The Mini has fans the world over, especially women. A British pop culture icon, it’s starred in films and won rallies. Plus: Ride with a teen who lives on trains and go for a spin with South Africa’s Queen of Smoke.
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00:00Winning means everything to me because it just took me out of my comfort zone.
00:07No other car looks or drives like a MINI.
00:29From affordable cars for everyone to rally icons of the 1960s, the little speedster appeals
00:35to men and women alike and has been winning fans with its unique concept for 65 years.
00:41They're built to run and they're built to fly. There's not a lot of anything in it except
00:47an engine, four wheels, a gearbox and off you go. Every time I get in this car and drive
00:53it round and about I just get the biggest smile on my face.
00:58When I was in London in the 60s, we all used to drive around in MINI Coopers.
01:05It's stayed a lot younger than I have, I think, and it will continue to stay younger than I do.
01:11It's a Peter Pan car, forever young.
01:15In the swinging 60s, the MINI became a symbol of the flower power movement.
01:21Even the Beatles drove MINIs.
01:24There's an eccentricity that appeals to those people that like the MINI.
01:34It is a car for everyone, whether you're a housewife, whether you're the everyday working man,
01:41or whether you're a rally driver.
01:44With victories at the legendary Monte Carlo Rally in the mid-60s, the MINI also won over
01:49motorsport enthusiasts.
01:55No car has ever been as loved as the MINI.
01:59And that's true all over the world. The MINI has captivated all cultures, from Asia to America.
02:08I get to meet a lot of people from all over the world and there is this little happiness for this little car.
02:14There's just this, not rebel idea, but just kind of a little bit different way of doing things.
02:22And right from the start, the MINI was also a favorite of women.
02:30I think they're cute and I'm all about being cute. I'm a little bit of a girly girl.
02:35And there's something about it that, you know, has this, come join me.
02:40As long as I can drive, I'll be in a MINI.
02:43The British Motor Museum in Gaydon is the magnet for MINI fans.
02:50Paul Salmer, one of the heads of the International MINI Cooper Register Club,
02:54also likes to stop by here to see the milestones in MINI history.
03:03It was the very first MINI ever built.
03:06It was the very first one off the production line in Cowley.
03:12It was revolutionary, really, because it was a small box, five foot by ten foot,
03:19and a wheel at each corner, so you had a small outer shell, but with lots of space inside,
03:27so you could take four adult passengers in it.
03:30When oil became scarce due to the Suez Crisis in the mid-fifties,
03:34Alec Issigonis was commissioned by the British Motor Corporation
03:38to design a fuel-efficient car that would offer more than the competition's cheap small cars.
03:49The easiest way to win a bet of this sort is to make a car that is so unusual
03:54compared with all the other cars around it, that it automatically wins.
03:58And Issigonis did everything very differently from what people were used to.
04:02The wheels were mounted very close to the corners of the body, which was only three metres long,
04:07and a space-saving suspension with rubber cones replaced the usual steel springs.
04:12But the most groundbreaking feature was the transverse engine, positioned right above the drive wheels.
04:19If you think about it, if the engine were longitudinal, it would start here and go from here to there.
04:25Then there's the fan, the radiator, then the grille.
04:31So right away it would be 80 centimetres to one metre longer.
04:35The efficient use of space resulted in a small vehicle that weighed just 585 kilos
04:41and could accelerate pretty fast with its 34 horsepower.
04:45It was an unusual concept, and Alec Issigonis immediately wowed the whole world with it.
04:52The creator of the MINI, Alec Issigonis, is also a very eccentric man.
05:01I might call him an artist as well, because he designs such popular cars with his own taste.
05:12He does not listen to committees or his boss or something like that.
05:18The MINI quickly became a symbol of the social upheaval that began in London in the 60s.
05:28Its popularity has always been closely associated with the advent of the MINI skirt.
05:38The MINI also became a favourite car of the decade's burgeoning music scene.
