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Rover Classic Mini Review

Sam Worth
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What's good?

– Just look at it
– The sound, handling, design…
– …Pretty much everything

What's bad?

– You’ll need some sort of breakdown cover, sooner or later…

What's the score?

9/10

Overview – Owner Review

The British Motor Corporation brought out the first Mini in 1959, but it was called the Morris Mini-Minor at the time. What a cute little car that was. And as the years went by, the company was bought out by several other companies including British Leyland, who introduced more models and body styles. They even decided to make an estate model, called the Clubman, and a Minivan. Who would’ve thought that eh? I bet one of those could fit inside the back of a LWB Ford Transit. Well, sort of…

As well as having quite a few different models, more engines were introduced aswell. The first BMC A-Series engine that was fitted into a Mini was an 803cc, and by the time the Mini production ended in 2000, there were bigger engines, including a 1275cc with multipoint fuel injection.

The design is small, simple and space saving – believe it or not. Back in the 50’s when they were being developed, Sir Alec Issigonis – the man behind the designing of the Mini – and theoretically, hundreds of millions of cars on the road today, came up with a revolutionary design. His idea freed up 80% of the cars floorplan area inside the car, by mounting the engine transversely, having the four-speed gearbox in the sump, and a FWD layout. Simple, yet extremely affective.

Drive

I’ve driven quite a few exciting cars in my life. Some of them being fast and tail-happy, and others fitted with tech and screens blaring in your face, left right and centre. But, when it comes to a car that is small enough for a child to mistake it for being a toy car and can turn most people’s heads without having to make a noise, the classic Mini is completely and utterly unique from anything I’ve ever driven.

Before you even start driving the Mini, you know you’re in for a treat just by looking at it. It’s quite funny, because I often look at the Mini and wonder, how did people use it as their everyday car because of how small it is? It’s almost as if it was built for Oompa Loompas back in the day.

If you want to know what a Mini is like to drive, imagine being in a go-kart. Just add a roof, more gears, a clutch, a pair of number plates, and there we are… Only this time round, you’re driving on the road. Sounds fun, right? It is. Very. Everything about the Mini makes you feel properly connected to it. The wheelbase is short, and the car itself isn’t much wider than an electric golf buggy, which means the steering feels sharp and dart-ey.

And as you can guess, because there’s not a lot of car, there’s not a lot of weight either. They weigh around 600kg, which is the equivalent of half a Ford Fiesta. But just because it doesn’t weigh a lot, doesn’t mean it’s fast. It just feels fun. There’s enough power to make you smile without having to plant it everywhere. But not enough power to make you worried about getting noticed by the rozzers.

The thing I love about these old Mini’s, and all older cars really, is whenever you drive, you’re putting in all the input. Because there’s no safety systems or electricery rubbish in the way, that sometimes interferes with the drive. So, as a driver, you feel more in control.

Although I must say, I’m glad my Mini has a brake servo. I remember driving a Mini without a brake servo, and my god, for the first time ever, I found braking dangerous, or what were brakes felt more like bits of wood stopping the car. I might as well of tried stopping with my feet like The Flintstones.

I couldn’t tell you power and torque figures from my 1275cc, simply, because I don’t know. But as a guess, I would say around 60bhp. 0-60mph? Pass. But you never think about any of that when you’re driving because it’s not relevant. The whole point of driving the classic Mini is to simply enjoy the drive, not thinking about how fast you’re going. Before you ask, I couldn’t even tell you how economical it is because my fuel gauge is about as accurate as a bent spirit level.

One thing I do want to mention, is the ride. I can’t say it’s comfortable, even if I’m only going up the road, let me put it that way. The word painful springs to mind. I bet if I drove over a Jaffa Cake, I’d feel it one way or another. To be fair, it’s an old car, my suspension is lowered quite a bit and it’s sitting on the biggest 13-inch wheels. I’m sure a Mini sitting on 10-inch wheels with a raised suspension is a different story.

The Mini is easy to park. Of course, there’s no parking sensors, cameras, or power steering. But, because the car is about as long as two shopping trolleys and has good visibility, thanks to pillars that are the same width as a cotton ear bud, it’s pretty straight forward. Plus, if you’re one of those people who struggle to parallel park, just park the Mini in vertically. I doubt it’ll stick out much.

Interior

So, what’s it like inside? Small. That seems the obvious answer, but I’ve got to be honest, there’s not a bad amount of room considering I’m talking about a ‘Mini’. You’ve got to remember that when this car came out, a lot of people, families even, used this as their main car. I bet that makes your SUV sitting on the drive feel quite pointless, eh?

And because it’s small, you can touch mostly everything inside the car just from sitting in the driver’s seat, without feeling as if you’re doing an arm workout. Although thinking about it, there’s not anything to reach out for. There’s about six switches, the temperature control, and a choke cable. A what cable? Choke. Cable. Pulling it out sends more fuel through the carburettor to warm the engine up quicker on a cold start. Millennials.

There is always one thing I love about the Mini, which is the noise it makes from closing the door. You get a good ol’ door clunk, like you can actually hear the latch catching onto the door and pulling it in. The noise is somehow quite satisfying, believe it or not.

And the other part of the Mini that always makes me laugh is the mirrors, because they’re not particularly good at doing their job. The interior mirror moves about as much as a speaker hitting bass frequencies. And yes, it’s fitted securely. So, every time I look behind me in the mirror, I get the vision an earthquake is happening.

And although the side mirrors look cute, but the positioning of them is terrible (although I fitted them) so all you can see out of them is houses, or clouds if you’re out in the countryside. But I’ve got to be honest, I don’t really use the mirrors, because it’s much better just to tilt your head a few more degrees to get IMAX view of everything around you.

It’s cramped in the back, yes. But it’s not enough to make you feel claustrophobic in any shape or form. Leg and head room in the back is quite good actually… for small people. But it’s a Mini. Who cares? I remember having a few passengers in my car a few times, it was funny seeing them bobble around in the back. However, it wasn’t pleasant hearing the back tyres scraping on the arches. Ugh. But that’s probably due down to the car sitting low and having big wheels.

Verdict

Everything about the classic Mini feels different to anything I’ve ever driven. Even just from sitting inside it feels singular. And out on the road, it isn’t a car you need to go flat out everywhere in, because you’ll have a chuckle to yourself just by doing 30mph. That’s the thing with older cars, they have so much character at all speeds. It’s like you can feel the car, just through the steering wheel.

The amount of people that walk over to me to chat while I’m out and about, appreciating what a loving little car it was is staggering. Most of them walk past and smile, while some of them come up and say, ‘I remember when I had one of these back in the day, I loved it’. Brilliant. Times like that you appreciate.

It has it’s rust and reliability issues, but so does any old car. I remember breaking down when I first picked the car up because it was leaking coolant. Poxy things. I even remember breaking down literally round the corner from a show at Brands Hatch because the gear linkage box packed up. Bloody frustrating after having to call a recovery flatbed out.

At the end of the day, if’s a brilliant car loved around the world for everything it was built for. It’s not perfect, but it’s Mini.