to BMC. Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis CBE FRS RDI (18 November 1906 - 2 October 1988) was a Greek automotive designer. It really showed up typical RWD cars of the time as being great space-wasters. John Sheppard spent 20 years working with [], Richard Aucock 40 years ago this month, Sir Alec Issigonis, creator of Britains best-selling motoring icons, retired The creator of the original Mini, the Morris Minor, the Austin Maxi and [], Motor magazine, August 1962 WHY IS THE ADO16? The son of a Greek merchant, Issigonis immigrated to London in 1922 during the war between Greece and Turkey. [9] He was cremated at the Lodge Hill Cemetery in nearby Selly Oak. The boxy, inexpensive, fuel-efficient Mini used a transverse engine to power its front wheelsa radical design at the timeand thus could comfortably seat four passengers despite being only 10 feet (3 m) long. 41 Copy quote. Durante o curso ele foi reprovado trs vezes em matemtica. His father was a successful shipbuilding engineer, whose own father was from the Greek island, Paros. This isnt 1942. Sir Alec Issigonis. Issigonis never married; most accounts suggest that he was probably gay but he was obviously unable to express himself without huge risk to his professional status and even the risk of prosecution. The strengths of this sign are being resourceful, brave, passionate, a true friend, while weaknesses can be distrusting, jealous, secretive and violent. Later, he was working on an independent suspension for the larger Humber Hawk, with another rising star in the industry, Bill Heynes. 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. His father, a successful and wealthy shipbuilding engineer, was of Greek origin but held a British passport. 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. Been a fan of Alec Issigonis since I was 8 years old. In 1956, the focus was shifted towards a new economy car and from here, the Mini was born in 1959. Thank you very much for a wonderful biography. There was no radio fitted as he thought it would distract the driver. All Rights Reserved. In later years, the car would become known simply as the Mini. Alec Issigonis Way Oxford Business Park Oxford OX4 2HN United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 783 000 Oxford Biomedica Solutions 1 Patriots Park Bedford MA 01730 United States Telephone: +1 781 428 4536 Email :solutions.partnering@oxb.com Oxford Biomedica (Ireland) Ltd Office 502 Balheary Demense Balheary Road Swords Co. Dublin Ireland What a great, nicely balanced piece about the ever-controversial Sir Alec, and his equally controversial designs. 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. The irony being, of all the cars built in the world that follow his layout, none carry an Austin or Morris badge. American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others, Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment, Biography: Sir Alec Issigonis The Designer of Britains Favourite Cars, Britains Favourite Car Designer, I have labelled it the Most Significant Car of the 1940s, Vintage R&T Technical Analysis: AMCs New Pacer As Short As A Pinto; As Wide As A Chevelle, Vintage Car Life Comparison: 1961 VW Bus, Corvair Greenbrier, and Ford Econoline Wherein A 40 HP VW Bus Ties An 80 HP Greenbrier In The 1/4 Mile, Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: NSU Ro80 Just Your Typical Bay Area Car Show, The CC Graveyard: Part Three An Exotic Foreigner Hiding In The Bushes, Wordless Outtake: Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, Renault, MAN The Subcontractors Sixsome, BOAL: 1982 Honda GL500 Silverwing Chapter 5, The Baby Wing. At some point in the mid-60s they ran an After the New Wears Off feature by an MG 1100 owner in Los Angeles. It was more like a Lancia or a rear drive Citroen than a Rover or a Sunbeam-Talbot. In 1952, just as the British Motor Corporation (BMC) was formed by the merger of Morris and Austin, he moved to Alvis Cars where he designed an advanced saloon with all-aluminium V-8 engine, and experimented with interconnected independent suspension systems. 8050 Alec Issigonis Way, Oxford Business Park North, Oxford, United Kingdom, OX4 2HW. Not sure how true it is, but I read somewhere that he even designed the ashtrays for the Minor. body design expertise was by Italian firm Pininfarina. After returning to England in 1922, he enrolled in engineering school, failing mathematics at every turn. 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. By early 1957, prototypes were running, and by mid-1957 the project was given an official drawing office project number (ADO15) so that the thousands of drawings required for production could be produced. He was also referred to as the Greek God, perhaps more openly. Sir Alecs design which we built won the design centre award. Your email address will not be published. He despised such luxuries as radios and comfortable seats, once stating I would like people to sit on nails to be extremely uncomfortable all the time. and declaring that an uncomfortable driver is an alert driver. Shortly after in 1962, when gender roles were thought to be defined, one woman chose a life of speed. Alec Issigonis (Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis) was born in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire (now Izmir, Turkey). Issigonis legacy. Alec Issigonis nasceu na Turquia Filho de um grego naturalizado britnico casado com uma turca. 