05:43The Beatles drove MINIs, as did the Rolling Stones.
05:48And the musicians remained loyal to the car and performed at all the big MINI gatherings for decades.
05:57As did Paul Weller at Silverstone in 2009.
06:05It just sort of symbolises the early 60s, doesn't it? For me it does anyway.
06:10It just sort of symbolises the early 60s, doesn't it? For me it does anyway.
06:13It symbolises the sense that there's hope and optimism that still represents that to me, I suppose.
06:24The British Motor Museum in Gaydon also sheds light on another important part of MINI history – motorsport.
06:31MINIs won the Monte Carlo Rally three times in the 60s.
06:36And MINI fan Paul Sorma can admire the original vehicles here.
06:40The Works MINI won the Monte Carlo in 1967.
06:46And the driver in the car was Rauno Aaltonen.
06:51It was a giant killing act.
06:53And I think that's part of the attraction of the MINIs.
06:56You know, the underdog beating the big dogs.
07:00Rauno Aaltonen from Finland was the first to cross the finish line in Monte Carlo in January 1967,
07:07after a day-long wild ride through the French Maritime Alps,
07:11in which the little MINI left all the other, much larger and more powerful rally cars in its wake.
07:18The MINI was headstrong at times, but also so precise to drive.
07:23You could do things with it that you couldn't do with any other car.
07:28The car could instantly change direction when you wanted.
07:32And that meant we couldn't just drive 100% fast, but 110% fast.
07:39Always too fast on purpose, because humans are a bit pessimistic.
07:46The successes in motorsport were an important marketing tool for the MINI
07:50and boosted the popularity and sales figures of the little speedster immensely.
07:58The competition side of it made it seem like a racy thing.
08:03You know, something that's nice to have, you can go off and race in it.
08:07And then, of course, later on, we had the Italian job film,
08:11which showed it in a similar sort of light, a cheeky car, driving down steps,
08:16you know, getting away with the gold.
08:18And, you know, that sort of got a whole new audience interested in the car.
08:24In the 1969 action thriller The Italian Job, which was remade in 2003,
08:29thieves steal gold bars and then flee from the police in spectacular fashion in a MINI.
08:35It became a blockbuster at the box office, especially in the US.
08:43I think in the United States, really kind of one of the movies,
08:47and I'm sure people have talked about The Italian Job,
08:50where they, you know, brought these little MINIs in and people saw them
08:53and they were so fast and they had fun.
08:55And that added to it, I think, just the history of seeing it grow,
09:00literally, and, you know, figuratively in the world.
09:05I think there's just this, not rebel idea,
09:10but just kind of a little bit different way of doing things.
09:15Simply being a little different from all the others,
09:18the MINI has conquered the whole world with this image.
09:22There's a strong MINI community not only in the US.
09:26The unique small car also has an incredible number of fans in Asia,
09:30and MINI lovers from all over the world maintain a close connection
09:34with one another online and at international MINI meets.
09:40There's such a strong bond in the MINI community all over the world
09:44because of the connection of the MINI itself.
09:49So it really does open up new relationships.
09:53I get to meet a lot of people from all over the world,
09:56and there is this little happiness for this little car.
10:01And around the world, the MINI community is growing.
10:05And around the world, women in particular love the MINI.
10:08In most countries, there are more female MINI buyers than male.
10:12Wow.
10:14Oh, it looks incredible.
10:19The MINI has always been one of the top brands among women.
10:28Originally, they were loved by women because nice, small size,
10:31easy to park.
10:33Easy to drive around town.
10:35These are tough little cars.
10:37They're simple.
10:39You know, I've driven some nice cars in my time,
10:41but this isn't the fastest.
10:43It's not the best handling, but it's absolutely the most fun.
10:47They're just the most fun.
10:51The car's appearance also plays a role in making it so popular.
10:55When you look at the front of that MINI,
10:57and it's got those big eyes,
11:00it just looks like a happy, fun little car.
