As the Mini Minor turns 50, vintage car expert Manvendra Singh Barwani talks about why the mini became a major part of car history

It was small, it was fast for its time, and it has just turned 50 and is still popular among car lovers. It's what the Beatles drove. And Mr Bean. It's the Mini, the small car that made it big.

Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis for the British Motor Corporation, this very small car, which was launched in London on August 1959, went on to become a popular British motor car aimed at wooing the middle class and the elite alike with various models.

Small frame, big names
Though it looked petite, it was quite spacious inside. The interesting aspect of the first models of the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor was that they came without radio, and the simplistic dashboard just
had a speedometer, odometer, and a gas gauge. If a buyer wanted an interior heater, it was considered to be an add-on.

It is said that the Mini didn't do too well when it was first launched, and sales picked up only after Queen Elizabeth took a ride in it. Sales multiplied. The popular colour scheme in England those days for the Mini was to paint the Union Jack on the top of the car. In the 60s, after Beatles' manager Brian Epstein apparently gifted the group a Mini Cooper S, George Harrison's Mini had psychedelic images painted on it, as well as Sanskrit mantras. The same car was later seen in the Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour.