Performance meets charm is a 3-door hatchback

THERE’S something special and alluring about a Mini.

- WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE

Perhaps it’s the way it has grabbed the imagination of millions around the world since it was first introduced in 1959 and started a craze for cool small cars that’s been etched into the annals of motoring pop culture.

It also helped that the Mini won the Monte Carlo rally in 1964, 1965 and 1967 that made people sit up and notice that it wasn’t just a cute little car.

BMW took over the company in the mid 90s and thank goodness they continue to keep that fun element and have managed to keep the mini DNA running throughout the various models, something that Volkswagen failed to do with the equally iconic Beetle.

Remembering

Growing up in the 80s, a friend’s mom owned a sporty red Mini 1275 GT which we used to “borrow” after school occasionally.

On one occasion she was overseas visiting family so as teenagers tend to do, we didn’t think far beyond that.

There were some delightful sharp corners and large traffic circles that we went at as fast as we dared and what impressed even then was how quickly it would turn and how fast the steering reacted.

Attempting to do a handbrake turn into the driveway we were met by his father at the garage door who didn’t find our shenanigans particularly amusing.

In those pre-snowflake days he promptly ordered us into the dining room and gave us both four strokes with a belt.

From then on he recorded the little car’s mileage and our Mini tyre smoking days were over.