We’re going to go on record and say that “Car Crazy” is probably one of our least favorite car related shows on TV. From the cheese-ball production to the very un-even content, it can be a chore to watch. However once in awhile, they score with a fantastic interview with a real star of the automotive world. This week they managed to sit down and talk with the R50 and R53 MINI designer Frank Stephenson.
Frank has been a big supporter of MotoringFile since way back in 2003 and it’s great to hear him talk about the car that not only made him a house-hold name in the automotive world, but seemingly catapulted him to his recent positions has head of design at Ferrari, Maserati and now Fiat. The only downside, you have to sit through about two minutes of terrible set-up before you get to the actual interview. But don’t worry, it’s worth it.
Yeah. I think all the “car crazy” singing would drive me crazy after a while but that interview was pretty good.
If only bmw did some sort of documentary on the development of the mini from the start much like they did for the new 6 series which was broadcast on discovery. That was amazing to see what goes into creating a concept.
An very interesting discussion of the R50/53 split grill…hadn’t heard that before. Just goes to show how much one can appreciate the little details of our cars when we understand the motivation behind the design.
Frank Stephenson is a genius of automotive design, pure and simple. BMW should have never let go of this man. What a great loss to the MINI design team.
Check out the new Fiat 500 (Not for US consumption), one of his latest creations… You’ll see some R50/53 clues on that car. And baby it looks so much better than the R56 both inside and out….
Yeah I agree about the show. Cheesy and Meguiar himself is a fairly annoying interviewer. He should stick to what he does best: Car waxes and polishes. Leave show business to a real professional.
Frank Stephenson is a gentleman and well spoken individual. I admire his patience in putting up with Meguiar’s poor interviewing skills.
It sounds like Frank truly enjoyed working on the new MINI project but also felt limited. It seems to me that the only way he would have stayed at BMW was by taking on Chris Bangle’s job. It must be frustrating to have so much talent and have to work under the watch of someone as misguided as Bangle himself.
So the double grill was to make it look like a bull dog’s jutting chin. I’ll buy that. I don’t like the way it looks, but I understand it as a design decision.
Yeah its a pity BMW let Stephenson go and kept Bangle.
But like Bryan Nesbit, the guy who designed the PT Cruiser, Stephenson moved on to another company, perhaps for the almighty dollar.
Now you didn’t see Issigonis moving from BMC after his Morris Minor, then the Mini, then the 1100 and 1800 models. Where’s the loyalty these days?
Stephenson’s new Fiat 500 is another success for him.
But now new MINI is out, it’s time for him and us to move on… unless he makes the biggest comeback since Lazarus.
Meguiar has to be the all-time biggest doofus. First time that I had ever seen Frank Stephenson – I always had the impression that he was older. Interesting background information on Stephenson’s childhood – he sure lived all over the world.
Frank Stephenson is very fluent in many languages. He masters English, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.
My favorite comment he made during the interview was “You don’t ALINIATE the MINI customer. Each redesign has to follow up on the DNA of the previous model”.
Hear that Mr. Gert Hildenbrand. Aliniate the loyal MINI customer = Bad business practice. 😉
Bumped Up to head of design at fiat? When I first heard that here on MF I thought it was a bait and switch. Come to work at Ferrari(owned by Fiat) then move him over to Fiat to redesign the 500. If they had said, “hey come over to Fiat to make the 500.” What do you think that he would have said? Exactly, the answer would have been no.
I also think he would have stay at BMW if the choice was for to move to Fiat and not Ferrari and Maserati. But look at what he accomplished at Ferrari and Maserati in his 3 years there. Beautiful designs like MC12, GranSport, FXX, front F430, guiding 599GTB and new Maserati Coupe. I think they had strong confidence that he was the right man for the big job of new designs of Fiat and Lancia. Looking at new Bravo and new 500, you can see his hand and heart in these designs, I only regret that his new designs will stay in Europe because of homologation requirement but at least they will continue to give pleasure to us who follow his creations.
