MINI MAN BEHIND THE
Although much of the engineering under the MINI’s skin was Rover’s, it was Anglo-American BMW designer, Frank Stephenson, who was responsible for how it looked. With a CV that includes Ferrari, Maserati and BMW, he still sees the MINI as a career highlight: ‘It was an enviable project to be involved in – we were going to make waves, and that’s exactly what happened following its launch in 2001. It’s turned the British car industry around.’
It wasn’t an easy project to work on with BMW in Munich and Rover in Gaydon not working at all harmoniously, despite a strong beginning of the project. ‘I was asked to join in 1994. Rover was doing its Mini replacement, which hadn’t had enough energy to become a full project’ says Frank. ‘In early 1995, BMW invited Giugiaro, my team from Munich, Rover’s from Canley, and BMW’s Designworks division in LA among others to come up with individual design proposals to look like a 21stcentury Mini.’
Several concepts were developed, and after a design competition held at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon in October 1995,
Stephenson’s design was chosen by a committee of seven Rover and seven BMW executives. ‘It was unanimous for my proposal with no discussion about using other designs,’ he said. ‘ This is good as it gets and was a happy day for me.’
Stephenson recalls that the R50 project started well, but soon descended into a rivalry between the German and British teams. ‘It was like Dances with Wolves.’ The clay model was finished in Munich, digitised and the data sent back to the UK, but it was soon decided that it would be better if Stephenson oversaw the final design stages at Rover’s new design studios in Gaydon.
When he arrived, he’d be in for a surprise. ‘Geoff Upex and Dave Saddington took me round Gaydon and it was great to see the new facilities. I was looking for the clay model for my MINI, but I couldn’t find it!’ They’d changed the car. ‘ They modified it here and there,’ he added. ‘I was aghast. My mission was to take my theme into production, and now I felt very much like a cowboy in the Indian territory.’
This continued into 1996, with Rover’s designers resisting Frank’s design. ‘In the end, BMW’s engineering boss, Wolfgang Reitzle stepped in, stamped his foot, and forced Rover to accept the design to be as it was with full engineering support. Time had been wasted and all we needed to do was revert the R50 to its original design,’ says Frank. The MINI took shape to Stephenson’s design in 1997 and scored extremely well in customer clinics. ‘ This helped the Rover guys understand that we had a hit on our hands.’
After that, the process of getting the MINI into production was straightforward. ‘ Trying to get Rover on board had been pretty tough, but the positive public reaction to the MINI had reinforced the decision to go with my design.’
Today, Stephenson can’t help but smile as he recalls this memorably turbulent period in his life. ‘It was definitely one of the most recognisable cars I did. It was the most incredible story. How often do you get to re-design an icon? You always want a project like this as a designer. It opened doors for me…’
Yet he’d go on to do it all over again with the 2006 Fiat 500.