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. Issigonis showed little interest in things mechanical until he was well into his teens, not riding in a car until he was 14 years old, and was seemingly more interested in art, under the strong influence of his mother. Issigonis had the dream of becoming an automobile engineer at an early age. [], BMC changed the world with the launch of the Mini in 1959. He was able to share his engineering and automotive interests, through frequent tours of Longbridge in the 1960s, with a first cousin once removed on his mothers side of his family, who later completed a mechanical engineering degree and followed a career in the motor industry. Excellent article. [citation needed] He considered it to be a vehicle that combined many of the luxuries and conveniences of a good motor car with a price suitable for the working classes in contrast to the Mini which was a spartan mode of conveyance with everything cut to the bone. [3] 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. Learn more. BL were in thrall of the myth theyd created, but the buying public had much more sense. Once more details are available, we will update this section. . Our tool for managing your permission to our use of cookies is temporarily offline. Issigonis was knighted in 1968, 1955 Morris Minor: Britains Favorite Car Bar None, And Rightly So, Austin Seven (Mini): The Future Started Here. The ease of driving it, attributable to Issigoniss careful and thoughtful suspension and steering design, as well as the comparatively low weight of the car, were factors in that as well as the comfort and space it provided. Sir Alec was a combination of everything that was right AND wrong about the British car industry in his day. The Mini quickly became cult and had enthusiastic fans worldwide. 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. Apparently Walter Chrysler could also be difficult to work with. The Mini, and the other Issigonis BMC front wheel drive cars, benefited from Issigonis continuing collaboration with Alex Moulton and his suspension system developments. Mr. Front-Wheel Drive: Sir Alec Issigonis . If only it had had more power and better gearing. The 1100 and later 1300 outsold the Mini by a considerable margin and remained Britains best-selling car right through the 1960s. I dont have any great memories of the Mini to share, though you saw them everywhere. 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. On October 2, 1988, he passed . I thought I knew everything about Issigonis already, but there were some fascinating insights here. For his accomplishments, Queen Elizabeth knighted Issigonis in 1969. It was at Alvis that Issigonis first worked with another of the influential characters of his career. Arguably, Issigonis and BL were in danger of being left behind. In 1942, the first scale model was produced and the following year work began on a hand-formed steel prototype. Proslavil se zejmna nvrhem vozu Mini, kter uvedla na trh British Motor Corporation v . Its entirely believable that Issigonis would have been prosecuted if hed had gay sex. He was knighted in 1969 and was honored by the city of Oxford with a street named after him, Alec Issigonis Way. Issigonis never had any input into MG sports cars or the large, rear drive saloons BMC were still building the late 1960s, and the Austin 3 Litre, based on Issigoniss Austin 1800 was driven by George Harriman. At the opening of the factory BMC was represented by Sir Alec Issigonis. Click the answer to find similar crossword clues . People over the road from us had a Wolseley Six (top of the range Landcrab) when we were kids. Issigonis was probably privately satisfied with that arrangement, as it took him away from the daily grind of corporate management and designing production ready cars and back into the more conceptual field where he had the opportunity to use his innovative skills the kind of role Leonard Lord had originally given him twelve years earlier and which led to the Mini and the ADO16. Issigonis's mother, Hulda Prokopp, was descended from a Bavarian brewing family who had settled in Smyrna, and established a brewery. Alvis had a strong military business building armoured cars and personnel carriers, and this part of the business is still going strong as part of BAE Systems. Therefore, when Alec's father, Constantine Issigonis, was born in Smyrna in 1872, he was also a British national. His father, a successful and wealthy shipbuilding engineer, was of Greek origin but held a British passport. There is a truck factory in the city of Izmir, on the western Mediterranean coast of Turkey, builtby the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1967, and which still builds vehiclesunder the BMC brand. