Watch your carbs
I had to smile when I saw the photo of Sir Alec Issigonis beside a BMC Mini (‘Seen it all before’, 26 May).
As I understand it, the Russians first built a mini car with a transverse engine but failed to develop it, so it remained truly awful. Along comes this bloke and he does just that. And because he isn’t a silly communist, the world hails him as a genius.
The Mini worked quite well until it was tested in the winter, when its carburettor froze! Instead of sorting the carb, the whole engine
was turned 180deg so that it was protected. This put the hot exhaust between engine and bulkhead and, more importantly, the spark plug distributor up against the radiator grille. In rain, it all shorted out. So a mod was produced: wedge a sheet of cardboard between distributor and grille on all new cars sold. There wasn’t really space for it, so it had to be forced between the two, but the special cardboard was impregnated and deflected incoming water. Whew.
The Trabant may have been an awful car, poorly made and poorly designed, but it worked in the rain.
A trend was set, though: the British disease of covering the mistake and pretending it was a feature instead. Whether a Range Rover or a Jaguar, all cars had the distributor as close to the radiator as possible. Rain caused engine failures, but it was made in Britain, so what did one expect?
I keep an eye out for a Mk1 Mini with the engine the right way round, but so far I’ve not seen one. Maybe they never went into production? Hugh Rogers
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