No, just a Wolfsburg wrist watch, a tie pin and a lapel pin along with a scroll depicting my accomplishment Of driving it 100k without touching the engine-

It was the first year of the large rear window, seemed like. A Cadillac compared to the 1956 VW l traded in to get the new one

Big AL

Did they gift you a Westfalia VW Bus Al ? ;-)

In August of 1959, l was happily driving my 1958 VW Beatle, oblivious to the onslaught of the new classic mini that would change my life-

Big AL

PS- l would go on to drive that VW over 100,000 miles and receive an accomodation from VW-

Didn't see this thread. My apologies!

I always thought Issigonis was Armenian?

I would encourage people to preserve the car-ness of the old minis, i strongly discourage people who makes the front of their mini some kind of office table or restaurant table/ they just took that car out of the road just to become an office ornament?? gosh! that makes me mad.

Then some people would cut the body of the mini short then fuse the back and front together to make it look more smaller. (i saw one painted in red) i find it weird.  mini is mini, let's preserve it's aesthetics./  but people who makes their mini a pick up truck are awsome, i like the mini pick up trucks./ just tinker with the engine, make it powerful or even slap a v8 in it, i don't care, make it look like a race car ,idc too but please lets preserve the original size and shape of the minis.. that's my take.

Alec made 5million original minis, i wonder how many of these origs are still on the road nowadays. 

 

But the Mokes on the other hand needs to have a general Facelift..lol

 

 

sorry for the rant

That wouldn't make him Greek either.

a day that changed all of our lives. happy birthday mini.  56 years young and still going strong

huh?  gosh, internet said he was born in Surrey, England... oh my,  thanks for the info sir Mal.

Don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia Boison, he was born in Smyrna which is now Turkey.

Happy Birthday mini...!!!!   i think i'm gonna buy my mini a spanking brand new set of spark plug wires for her grand b-day. 

how bout you guys, what are you going to get your mini for her manufacture day?  

 

and of course we should'nt forget the brain behind this iconic miniature car, Mr. Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, the "Greek god"

Cool......although "Seven" was dropped in 61 or 2

Interesting that, I think, in NA the Traveller was just known as the Morris 850

The Mini was officially announced to the public on 26 August 1959.  The Mini was marketed under BMC's two main brand names, Austin and Morris until 1969, when it became a marque in its own right.  The Morris version was known to all as "the Mini" or Mini-Minor.  Austin dealers sold their almost identical car as an Austin Seven (sometimes written as SE7EN in early publicity material – the '7' the letter V rotated left so it approximated the number 7)