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. The challenge of designing the Mini was engineering a car that would seat four passengers and their luggage in a package not to exceed ten feet in length. I do not know how many I have owned Morrises, Austins and MGs. Alec Issigonis, technical director of the British Motor Corporation and Charles Griffin, chief engineer, answer questions from our technical editor. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alec-Issigonis. When he officially retired from BLMC in November 1971, Issigonis was retained by BLMC on an exclusive consultancy agreement, signed off by and reporting to the Chairman, Donald Stokes. [10], There is a road named "Alec Issigonis Way" in the Oxford Business Park on the former site of the Morris Motors factory in Cowley, Oxfordshire. It was one of the first days of the new school year early September and I was walking up the sidewalk and turning the corner to head for the campus. 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. Was it to be front or rear engined? Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Birth Name: Alec Issigonis Occupation: Entrepreneur Place Of Birth: Turkey Date Of Birth: November 18, 1906 Date Of Death: October 2, 1988 Cause Of Death: N/A Ethnicity: Unknown Nationality: Greek Alec Issigonis was born on the 18th of November, 1906. Alec Issigonis. Alec Issigonis is part of G.I. At the time of his retirement, 71, hatchbacks were not the thing they were 4 years later. Austin Healey Sprites , 3000s Austin Americas, MG Midget, MGAs MGBs Mg 1100s I had many of each model. Issigonis designed a unitary construction saloon and the V8 engine, and utilised Moultons latest interconnected rubber suspension. And a rally demon was born. His father Constantine Issigonis was a successful shipbuilding engineer, whose own father was from Paros. 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. Im sure this was never part of Issigoniss plan, as he was anti-style, but only the 1100 benefited from external help. Alec Issigonis, or more formally Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis CBE FRS RDI* (1906 1988), is best known as the creator of the Mini, but he also designed two other cars that have featured on CC and that are amongst the best-selling cars in British motoring history the Morris Minor and the Austin-Morris 1100 (ADO16). Born in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now zmir, Turkey) on November 18, 1906, Issigonis immigrated to England with his family in 1922 and later studied engineering at . The rest is racing . is bigger, and is just one of a family of related models. The Morris Minor was an immediate success, selling over 11 million units, and was the first characterization of Issigoniss philosophy of maximizing interior space while shrinking all other components. [4] His maternal ancestors originated in the Kingdom of Wrttemberg. He was born in 1906 in a city that is now known as Izmir, in Turkey which itself can trace its . He often had to be discreetly talked through financial documents when he was in the board meetings. meantime, John preferred his psychedelic Rolls .. Roger, hats off for this excellent treatment of an engineering legend. He was popular for being a Entrepreneur. Issigonis who designed the Mini auto Crossword Clue The Crossword Solver found 30 answers to "Issigonis who designed the Mini auto", 4 letters crossword clue. It was a very ambitious intention, which Alvis were not capable of delivering on without importing a lot of engineering talent. It was designed to follow on from the Mini and 1100 as the next generation . His mother was Bavarian, the daughter of a brewer. He would attend the usual motor shows, but often would refuse to look in detail at the competition, so he did not become confused. His last Morris projects were the 1953 Morris Oxford and Isis saloons, launched after the BMC merger, and which used the BMC B series engine. An engineering genius and godfather of of the Mini. Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. [11], Issigonis was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1964 Birthday Honours. [3] 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. AROnline Keith Adams 2001-2022 - please refer to the 'Terms of use' pages. But back in the day, young UK petrolheads had the time of our lives with Minis, modified in countless ways, rocketing around on twisty English roads, and in weekend motorsports. The all-new Mini will be revealed today, on what would have been Mini creator Sir Alec Issigonis's 107th birthday. This prototype never saw the light of day mores the pity. Look what happened to Alan Turing. Alec Issigoniss mothers name is unknown at this time and his fathers name is under review.
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