Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS (November 18, 1906–October 2, 1988) was a British designer of cars, now remembered chiefly for the development of the Mini, launched by BMC in 1959.
Biography
Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis was born in Smyrna (now Izmir) in Ottoman Turkey. His grandfather Demosthenis Issigonis migrated to Smyrna from Paros in the 1830s and through the work he did for the British-built Smyrna-Aydin Railway, in the engineering works that he had established, had managed to acquire British nationality. Demosthenis's son (Alec's father) Constantine Issigonis (Κωνσταντίνος Ισηγόνης), was born, with British nationality, in Smyrna in 1872. Constantine studied in England, and later, passed his love of all things English on to his son. Alec's mother, Hulda Prokopp, could trace her origins back to Württemberg (now part of Germany).
Because Alec and his parents were British citizens, they were evacuated to Malta by British Royal Marines in September, 1922, ahead of the Turkish re-possession of Smyrna at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). Following the death of his father in 1922, Alec and his mother moved to the UK in 1923. Alec studied engineering at Battersea Polytechnic in London. He failed his mathematics exams three times and subsequently called pure mathematics 'the enemy of every creative genius'.
Issigonis went into the motor industry as an engineer and designer working for Humber and did some motor racing during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1936 he moved to the Morris company working on an independent front suspension system for the Morris 10. The war prevented this design from going into production but it was later used on the MG Y Type. He worked on various projects for Morris through the war and towards its end started work on an advanced post war car codenamed Mosquito that became the Morris Minor, which was produced from 1948 until 1971. In 1952 he moved to Alvis Cars where he designed an advanced saloon with all aluminium V-8 engine. This prototype was never manufactured because its cost was beyond Alvis's resources.
In 1956 Issigonis moved back to Morris (which was now part of the British Motor Corporation) to design a new small car codenamed ADO15 which became the 1959 Morris Mini Minor (also known as the Austin Se7en). The Mini went on to become the best selling British car in history with a production run of 5.3 million cars). This ground-breaking design was still being manufactured in 2000 and has been the inspiration for almost all small front-wheel drive cars produced since the early 1960's.
Issigonis (nicknamed "The Greek god" by his contemporaries) was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1967 and was awarded a knighthood in 1969. Whilst he is most famous for his creation of the Mini, he was most proud of his participation in the design of the Morris Minor. He considered it to be a vehicle that combined many of the luxuries and conveniences of a good motor car with a price suitable for the working classes - in contrast to the Mini which was a spartan mode of conveyance with everything cut to the bone.
Sir Alec officially retired from the motor industry in 1971, although he continued working until shortly before his death from Parkinson’s Disease in 1988.
See also
Further reading
- Gillian Bardsley Issigonis: The Official Biography (Icon Books Ltd, 2005) ISBN 1840466871
- Wood, Jonathan (2005). Alec Issigonis: The Man Who Made the Mini. Breedon Books Publishing. ISBN 1859834493.
- Nahum, Andrew (1988). Alec Issigonis (Modern European Designers Series). Hyperion Books. ISBN 0850721725.