A Brtitish Icon: The Mini

The Mini is a car which represents British culture. It became an icon and nowadays is still fashionable.

Why is it so popular?

Can you think of other cars that became icons in their countries?

Why, in your opinion, did these cars become icons?

Read the following text and complete the gaps with the appropriate word from the ones provided:

fashion, until, agreed, contemporary, decline, within, sort, original, crisis, influential

The Mini is a small car that was produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 2000. Because of the fuel that took place in 1956 car sales dropped drastically. That is the reason why BMC decided to “create” the of economy car the world needed. They hired Sir Alec Issigonis to design this distinctive two-door car. But he'd only do it if he was given a free hand, and the company . Leonard Lord drove a prototype Mini for 5 minutes and was so enthusiastic, that he ordered Issigonis to have it production-ready within a year. The first Mini was not a mass-produced car. In 1959, the assembly-line could produce a Mini less than 2 hours.
The original was considered an icon of the 1960s. The vehicle was in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German , the Volkswagen Beetle. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most car of the 20th Century.
The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 through to 1967. Minis were marketed under the Austin and Morris names until Mini became an icon in its own right in 1969.
The late seventies and eighties saw a steady in Mini sales and production. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the British market enjoyed numerous "special editions" of the Mini, which turned it into a icon.
The Mini was back in the nineties. Two magazines were started entirely devoted to Mini. It was this image that perhaps helped the Mini become so valuable for BMW.
The new 'BMW' MINI is technically unrelated to the old car but retains the iconic mood of the . On 3 April 2007, the one millionth MINI rolled out of the Oxford Plant after six years of production, just one month longer than it took the classic Mini to reach the same total in March 1965.
The Mini lives on....The Heritage Centre will still produce the Mini body shell, which means we haven't seen the last of these Minis yet !
Now try this vocabulary exercise.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia and http://www.mini-maniac.com