<blockquote>Ketan Apr 2nd, 2007 Link
I really can’t stand this show. I hate the way they say the word passion… </blockquote>
It’s those “dentures” that get in the way.
Also Meguire is bankrolling the show. They aired a behind the scenes look at producting the show once.
Just watched the whole interview. Those idiots showed video of the “S” exhaust when it was the copper exhaust that was presented at that showing. The “S†was the following design.
Bingo … yes, the MC has the actual size beer can exhaust. The MCS is a smaller one.
And Stephenson did a fantastic job with the Fiat 500, it will sure give the R56 a run for its money desing wise come summer in Europe. Wish we could get one here.
The interior of the Fiat 500 is fantastic. Tasteful and oozes with quality. It puts the R56 interior to shame with the cartoonish design elements (Speedo and center console).
Yep, MINI needs to take notice. The 500 has a lot of “MINI” elements in it, including the customization bit that has been the holy grail of the MINI until now.
Go and check out the Fiat 500 configurator and you’ll be automatically reminded of the customization you can do in the MINI configurator utility.
MINI can rest on their laurels. The Fiat 500 can prove to be a formidable competitor in their own turf. The Äbarth”high performance version can give the R56 MCS a run for its money.
Competition is good and can only force MINI to make a superior product if they want to keep their number one spot.
<blockquote>My favorite comment he made during the interview was “You don’t ALINIATE the MINI customer. Each redesign has to follow up on the DNA of the previous modelâ€ÂÂ.</blockquote>
But Stephenon’s design did alienate (spelling) Mini owners.
I believe in what he said about the continuity of the design, but that does not mean you will ever please past owners. Look at all the R53 owners that have been complaining about the R56 – a much more subtle change than the classic to the R53.
But keep in mind that the original Mini was manufactured, virtually unchanged, for 41 years. During that time, BMC tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to replace the original 1959 Isigonis design with more “modern” versions of the car (The 1980’s Austin Metro comes to memory)but customers kept coming back to the old car. The front end of the classic Mini was replaced with the squared off front grill in the 1970’s (The Clubman era) and that aliniated a lot of customers who despised the more contemporary looking front end of the car pitted against the classic body. BMC soon abandoned the Clubman front end and re-adopted the old headlights and big gaping grille in the eighties until production ended in October 2000.
Frank Stephenson’s job was to visualize the evolution of the Issigonis design had it been changed in 1979, 1989 and finally 1999. The 1999 sketch is how he visualized the evolution of the classic Mini and that was what ended up being the R50/53.
Sure the 2001 MINI aliniated the classic Mini community because their beloved car had seen little in the way of change for 4 decades and all of a sudden they were presented not only with a bigger and safer MINI but one with German design/engineering and manufacturing backing behind it. This car was nothing short of an abomination to the followers of the Issigonis Mini which favored the spartan and simplistic design concept of the old car.
You can’t really compare a car that has not seen any significant updates in nearly half a century to a car that has all the modern day amenities and safety that the classic Mini lacked. The old car was an acquired taste and was the holygrail of the “few in the know” and they felt the new MINI took away the elements that made the classic such a sought after car.
This is a very long debate but all I can say is that, after 41 years, the Classic Mini was seriously due up for a complete overhaul. What the recalcitrant classic Mini Nazis fail to realize is that the new BMW MINI brought up an awakening to the old car, specially here in the US were the last new Mini had been last sold in 1968.
A lot of people were introduced to the Classic Mini via the new BMW MINI. We have several members in our local club that own both new and old Minis and their introduction to the “cult”if you will was thanks to the new MINI.
The new MINI has been the best thing that ever happened to the classic Mini community but some of these idiots still fail to acknowledge that fact to this very day. Their classics are more valuable in the market today because of the success the new car not only in the US but worldwide.
