The Mini was never supposed to be an icon. It was supposed to be exceptionally practical: An affordable car with a tiny footprint---just 10 feet long---but room enough for four passengers and nearly seven cubic feet of trunk space.
The story began 60 years ago, when the British Motor Corporation asked engineer Alec Issigonis to develop a car that would combine lots of interior space with a tiny footprint. Since hitting the market in 1959, the Mini has appeared in countless guises. It's gone racing, tearing up snow, sand, and dirt. It's become artwork. It's even seen duty as a mobile home and a lightweight troop transporter. It starred in 1969's The Italian Job, then came back for the 2003 remake. BMW bought the brand in 1994 and made the Mini more of a maxi, but the car retains its charm.
In the new book The Mini Story, Dr. Andreas Baum, curator of the BMW museum, tries to explain the car's remarkable adaptability. "The Mini has been cool right from the start," he writes. "It is loved for its unconventional looks, its personality and the fact that is it different ... Mini's home is in Britain but otherwise it is nationless, classless, adaptable, individual and simultaneously open and connected."
To see a few of the many forms the Mini has taken over the past six decades, click through the gallery above.
