A designer's view at BMC's Mini coupe

As a reader of this blog you will be aware that there have been umpteen efforts to turn the good old Mini into a nice little coupe. You may also be aware that BMC, at one stage, planned to come up with a version of their own, too. It led to a prototype dubbed ADO 35, which came about in a collaboration with Pininfarina. I tracked down the remaining car and wrote about it earlier, here.
Anyway: One person with a more than average interest into this car is designer David Beasley. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen. Firstly, I'm a huge fan of your work and your Mini site. I regularly check to see new stories and to feed my cravings! Second of all, I'm a car designer, working for Nissan in the UK, but I've previously worked for MINI (BMW in Munich) and Pininfarina in Turin, where my daily drive was a Japanese spec 1.3 Spi in Almond Green... just the thing to dash around Turin in!"

"I saw recently your article about the ADO 35 coupe from Pinin and how you tracked the owner down. Since he's not letting any photos out, I thought I'd create some artwork to fill in the gap, so please enjoy the attached image."
"BMC and Pininfarina have had a long history together, having first explored themes in the very early 50's. Stylists at Pinin would have been working with other brands and so you can see a Pinin style in most cars and proposals all the way through. In this case, the design was probable executed by the same individuals resposible for the 404 / 504 Peugeots (and this being Italy and a consultancy...), some Alfa's, Lancia's, Corvairs and even Agnelli's 410 special. Little elements of the designs are give aways (such as the way each individual has a preference for particular design detailing like vents, wheel arch lips, etc) and so general themes were reused time and time again."

"I imagine in this case a body style was scaled to fit. It is quite normal that a major company would want to cross their t's and dot their i's, so BMC would have put out to tender a design like this to compete with their own stylists. It might have been that in this case it confirmed an internal theme being developed for the Midget and upcoming MGB and therefore would not have been continued. The Austin 1100 was a Pininfarina design and those who know will recognise that the MGB GT was thus completeing the circle."
"Kindest regards and feel free to post this little image on your site to share with the community!"

A designer's look at how the Pininfarina/BMC ADO 35 Mini coupe should look like

Rendering courtesy David Beasley

A rare but well-known picture of the real thing before it was fully restored

Picture source unknown

BMC's Mini coupe wore a MG grille, but could have become an Austin or Morris, too

Picture source unknown

Sergio Pininfarina dies at 85

One of the greatest names in the automotive world passed away last night. Sergio Pininfarina died in his Turin home at the age of 85. He was of course best known as the designer of many Ferraris, but his studio worked for several other motoring manufacturers, from Fiat to Rolls-Royce and from Bentley to Peugeot. For BMC he was given the task of designing a Mini based roadster and coupe in 1965, I believe as Longbridge feared for the success of the unofficial 'Ogle Mini' (which was not yet named Ogle SX1000 at the time). The two prototype cars Pininfarina came up with were internally named ADO 34 (the roadster) and ADO 35 (the coupe) and both survive to this day. The first in the British Motor Heritage museum in Gaydon where many of you will have seen it; the latter in private hands (see here). In 1975 Sergio Pininfarina was involved in designing a replacement Mini but again his proposal never reached production.

Pininfarina's Mini based roadster never reached the production stage.Note Cooper 'S' wheels

Picture Jeroen Booij

ADO 35 is alive and well

There have been two takes on the Mini by the great Pininfarina, and both prototypes were made in conjunction with BMC themselves. Although we will probably never be sure about it, I suspect the British Motor Company to have been impressed by David Ogle's Mini based Ogle SX1000, speeding up their plan to build a similar car themselves, a task they asked the corporation of Pininfarina for.

The two different prototypes built were named 'ADO 34' and 'ADO 35' for 'Austin Drawing Office' and the subsequent numbers that the projects were given (some more information here). ADO 34 comes as a two-seat, open-top sports car that is well known among Mini enthusiasts. It has featured in umpteen magazine articles and books and spends it days in the British Motor Heritage Centre in Gaydon as 'The roadster that could have been'.

ADO 35 is the opposite in many ways. That particular prototype came as a closed coupe to seat four in the first place but, secondly, has just about never seen publicity, triggering me to find out more about it. The car was said to have been built as a potential Sprite/Midget replacement and was thought lost for decades untill it resurfaced in the late 1980s. In fact, not much more than the all aluminium body survived but still there were some Italian fittings to be found such as Ferrari door locks and a Ferrari window winding mechanism. The car's owner decided to restore it to its full former glory and over 20 years have passed since.

It took me a while to track down the owner, and now that I have spoken to him I understand he'd rather not have his unique coupe photographed and wishes to remain anonymous, which of course I respect. He told me that progress has been slow because of the inability to source front and rear screens, but that the car is now in one piece. I understand it comes in its original colour now, which is aptly named Farina Grey. Never the less he was kind enough to send me a lovely line drawing of ADO 35. So, boys and girls, see here the Mini based coupe that could have been...

A line drawing of the Pininfarina designed 'ADO 35' Mini based coupe