The changes from the R53 to R56 are not as subtle as MINI would like you to believe. The R56 is a different car and it is more a baby BMW than a raw Rover MINI. the R53 captures much better the transition between the 1959 Issigonis Mini to the 2001 Stephenson MINI than the R56 due to the either one.
I think the best aspect of the R56 is the powertrain. But the exterior wrapper has fallen victim to draconian safety regulations and manufacturing cost cutting. The beef that a lot of R53 owners have with the new car is with the exterior looks and the perceived “dumbing down”of the car to attract the non-enthusiast masses.
<blockquote>What the recalcitrant classic Mini Nazis fail to realize</blockquote>
<blockquote>The new MINI has been the best thing that ever happened to the classic Mini community but some of these idiots still fail to acknowledge that fact</blockquote>
Sheesh! Don’t let Frank hear you alienating community like that…
“For me, it’s not about making a statement, it’s about respecting the heritage that got the company to where it is at. If it needs to change, then you have to do something about it but if you are on the right track there is no reason to go off on another track; you don’t fix what isn’t broken. You get it wrong or you try something new and set off on a new track and you could destroy the company.”
The ability to make things happen quickly is one of the reasons the Moroccan-born stylist says he left BMW for Ferrari/Maserati. Working at a big car company is a lot like directing a Hollywood movie. It’s work done by committee, and if you’re lucky, you just might recognize your original vision when it hits the silver screen – or the showroom. Not so at a place like Ferrari/Maserati.
“As a designer, the last thing you want to do is compromise, and here, there are a lot fewer compromises,” he explains.
He tells the story regarding Ferrari vs Maserati like a real company man. Maserati aficionados might take exception to the subjection of their favorite mark as second string to Ferrari. But hey, there may not have been any Maserati any more if not for the situation. Much like Mini.
Is true lavardera, but that is product position and controlled by the strategic planners who want to keep seperate the buyer segments of each brand in the company portfolio. After all, there is a significant price difference between the 2 marques. So I think he is speaking about high end exotic and daily exotic machines, I understand this philosophy. What is interesting is Stephenson’s design approach of importance of beautyful and attractive shapes, which make his designs for us all to like.
Hum, even though Car Crazy is “Cheesy” I enjoy most of the enthusiasm of the individual car owners. Barry is what he is. He was nice to me when I met the man and his company puts on a nice cleaning clinic for our club. I agree the Car Crazy them gets very old. It reminds me of a 1950’s show that might have been on TV, like Cal Worthington stuff. But I like kitsch. can’t be any worse than Viva La Bam, which most of you probably watch. If ya treat it like what it is it’s kinda fun.
Hum, even though Car Crazy is “Cheesy” I enjoy the enthusiasm of the individual car owners. Barry is what he is. He was nice to me when I met the man and his company puts on a nice cleaning clinic for our club. I agree the Car Crazy theme gets very old. It reminds me of a 1950’s TV show that might have been on like Cal Worthington stuff. But I like kitsch. Can’t be any worse than Viva La Bam, which most of you probably watch. If ya treat it like what it is it’s kinda fun.
Hi RB, nice to hear from you again. Sorry for using same name, I wasn’t aware at that time. Anyway, great that we all like Frank’s works. I look forward to next July 4th, which is the official launch day of his latest design, the Fiat 500! We will see if he has bettered the MINI…
I didn’t know there was a new Censequento (SP?) coming out. One of my favorite cars, ever. No Prob on the name, not really mine anyway. My Daughter who lived in Roma for 6 years nicknamed me Giacomo Ballardini because I loved Italia sooo much.
Hey can someone remove my double post? Anyone minding the store? Hello.
you’re right–car crazy has always been a terrible show. meguiar himself must be bankrolling it.
Yeah. I think all the “car crazy” singing would drive me crazy after a while but that interview was pretty good.
