Mini and more: the six most influential cars of all time
Monday, 26 August 2019
The Mini has turned 60. Happy birthday old friend. Or tiny tearaway as the case may be.
It's undeniable that the original Mini is one of the most influential cars of all time. So to celebrate its six decades we thought we'd pick out five others that have had had just as much impact on the motoring world.
Note that's 'influential' rather than best or most popular. We've concentrated on the ones that have really changed the motoring landscape and helped shape the cars we drive today.
Mini (1959)
We've covered the little Mini extensively elsewhere, but a quick recap: the original Mini was a masterpiece of space-efficient design and engineering.
**READ MORE:
* Does new technology make cars unreliable?
* Five clever small cars that failed to flourish
Form definitely followed function: it was designed from the inside out and all of its innovative technology (front-drive, rubber-cone suspension) was there to improve packaging and practicality.
It also turned out to be enormous fun to drive, a motorsport star and ultimately a true fashion icon for discerning buyers.
Mercedes 35hp (1904)
Karl Benz's Patent Motorwagen (1886) is generally regarded as the first modern automobile. His wife Bertha Benz deserves at least equal credit: her money helped finance it, she was its first long-distance test driver and on the way invented filling stations and modern brakes.
However, the Patent Motorwagen doesn't make our list because while it was the first 'car', it wasn't really a car as we know it today: the three-wheeler was still more a horseless carriage, modified with tiller and combustion engine (under the driver).
The later Mercedes 35hp really created the concept of a car as we think of it today. In 1900 an Austrian industrialist and automobile dealer named Emil Jellinek commissioned engineer Wilhelm Maybach to series-produce a sports vehicle to strict specifications.
It had to have an engine mounted low for an improved centre of gravity, a long wheelbase/wide track for stable cornering, and electric ignition.
The finished product was also one of the first cars to have a steering wheel; earlier efforts from the likes of Panhard had them too, but the Mercedes combined it all into a vehicle designed from the ground up, rather than being an adaptation of a horseless carriage.
In other words, the Mercedes 35hp was really the first modern car.
It was famously named after Jellinek's daughter Mercedes. Although the company didn't officially become 'Mercedes-Benz' (after a lot of mergers, it's complicated) until 1926.
Toyota Prius (1997)
Are you laughing? Well don't. Toyota and Honda battled it out over petrol-electric hybrid technology in the 1990s, but the former made a much bigger impact. And has remained committed.
While pure-electric cars are a hot topic at the moment, they would never have happened without the 'electrification' technology brought into the mainstream by the Prius.
Even going forward, hybridisation will be key to virtually every car brand as all strive to drastically reduce emissions without sacrificing performance.
History will show that it can all be traced back to Toyota - which now has millions of hybrids on the road and is continuing to 'mainstream' the tech with models like the RAV4.
Back in 1999, many thought Toyota mad for spending a decade developing a weird powertrain technology that seemed to be a dead-end. Just like they now do with the maker's Mirai hydrogen car.
Chrysler Airflow (1935)
Aerodynamics were not a thing for early cars, with their separate chassis construction, independent fenders and upright cabins.
With the help of a wind tunnel and aviation pioneer Orville Wright, Chrysler found that contemporary car shapes were actually more aerodynamic if you turned them backwards. So that's basically what the company did with the Airflow, 'streamlining' the grille and headlamps.
It also moved the engine and occupants forward (within the wheelbase) to create 50/50 weight distribution for vastly improved handling.
The groundbreaking Airflow was a sales disaster, partly because rival General Motors attacked it in advertising, but also because the looks were too advanced for buyers for an era still reeling from the Great Depression.
Sadly, Chrysler started making it look more like a traditional car as time went on, enlarging the grille and tacking a larger trunk on the back.
The Airflow is now recognised as a revolutionary model and was in fact a huge influence on Toyota, which created a knock-off called the AA in 1936
Model T (1908)
The obvious one, right? The Model is important not so much for its qualities as a car but for what it represented.
Ford pioneered mass production as we know it today with the Model T. It was produced on a moving assembly line, with standardised parts. That also made it truly affordable - a car for the masses and a symbol of a new technological age for the US.
It stayed in production until 1927, by which time 15 million had been made. It was voted the most influential car of the 20th century in the global Car of the Century award (current Stuff Motoring contributor Richard Bosselman was a juror).
Toyota RAV4 (1994)
In our SUV-obsessed world it's easy to forget how radical the first Toyota RAV4 was. But it really established the 'crossover' form that defines most modern SUVs to this day.
With a few exceptions, before RAV4 there were off-roaders and passenger cars. The RAV4 was intended to be a true melting pot of both, with a bit of hot hatch thrown in.
It looked like an off-roader but was built on a passenger-car platform, trading off some adventure-ability for superior on-road ride and handling. It wasn't the first fashionable SUV by a long shot, but it did popularise the idea of a true hybrid off-roader/road car.
Launched as a three-door, it was quickly developed into a five-door (following the similar-concept Honda CR-V).
At the time, we were all baffled why anybody would want an SUV that wasn't really designed to go off-road. Turns out the answer is almost everybody.
Why no Beetle?
Thought you'd ask. The Beetle was certainly a groundbreaking 'people's car' concept and undoubtedly an icon, but there's not that much in it that truly influenced future cars. How many round, rear-engined, rear-drive small cars can you think of right now?
Also, the Beetle is a pretty terrible car. Sorry.