147 replies to this topic

[Ro8bieg]

This is interesting!

[minimender]

Did you Know that;-

The Longbridge Mini was launched with the name ' Austin Seven ' and the Cowley produced version was called the ' Morris Mini Minor '

In March 1957, less than thirty months before the Mini was unveiled to the public, Lord Leonard authorised Issigonis to start on preliminary designs.

The universal joints used in the Mini transmission were produced from a design used for submarine conning tower control gear. Today, most of the worlds front wheel drive cars employ this type of constant velosity joint.

[taffy1967]

The scene in the original "Italian Job" featuring the minis going like holy stink through the sewers & across the weir was filmed in Willenhall, Coventry - one of the very few reasons I am proud of my home town.

So Coventry is indistinguishable for an Italian Sewer???

I believe it was a storm drain rather than a sewer?

[taffy1967]

alec issignis was a chain smoker so the mini had an ashtray as standard but he hated music so there was no stereo!

Aah - but was stereo invented in 1959 ???

mono!

Eh? Stereo Radiogrammes were available back them, although you'd have a hard time trying to fit one of those sideboard musicogramme things in the back of a Mini. My folks, or actually grandad bought a Stereo Radiogramme back in 1961/62 and it was fantastic.

The 1958 Cadillac coupe de ville had a radio fitted as standard.

Yes but was it stereo? The classic RadioGram looked like a large cupboard, but it had built in speakers and it housed a record player and a radio: -

[taffy1967]

Fiat's chief designer who came up with cars like the 500 is said to have written in his memoirs how he regretted not thinking up the Mini first.

Ford who were obviously kicking themselves for also not coming up with the idea first, took a Mini and stripped it right down and they then concluded that BMC were losing money on every one sold.

Of course that's just the sort of thing they wanted to hear and whether that claim is true we don't know, but BMC were in profit during the 1960's anyway.

[mab01uk]

The Italian Job sewer scenes (in Coventry) were shot in the tunnel from behind by a camera mounted on a Mini Moke. It was planned for one of the Minis to do a complete loop of the tunnel but after 3 attempts the Mini landed on its roof and was too badly damaged to undertake the stunt a fourth time probably due to the slippery algae on the walls. On rehearsal one Mini did manage to do a 360-degree loop, unfortunately no camera was rolling at the time, so the whirlgig stunt was the only one which defeated the crew and never made it into the film.

[mab01uk]

The A series engine in the original Mini prototypes was the other way round with the exhaust manifold and carb at the front behind the grille and the spark plugs and distributor facing the rear bulkhead. Detailed photos of this set up and the early front subframe can be seen in some of the older Mini books such as "The Mini Story" by Laurence Pomeroy.
When it was later turned round as in the final production Minis (I think due to carb icing and gearbox syncro problems) an extra idler drop gear had to be added between the crankshaft and gearbox to turn the gearbox the correct way which gave the Mini transmission that distinctive whine. (Especially loud on race Minis with straight cut drop gears).

[rja]

I believe it was a storm drain rather than a sewer?
[/quote]


Correct. It emptied directly into a river!

[minimender]

Did you know

That by 1960, an average 400 Minis were being produced each day at Longbridge while the night shift , which assembled 180 Minis , consisted of just 57 men.

or

That after just three years of production, on 12 December 1962, the 500,000th Mini rolled off the production line.

or

That the first million Minis were produced by 1965, the second million in 1969, the third million in 1972.

[taffy1967]

The Italian Job sewer scenes (in Coventry) were shot in the tunnel from behind by a camera mounted on a Mini Moke. It was planned for one of the Minis to do a complete loop of the tunnel but after 3 attempts the Mini landed on its roof and was too badly damaged to undertake the stunt a fourth time probably due to the slippery algae on the walls. On rehearsal one Mini did manage to do a 360-degree loop, unfortunately no camera was rolling at the time, so the whirlgig stunt was the only one which defeated the crew and never made it into the film.

I've heard that there were recesses in the roof for light fittings and the Minis wheels kept catching on them and that's what caused them to fail the wall of death stunt. Shame they never caught the one that did it on film though.

[taffy1967]

There were more Minis made and sold in 1977 than there were in 1966, which was the year the Mini had the most publicity thanks to the famous Monte Carlo Rally disqualification.

On This Day link

[Avalanche325]

I know most of those already, but it still doesn't anwer the question about 10" wheels getting hotter than Formula 1 tyres!

Normal road car tyres will never get as hot as Formula 1 tyres.

Road tyres use tread to grip, Formula 1 tyres use heat to grip (i.e. slick tyres).

Tread has nothing to do with grip on a dry road. The rubber is what grips. Tread on a road tyre is there to remove water from the contact patch. This still allows the rubber to grip on a wet road.

The temperature grip issue is a matter of the fact that racing tyres will operate at a certain temperature range during a race. The manufacturer designs the compound to grip the best and last the longest in that range. If the tyre is above or below that range, grip and duribility is compromised. That is why cold racing tyres don't grip as well as they do when "hot".

A 10 inch tyre runing at the same speed simply gets hotter than a larger tyre because it has to turn more revolutions to cover the same distance. The part of the tyre that is in contact with the road is heating up. The rest of the tyre is cooling down. On a 10 inch, the cooling portion of the cycle in much shorter, therefore the tyre runs hotter. There is also less metal in the wheel to act as a heat sink. The wheel bearings also run hotter because they run at higher rpms.

[Dan]

If you had read all of the thread before replying you would have noticed that we were asked not to have a discussion about how tyres work or are built in here, take it somewhere else please.

Correct. It emptied directly into a river!

Just because that's where the tunnel is shown to emerge in the film doesn't mean that's actually the tunnel it was shot in, movies are edited you know! The tunnel entrance and exit scenes in the movie were acutally shot in Turin, the tunnel itself is the Birmingham-Coventry Tithebarn main sewer located in Stoke Aldermoor in Coventry. It really is a sewer and was under construction at the time. It had no drievable entrances or exits to my knowledge and the vehicles had to be lowered in through this section:

I doubt the tracking car would have been a Mini Moke, until quite recently a 2CV was always the vehicle of choice for camera tracking due to its unique suspension. I suppose a Moke would have been more able to keep up with the Coopers in the tunnel though.

[Bobby9779]

Nice, and nice sneeky shot of the tunnel.

I heard it was the overhead fittings too.

Bob

[Avalanche325]

If you had read all of the thread before replying you would have noticed that we were asked not to have a discussion about how tyres work or are built in here, take it somewhere else please.

Sorry. I didn't see it hidden up there with the attachments.