Today I struck a conversation with a chap which eventually got onto the subject of Mini's. He went onto say that his grandfather, who at the time was an executive at Lucas in UK, personally knew Alec Issigonis. A friendship developed to a point where both the chaps grandparents, on numerous occasions, enjoyed the company of Issigonis.
The saga began when Issigonis, in tow with a team of engineers, arrived at the Lucas factory in the mid 1950's with the aim of "seeing what was available in the parts bins that could be incorporated within this new car they were designing". Cost control was most important factor in component selection, the use of current available items rather than the development of new items was imperative.
Regrettably both grandparents are no longer with us, as are many others of this era.

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John Sneddon
0408 431 807
1963 Morris Cooper
1965 Morris 850
1968 Morris Cooper S