Designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, the original Mini went into production in 1959. A couple of years latter Formula 1's John Cooper introduced a performance version called the Mini Cooper. The evolution of the original car came to an end in the year 2000 and a new era was begun in 2001 when BMW introduced the new Mini. ---- My apologies to Disney and Pixar for the obvious "Cars" variation take in the bottom image.