11:02I think they're cute, and I'm all about being cute.
11:05I'm a little bit of a girly girl.
11:07And now that I have an S, I've got a little bit more zip on it,
11:12so that makes it even more fun.
11:14And you can take curves, and you feel like it's,
11:19you know, it's a little bit more fun.
11:21You can take curves, and you feel like it's,
11:25you're taking that curve at a good pace.
11:28Not that I speed ever, but it handles so well.
11:33They told me that nothing is forever.
11:35And so it's no wonder that a woman,
11:37the Scottish pop singer Lulu,
11:39was at the wheel when the last MINI rolled out
11:41of the Longbridge plant in Birmingham in October 2000.
11:45With the British car industry in crisis,
11:48the demise of this icon seemed all but certain.
11:53But then, BMW took over the MINI brand
11:56and launched a new edition of the British cult car.
12:00And today, many women set the tone in BMW's MINI production.
12:04Their taste and expertise are particularly in demand
12:08when it comes to design.
12:12One of my favourite parts of the MINI Concept S1,
12:15and I actually love every detail of this car,
12:17would be the neon loudspeakers.
12:19You can find so many lovely details on the seat,
12:22and I especially like the stitching.
12:24The embroidery details are bright and playful.
12:28My absolute favourite part in this concept
12:30is the no-surprise green textile
12:33we used for the door handle and steering wheel.
12:37I'm Christine Zurian from MINIDESIGN.
12:39We thought it would be a great opportunity
12:41to do a small sketch demo and show you the MINI hatch.
12:45Christine Zurian designed the most masculine of all MINI models,
12:49the Countryman, a subcompact crossover SUV.
12:54And the BMW sub-brand, which was taken to new heights
12:57by Stephanie Wurst, has produced such cars
13:00as the Pat Moss MINI Edition,
13:02a tribute to Pat Moss,
13:04who won races with the MINI Cooper in the 1960s.
13:10Another example of the MINI's strong bond with women.
13:15I think it's great to see, you know,
13:19women having an interest in cars and building cars.
13:22I guess if women are involved in the design
13:24and the engineering of it, then maybe it fits women back to you.
13:28For over two decades, BMW has been continuously developing
13:32the original MINI concept with a wide range of models.
13:35There's something for everyone,
13:37from their workhorse, the Clubman,
13:40to the Convertible.
13:44And the John Cooper Works hot hatch.
13:48And when the MINI Cooper Register Club meets in the UK for a drive,
13:53one question is, of course, always the subject of heated debate.
13:59Are the new models from BMW still genuine MINIs?
14:05I think it's not a true MINI.
14:07You just can't replace that noise that you can hear now,
14:11and it bounces along.
14:13It just flies around every corner.
14:16It is, I mean, this is just a little go-kart.
14:20The original MINI was renowned for its go-kart-like handling,
14:25and they managed to kind of replicate that in the more modern MINI.
14:33You can have the same sort of feel of a MINI Cooper from the 1960s in that car,
14:38because I have one as well, so I know, so I can compare.
14:41We can really just go right round the corner,
14:44very steep corner, and it doesn't make a fuss.
14:51So, when it comes to handling,
14:53the BMW MINIs are in no way inferior to their British predecessors.
15:01The original modern MINI carried over so many of the cues from the original MINI,
15:10and a lot of character was carried across.
15:16But in a bigger package, a more modern package,
15:20it's good and natural that MINI have gone offering an electric MINI now.
15:27I think it could suit a MINI very well,
15:30because the responsiveness of electric cars would really suit a MINI well, I think.
15:37Looking ahead, the entire MINI model range is to be electrified step by step.
15:44And not only that, BMW also wants to make the car with the great history
15:49fit for the future in all respects.
15:55With the development that BMW are doing,
15:57there's no reason why they can't keep going forever.
