“An expert is someone who tells you why you can’t do something”

• 

The above quote comes from Sir Alec Issigonis, who was born exactly 100 years ago today. Issigonis became most famous for his design of the Morris Minor and the Mini, but even before World War II he was already well known. In the 1920’s as a young draughtsman he helped design a semi-automatic transmission and after a brief spell with Humber at their Drawing Office in Coventry, in 1936 he was offered the post of “steering and suspension engineer” at Morris Motors in Cowley, where he developed an independent suspension. Apart from this work he also designed and built a racing car that became known as the “Lightweight Special”. Issigonis raced this car himself and quite successfully too, until in 1948 work pressure forced him to quit racing. He later described the Lightweight Special as: “A frivolity in my life. It was not so much a design exercise as a means of teaching me to use my hands.” Sir Alec Issigonis (wikipedia.org) died in 1988 after a very successful career. His heritage is the transverse mounted engine with frontwheel drive, a drivetrain concept which is now incorporated in almost all of the modern small cars. (photo courtesy Beaulieu’s Motoring Picture Library (RB)

Aggiunga un commento...