This Old Mini Brochure Is Great At Focusing On What Matters, Sorta: Cold Start

It’s late, and I have to get on a plane in a few hours, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get a top-quality Cold Start like you’ve been accustomed to, because you deserve the best, dammit. Or at least the pretty good. This 1959 Mini brochure has a lot of really appealing traits of a brochure of the era, like those lovely commercial art paintings, but mostly I’m drawn to how the delightfully humble but important traits of the very clever Mini are the focus of so much of this brochure.

The original Alec Issigonis-designed Mini is really a collection of humble and important traits, so this all makes sense. But they still seem sort of odd to eyeballs and earballs used to more modern car marketing.

Here, look at the most important feature the brochure touts:

The transverse engine! Or, as they like to put it here, an East-West engine. This is, of course, a huge part of what made the Mini so wildly successful, and is essentially the template of the vast majority of modern cars on the road today. I just like how this very technical concept (though an easy to understand one) gets so much attention and is largely responsible for the “World’s Most Exciting Car” claim.

I like how door pockets and a place under the rear seat to slide and shove your crap into gets its own spread. Plus, that headline, “Finished inside like a magician’s top hat,” makes me think of lots of rabbit and dove shit.

Also, those door pockets are are notable because, according to many sources, these were designed to fit a bottle of Gordon’s Gin, Alec Issigonis’ drink of choice.

The phrasing used in the brochure is somewhat peculiar to my ears – or, I guess eyes – even accounting for the decades past and all those miles of ocean. The “Effortless motion – like a ballerina!” is not something you’d hear a modern carmaker say about one of their cars, and I suspect that lots of ballerinas would disagree with the “effortless” part.

Also, I’ve never heard a top speed described like it is here: “…leaves you with 10 m.p.h. in hand even when cruising at 60!”

The idea of speed as something one can hold in reserve sort of makes sense and sort of doesn’t? Anyway, I can’t recall another brochure that puts it quite like this.

I also really appreciate that a whole section was given to reminding people that the taillights use one plastic lens for the two bulbs in there instead of, what, dozens? I mean, sure, it’s great! That’s a fine taillight! Also, I like the use of “winkers” for turn signals. It’s very friendly.