Promethea
🛠️ Invention or technique

Mini with transverse engine and front-wheel drive

Mini, motor transversal y tracción delantera

Date
1959 · confidence high
Place
British Motor Corporation, Longbridge, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Credited to
Alec Issigonis (BMC)
People
👤 Alec Issigonis1906–1988
Field
Movement

What it is

A small car with a transverse engine, gearbox in the sump and front-wheel drive, devoting 80 per cent of its length to passengers. It fixed the architecture of almost every modern compact car.

🌍 View on the globe

What it led to

  • The design of modern superminis (Golf, Fiat Uno, Corolla)
  • The car as a cultural icon of the sixties
  • Space efficiency in the city

Built on

  • Citroën Traction Avant
  • Moulton rubber suspension

Made possible

  • front-wheel-drive city cars
  • minivans (MPVs)

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