16:01And so the car will continue and will stay young,
16:04because it will always be changing.
16:08Well, it helps me to stay young, that's for sure.
16:14My very first car was a MINI. I had a MINI when I was 17.
16:17It's just as much fun today as it was.
16:19And I think that's why it will stay young, because it's just as much fun.
16:22I think if it stays fun, it will live forever.
16:28It takes me back to being younger as well.
16:31It takes me back to being younger as well.
16:33I think it is. It's forever young.
16:38The MINI, a unique phenomenon in automotive history.
16:42More than a car, it's an outlook on life that simply never goes out of fashion.
16:53I'm Sascha Stoller, I'm 17 and I live full time on the train.
16:58In the summer of 2022, I decided to take the train after my retirement.
17:03I can decide in the morning whether I want to go to the Alps or the Baltic Sea for a swim.
17:08That's all I need for a life on the train.
17:10That's a blanket at night, a few clothes I have with me,
17:14three t-shirts, two pants, a toothbrush.
17:17I work as a software developer for a small Cologne IT startup.
17:21I can then work what I want.
17:23My life on the train costs around 10,000 euros a year.
17:27Most of it goes to the bank.
17:30I usually wash my clothes by hand in the DB Lounge
17:33and hang them overnight in a nightstand next to the bedroom.
17:37I usually eat in the DB Lounge.
17:39I can simply wash myself there.
17:41Cat litter is no problem at all.
17:43The first two or three months I slept really badly and was often overworked.
17:46Now it's much better.
17:48My favorite city in Germany is definitely Berlin.
17:51Berlin is simply such a culturally diverse city.
17:54Every time I arrive there by train, the city is somehow different.
18:24This is my yoga.
18:26We found cars from Germany in the craziest places.
18:30All across the world.
18:34This one here is an old dictator's car from Albania
18:37that officially never existed.
18:39RAV wants your stories.
18:43And we try to figure out why we feel such strong emotional bonds
18:47only with these machines here.
18:51Your stories, your ideas, your cars.
18:53But it's not the millions and millions of views that count.
18:56And most of all, your feedback that makes us better.
18:59This video made me add Albania to my bucket list.
19:02Yup, that's true. Albanians love that.
19:08This is so cool to watch.
19:10Keep going, dudes.
19:13Well, thank you.
19:14But the question is now, where should we go next?
19:17Write to us.
19:19Here you are. Send us your stories.
19:21And you crazy car enthusiasts, let's catch up soon on RAV.
19:35Car spinning is still a man's world.
19:38Stacy Lee May is one of the few female pros competing in this sport.
19:42She can more than hold her own against the guys,
19:45yet had to surmount many obstacles to become the queen of smoke.
19:49Why does she love to drift and spin?
19:52Spinning means everything to me
19:54because it just took me out of my comfort zone
19:57and made me do something so extraordinary
20:00when I'm still this little shy girl from Aldos.
20:04So, how did her obsession with car spinning start?
20:09Dad's friend was in spinning from the time my dad used to do it
20:14right up until today.
20:16He's still a spinner. His name is Fani.
20:18So, he came to us.
20:20I was in Matrika, 16 years old.
20:23And I came home from school one day
20:25and I was crying because I was bullied a lot
20:27for being younger than everybody else.
20:29And then him and my dad decided that
20:32they're going to turn me into a man.
20:34They're going to let me spin for a while.
20:36When I started spinning, I had a black E30 Cabriolet.
20:41That was my very first car for spinning.
20:44And then after that, we went over for cars.
20:48I have a light spin, as you know.
20:50So, the car, it's quite an old car, so it didn't live long.
20:55And then we went over to a four-door green E30.
20:58My dad wrapped it light pink.
21:00And then from there, we decided that
21:02In E30, my dad wrapped it light pink.
21:05And then from there, we decided, let's go more professional.
21:09So, we decided to spray paint the car pink and grey.
21:13Pink in representation of breast cancer awareness
21:16because my grandmother passed away from breast cancer.
21:19So, we're big on representing breast cancer.
21:22If you open the door here on the side,
21:24you'll see the inside of the car is still pink.
21:28It took guts for the shy girl
21:30to step behind the wheel and take charge.
21:33But how did car spinning start, anyway?
21:36Practised by South African gangsters in the 1990s,
21:39its popularity spread across the country
21:41as it gained recognition as a motorsport.
21:44Though, what made it attractive to a teenage girl?
21:49I was so car spinning for the first time when I was five years old.
21:53So, every Thursday night, they used to have this secret meet-up
21:57where they would go and spin cars
21:59and perhaps we didn't find them.
22:01And I know it was reckless of them,
22:03but my parents used to take us to watch these shows.
22:06It was safe because we were with our parents,
22:08but it was just...
22:10It was different, it was exciting
22:12because the car's spinning, the walls are drying,
22:15there's people chilling.
22:17It was just a different experience with a different world
22:20and we were just obsessed with it our whole lives.
22:24They actually taught me how to spin
22:26before they taught me how to drive,
22:28so I was spinning before I could actually drive legally on the road.
22:32We have this yearly event in Albertan
22:35as Wheels in Smoke called Kings and Queens of Smoke.
22:38And from 2014 up till pre-COVID, 2019,
22:45I won the title Queen of Smoke.
22:47So, after the second year I won it,
22:50my mum started calling me the Queen of Smoke
22:52and nobody really took note of it
22:54until Shalisa Rahn came to South Africa
22:57and she mentioned that I'm the Queen of Smoke
22:59and then everybody just started using that.
23:02Now she's car-spinning royalty, but getting there was tough.
23:07El Dorado Park, a suburb of Soweto in the south-west of Johannesburg,
23:11suffers from high unemployment and gang violence.
23:14Spinning provides a way out.
23:16Between this and this,
23:19it's been a great change
23:21because of where we are and what people do,
23:25because it motivates young females.
23:28We're travelling to different countries in Africa
23:32to promote young female entrepreneurs and things like that,
23:36which also I try with the young boys in our area.
23:40And also at the same time it helps people put their heads together
23:46so that they can also focus on their kids.
23:49It keeps them out of trouble and things like that.
23:52So that was my main aim.
23:55Stacey Lee has attracted endorsements from sports and car brands,
23:59but competition is fierce in this still very male-centric sport.
24:04All the females, we're not that many to have our own category
24:07to compete against each other,
24:09so we just compete as all male and female in one.
24:14We compete against each other.
24:18It's quite difficult competing as a woman in a male-dominated sport
24:23because everybody's entitled to their own opinions
24:26and some people believe women belong in the kitchen,
24:29some people believe that women can do anything men can do.
24:32So you just have to be yourself and do the best you can do
24:36and don't worry what anybody else has to say
24:38because it's not their lives, it's yours.
24:41She's competed successfully in many competitions.
24:45So these are my awards.
24:48This one back here I won,
24:50Woman of Honour for routing in, I think, 2019,
24:54for being a woman in motorsport and breaking boundaries.
25:00And this I got from a content creator.
25:04Last night while we were spinning he said I'm the queen,
25:07he's the king of content and I'm the queen of smoke,
25:10so he gave me this one.
25:12This is my floating trophy full of a lot of medals
25:16and other stuff for queen of smoke.
25:19You can see it started in 2015 and carried on until,
25:23well, we had the last one this year.
25:25My favourite one, so Superdrift is actually
25:29one of the most difficult competitions to get a trophy
25:33and we won 2022 Best Pumped Out Team of the Day.
25:37And I was so excited because it's super, super difficult
25:40to win something at Superdrift,
25:42so this one means the most to me out of all of them.
25:45And Stacey Lee May shows her reign
25:48as queen of smoke has only just begun.
25:53And more automotive tales next time on Rev.