There had been many attempts to upgrade or replace the original Issigonis-designed Mini, but most never reached production stage. Those that made it to the dealer forecourt (the Clubman and the Metro) did not ultimately succeed in replacing the beloved Mini in the public’s affections and production continued until 2000 when emissions and safety legislation finally saw the first-generation classic disappear into history.

The very first attempt at a second-generation Mini was designed by Issigonis himself. It was called the 9X and reached prototype phase in 1967. Stylistically, it was very similar to the later Clubman; it was reminiscent of his original design but with a square front-end. At this time Issigonis had been promoted to BMC’s Technical Director and had the ability to ‘green-light’ any project. The 9X was the first in what was planned to be a series of overhead-camshaft, four and six-cylinder engined cars. Little testing ultimately took place on the few prototype cars and when BMC became Leyland the project was cancelled. One car still survives, as does one innovation developed for this version of the Mini; the hatchback..

The next attempt to upgrade the Mini arrived in 1969; the Clubman. Former Ford stylist Roy Haynes decided not to ‘reinvent the wheel’ and opted instead to simply design a new squarer front end with the same indicator/sidelight design as the Maxi. Although the Clubman continued in production until 1980, and has many thousands of fans, it never ultimately killed production of the original ‘roundnose’ Mini.

Almost as soon as the Clubman became available to the public, BL started casting around for ideas on how to replace the Mini in the longer-term. Their idea would reach fruition as the often-forgotten AD074. Between 1972 and 1974, a great deal of time and money was spent on this new car. The thinking, and the design, was radical. The car was larger than the original Mini design and the Clubman. It had a more powerful engine, five gears and quite bold styling. Sound familiar? Only when presented with a bill for £130 million did BL balk at putting the vehicle into production. A similar idea would resurface in the mid 1990’s…

Once the AD074 was pronounced dead, efforts were directed towards a new Mini. This new car would eventually go on sale in 1980 and become (for a while, at least) as popular as fashionable in the 1980’s as the original Mini had been in the 1960’s; the Mini Metro. Taking some queues from the 9X, the Clubman and the AD074 the Metro was slightly larger than the Mini, had a hatchback and was radically restyled for a new era. The car was adopted by a new generation of royals and celebrities (from Princess Diana to Sarah Jane Smith in ‘Dr Who’) and just as the Morris Mini Minor had eventually come to be known as the Mini, the Mini Metro soon became known simply as the Metro and finally as the Rover 100. Although not as mechanically-sound, or lively, as some of its rivals (the Ford Fiesta and the Volkswagen Golf) the car survived the troubles that enveloped and ultimately destroyed BL/Rover and only ceased production when the line at Longbridge was needed to manufacture another model…

During the Metro’s life, the original ‘roundnose’ Mini was still being manufactured. Margins were tight, sales were decreasing and dealers were finding it harder and harder to shift but the icon had survived into a new century. The question was now; what next?

Development on what would come to be known as the New MINI began whilst Rover was under the ownership of BMW in the mid 1990’s. As such, the parent company set up competing teams to see who could come up with the best idea. They were determined that, with sales of the Mini and the Metro declining, that this would not simply be a new body on existing mechanics. No idea would be too radical and no suggestion off-limits.

Eventually both teams presented their ideas to the BMW board. Dave Saddington and his Rover team worked at Gaydon and their thoughts had turned to creating a modern reinterpretation of Issigonis’s original idea of a small, cheap city-car. The result was the Spiritual; a car only 120in long and very akin to the Smart cars of today. Like the Smart it was not particularly powerful or sporty. Meanwhile, in Munich, US-born designer Frank Stephenson had set up a team with a very different brief. His belief was that the Mini had survived not as a small and cheap city-car, but as a fashionable icon with sporting pretensions and an indefinable aura of ‘cool’.

Ultimately, BMW would agree with Stephenson’s vision…

coming in Part Two: The New MINI’s Difficult Birth