alec issigonis family
Even more significantly, it effectively defined the configuration of the small and medium car for the next 50 years. Given his disrupted education, unusual background and the tough economic times that were the late 1920s, finding a job was not easy, but in 1928, and by now a British citizen in his own right, Issigonis took his first job in the motor industry, for Edward Gillett in London, through a networking contact he had made at Battersea. A very enjoyable read on a man whose name I knew in conjunction with so many brilliant designs, but who I previously knew little about. Yes, it ran like hell when operable as the owner treated it like an Army Jeep. He and Frank Stephenson are both famous car designers. A reliable car with excellent steering and cornering qualities, it was the first all-British car to pass the one million mark in sales; surviving models are still cherished by owners and collectors. Youre right about maintenance. On October 2, 1988, he passed . Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Death and commemorations 4 Some of his cars ALEC ISSIGONIS Automotive Designer (1906-1988) One of the most original car designers of the modern era, ALEC ISSIGONIS (1906-1988) is best known as the creator of the Mini, but also designed two more of the five best-selling cars in British motoring history - the Morris Minor and the Austin 1100. . Diz lenda que ele considerava a rigidez . The Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum is now home to the Issigonis Prototype 1970 Mini 9X 'Gearless', donated to the Museum by the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon, Warwickshire. He also had plans for a flat four cylinder engine, and at frequentlychallenged convention and Morris Motors conservatism. Another Mini! [citation needed], Issigonis was nicknamed "the Greek god" by his contemporaries. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Issigonis's own automotive career as a designer and engineer in England first took shape during the early 1930s when he began working for the vehicle manufacturer . . Alec Issigonis Net Worth 2023, Age, Height, Relationships, Married, Dating, Family, Wiki Biography . 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. It is really amazing, when you think of it, that some 60 years later his basic vision rolls off of assembly lines all over the world. Alec Issigonis is a famous Entrepreneur. 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. The cars quickly found their way to the scrapheap since the cost of repairing the automatic transmission typically was more than the car was worth. He was a race car driver during the 30s and 40s. In 1922 the family left Turkey for England, as all British people were banished from the country. 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. After returning to England in 1922, he enrolled in engineering school, failing mathematics at every turn. Sir Alec Issigonis. 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. 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? 8050 Alec Issigonis Way, Oxford Business Park North, Oxford, United Kingdom, OX4 2HW. You could, however, discern Issigoniss influence on some of BMCs light commercials, especially the underfloor engined JU and walk through EA vans of the late 1960s. The family is almost penniless. Thanks for the great article. He would instead research work on his Mini replacement the 9X with its compact transverse engine. On a cheerier note, Id love to see that Alvin on the flesh. The floor is flat and low to the ground and windows all round make it seem very airy. The car was launched at the 1948 London Motor Show, alongside the Land Rover and Jaguar XK120, and the rest is pure CC history. Nice to see that blue Morris Oxford just the same as our first car that I remember. Bookmark this page and come back often for updates. : Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis , CBE, FRS, RDI 19061118-1988102 . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. Prior to his death, Alec and his mother travelled overland to London. Suffice to say it was an ambitious project for a family of compact cars - the smaller of the pair shorter overall than . His father died in 1922, at which point he and his mother moved to the U.K.. My doodles and sketches are not the work of an academic engineer. https://www.mini.com/ Most events entered were sprints, but he also raced at circuits. This car basically took the Mini concept and enlarged it by 20%, adding some experience, and ambition, at the same time. All I know is, which car I would rather be in driving if there was any tricky situation [], DAILY MIRROR By Richard Sear No man looks less designed to start off the cult of the miniature. Corrections? Despite its stated mission being to provide basic transport, this level of driving enjoyment, and capability, was like a non stop Christmas present. Issigonis would work on the 9X programme, which included a replacement Mini and a new and innovative gearless transmission system. Alec Issigonis was born in the Year of the Horse. Then of course there was severe corrosion in the face of road salt. It was still in production when BMW, led by Bernd Pischetsreider, bought Rover in 1994. 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. By 1941, Issigonis had started work on an advanced post war car, then codenamed Mosquito, which became the Morris Minor. When we stopped sending children up chimneys we reemployed them to work or minis. He often had to be discreetly talked through financial documents when he was in the board meetings. All Rights Reserved. Arguably, Issigonis and BL were in danger of being left behind. I was eight when my dad bought one of those brand new cars at a reduced price from the NYC dealer $850 for an Austin 850 ($6,800 in 2016 money) BL were in thrall of the myth theyd created, but the buying public had much more sense. *27/02/01 The new Mini which will go on sale in the UK summer 2001, was , being unveiled for the first time. Style wise, the car has been identified as having a visual similarity to Lancia Aureliathe 1950-58 Lancia Aurelia saloon, with some Morris Oxford overtones and a traditional Alvis style grille added. 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. 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. Sticks in my mind I read a road test that put engine speed at 60 around 4,000rpm. You probably know the part about Alec Issigonis being born in the Greek city of Smyrna in 1906, being evacuated to Malta in 1922 following the Turkish invasion, and how he moved to London in 1923 to study engineering. There were, as CC has seen, many and varied reasons for the failure of the Landcrab and Maxi: the control (or rather the lack of it) exercised by Lord and Harriman over Issigonis; the inherited components; and marketing and production issues. A deeply flawed genius at best. 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. Its practicality and affordability made it immediately popular; by the time of Issigonis death more than five million had been sold. [8], With the creation of British Leyland in 1969, new chairman Lord Stokes quickly sidelined Issigonis and made him into what was termed "Special Developments Director", replacing him with Harry Webster as the new Technical Director (Small/Medium cars). In August 1959 the car was launched as the Morris Mini Minor and the Austin Seven, which soon became known as the Austin Mini. 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). Discover what happened on this day. Autokonstrukteur, GBPortrt mit Zigarette- 1959. By the mid 1970s, Issigonis was beginning suffer from Menieres disease, and the consequent loss of full control of his balance let him to retreat from prominence. For his accomplishments, Queen Elizabeth knighted Issigonis in 1969. Shunning all offers of silver service with the management. The Landcrab and Maxi were so butt ugly that no self respecting petrolhead would be seen it one. It has since proved to be the template for the small car for nearly 60 years it has still not been bettered and was followed as early as 1963 by the Autobianchi Primula, which had the first end on gearbox on its transverse engine, by the 1965 Peugeot 204 with a configuration closer to the ADO16 but larger, and 1967 by the Simca 1100, the first to combine an end on gearbox and a hatchback. Sir Alec Issigonis, in full Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, (born Nov. 18, 1906, Smyrna [now zmir], Tur.died Oct. 2, 1988, Birmingham, Eng. His grandfather Demosthenis Issigonis . [11], Issigonis was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1964 Birthday Honours. 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. ), British automobile designer who created the best-selling, economical Mini and the perennially popular Morris Minor. This page is updated often with fresh details about Alec Issigonis. Been a fan of Alec Issigonis since I was 8 years old. If you see something that doesnt look right, contact us. As such he was of the generation who experienced the privations of two apocalyptic world wars. Manual transmissions seemed to hold up ok,lasting at least as long as the engine. Heynes later became Technical Director at Jaguar and was a personal friend of Issigonis for many years. Daniels effectively resumed his position as Issigoniss right hand man for the next ten years or more, guiding the interpretation of Issigoniss requests to the workshops, draughtsmen, production engineers and accountants. In March 1957 Lord asked (more likely told, as Lord did not do asking) Issigonis to come up with something to compete with them. All Rights Reserved. On the surface it didnt appear very desirable to Me, or to prospective new-car buyers. Issigonis' first cousin once removed was Bernd Pischetsreider, responsible . 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. He was known for being a Entrepreneur. Issgonis preferred to work by sketching his ideas onto Arclight pads, each numbered in sequence and retained, and then having Daniels, looking after chassis elements, or another close confidant John Sheppard, looking after the body shell itself, work to turn these in physical reality. Austin Healey Sprites , 3000s Austin Americas, MG Midget, MGAs MGBs Mg 1100s I had many of each model. 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. Issigonis designed a unitary construction saloon and the V8 engine, and utilised Moultons latest interconnected rubber suspension. Richard Bremneris well-known for being a highly-respected motoring scribe, but in his formative years, he worked in the employ of Austin-Rover. At the end of the Greek-Turkish war in 1922, British subjects in Smyrna were evacuated by the Royal Navy, ahead of the Turkish re-possession of the area from Greece, with manyinitially travelling to Malta. But fearful that his freedom would be curbed in such a large company, Issigonis resigned from BMC and went to work for the much smaller Alvis company. To clarify, the Renault 4, 5 (first generation, Le Car), 6 and 16 all had longitudinally mounted engines. It was apparent to Morriss senior managers that Issigonis was cut from a different cloth compared to his contemporaries. In 1936, Issigonis moved again, to the Morris Motor Company, as a project engineer on an independent front suspension system for the Morris 10, where his experience at Rootes would start to bear fruit. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. He was a race car driver during the 30's and 40's. Although primarily a station car, my parents also took it on a vacation through New England. Sort By: Better Essays. British car designer best remembered for his work on the development of the iconic Mini. By placing an A series four cylinder engine transversely with the gearbox underneath in the sump and sharing the oil, and moving the wheels to the corners, he saved so much space that it was possible to accommodate a four seat car within a length of 10 feet. 104 Alec Issigonis Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 104 Alec Issigonis Premium High Res Photos Browse 104 alec issigonis stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. By 1939, Issigonis had replaced his modified Austin Seven with a more radical car of his own design, constructed of plywood laminated in aluminium sheeting, in what we would now call a composite construction. Sixty years ago today . There was a good reason for BMC selecting him for this task, for Issigonis was born in Izmir. He lived with his mother to whom he was devoted, until her death in 1972, latterly in Edgbaston in Birmingham, in a large bungalow, divided into two wings. [9] He was cremated at the Lodge Hill Cemetery in nearby Selly Oak. Thanks for a wonderfully researched article! Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS, RDI (18 November 1906 - 2 October 1988) was a Greek-British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the groundbreaking and influential . Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis was born in Smyrna, on November 18, 1906 and he is the man who designed one of the most beloved cars in the world, the legendary Mini Cooper! Excellent article. 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. File nella categoria "Alec Issigonis" Questa categoria contiene 5 file, indicati di seguito, su un totale di 5. 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. Issigonis quickly arranged for Jack Daniels to move up from Cowley to Longbridge to rebuild their close rapport. His fingerprints are all over other cars, too, the Austin 1800 Land Crab and the Austin Maxi for example, but not always as successfully, as we shall see. FamousBirthdays.com - use subject to the practices disclosed in our privacy policy. But it was an exciting period, and youve captured his personality and lasting impact well. Alec Issigonis. While much derided for its lack of style, I do love the huge smile he put on the front of the original 1800 Landcrab. Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (Greek: , )CBE FRS RDI (18 November 1906 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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. BLMC says, Archive : Lord Stokes writes to Alec Issigonis, Archive : How Harry Webster is going to shape your car, Archive : The Thoughts of Chairman Stokes, Archive : Issigonis The Giant Who Thought Small, Archive : Creative role for Issigonis in BMC board switch, Archive : Mr Issigonis looks to the future, Archive : Interview Motor meets Alec Issigonis, The cars : Alfa Romeo Alfasud development story, Opinion : Celebrating 40 years of the Austin Maestro, Essay : Austin Maestro styling the real killer, Concepts and prototypes : LM10 and LM11 facelifts, Archive : Coventry Council Debates Rover Crisis, News : PSA confirms continued van production in Luton. View gallery - 6 images. Lords instruction was the one Issigonis had been waiting for, and he quickly developed the first Mini prototype. A British citizen born in Turkey in 1906, Issigonis did not see an automobile until he was 12 years old. Alternate titles: Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis. 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, for a small town car. ADO15, 16 & 17 (36792752942).jpg 1 712 1 936; 589 KB I got to drive his Red mini when I went for fish and chips on a Friday. At some point in the mid-60s they ran an After the New Wears Off feature by an MG 1100 owner in Los Angeles. Alec Issigonis: The Man Who Made the Mini, Sir Alec Issigonis, 81; Designer of Minicar And Morris Minor. Therefore some functionality is missing. 130 King Street West, Exchange Tower, Suite 1800, Toronto, Canada, M5X 1E3. Later, he was working on an independent suspension for the larger Humber Hawk, with another rising star in the industry, Bill Heynes. The typical American indifference to regular maintenance did not play well with this setup. 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. [1][2], Issigonis was born on 18 November 1906 in the Ottoman port city of Smyrna, the only child of Constantine Issigonis and Hulda Prokopp. 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. The first car I could identify was apparently a Mini and my mother still tells the story of an early trip to England where I wouldnt be quiet Ein Mini! His mother was Bavarian, the daughter of a brewer. If it was front engined, was it to be rear wheel or front wheel drive? Alec Issigonis and Dr Alex Moulton, the creator of Hydrolastic and Hydragas suspension, with a Morris 1100, circa 1962. It was a very ambitious intention, which Alvis were not capable of delivering on without importing a lot of engineering talent. Sketch by the late Sir Alec Issigonis, of the original Morris Minor, circa 1946. Essay on The Pure Voice in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Copyright 2023. [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. This was partly because of the cost but also because in 1953 Ford bought Briggs UK operations and 1954 BMC bought Fisher & Ludlow.