If only bmw did some sort of documentary on the development of the mini from the start much like they did for the new 6 series which was broadcast on discovery. That was amazing to see what goes into creating a concept.
Nice to hear from Frank, but gosh it’s hard to watch that show. Pure cheese, and not even the good stuff.
that hurt so much to watch. meguiar is so much of a wanker.
An very interesting discussion of the R50/53 split grill…hadn’t heard that before. Just goes to show how much one can appreciate the little details of our cars when we understand the motivation behind the design.
Frank Stephenson is a genius of automotive design, pure and simple. BMW should have never let go of this man. What a great loss to the MINI design team.
Check out the new Fiat 500 (Not for US consumption), one of his latest creations… You’ll see some R50/53 clues on that car. And baby it looks so much better than the R56 both inside and out….
<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/21/fiat-500-images-and-video/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/21/fiat-500-images-and-video/</a>
I am hoping that Frank one day will come back to Munich and turn BMW/MINI into the design leaders they once were…
Yeah I agree about the show. Cheesy and Meguiar himself is a fairly annoying interviewer. He should stick to what he does best: Car waxes and polishes. Leave show business to a real professional.
Frank Stephenson is a gentleman and well spoken individual. I admire his patience in putting up with Meguiar’s poor interviewing skills.
It sounds like Frank truly enjoyed working on the new MINI project but also felt limited. It seems to me that the only way he would have stayed at BMW was by taking on Chris Bangle’s job. It must be frustrating to have so much talent and have to work under the watch of someone as misguided as Bangle himself.
So the double grill was to make it look like a bull dog’s jutting chin. I’ll buy that. I don’t like the way it looks, but I understand it as a design decision.
Meguire: Leave it to a “wax ‘n’ polish” guy to refer to the Maserati works as the “Silicone Valley of Speed”. Sheesh!
Yeah its a pity BMW let Stephenson go and kept Bangle.
But like Bryan Nesbit, the guy who designed the PT Cruiser, Stephenson moved on to another company, perhaps for the almighty dollar.
Now you didn’t see Issigonis moving from BMC after his Morris Minor, then the Mini, then the 1100 and 1800 models. Where’s the loyalty these days?
Stephenson’s new Fiat 500 is another success for him.
But now new MINI is out, it’s time for him and us to move on… unless he makes the biggest comeback since Lazarus.
That was the most annoying interviewER I have EVER seen!
Meguiar has to be the all-time biggest doofus. First time that I had ever seen Frank Stephenson – I always had the impression that he was older. Interesting background information on Stephenson’s childhood – he sure lived all over the world.
I really can’t stand this show. I hate the way they say the word passion…
Frank Stephenson is very fluent in many languages. He masters English, German, Italian, Spanish, etc.
My favorite comment he made during the interview was “You don’t ALINIATE the MINI customer. Each redesign has to follow up on the DNA of the previous model”.
Hear that Mr. Gert Hildenbrand. Aliniate the loyal MINI customer = Bad business practice. 😉
Frank Stephenson was around 33-34 years old when he finished design work on the R50 MINI, around 1996.
I love that beer can anecdote. The work of a genius.
Bumped Up to head of design at fiat? When I first heard that here on MF I thought it was a bait and switch. Come to work at Ferrari(owned by Fiat) then move him over to Fiat to redesign the 500. If they had said, “hey come over to Fiat to make the 500.” What do you think that he would have said? Exactly, the answer would have been no.
I also think he would have stay at BMW if the choice was for to move to Fiat and not Ferrari and Maserati. But look at what he accomplished at Ferrari and Maserati in his 3 years there. Beautiful designs like MC12, GranSport, FXX, front F430, guiding 599GTB and new Maserati Coupe. I think they had strong confidence that he was the right man for the big job of new designs of Fiat and Lancia. Looking at new Bravo and new 500, you can see his hand and heart in these designs, I only regret that his new designs will stay in Europe because of homologation requirement but at least they will continue to give pleasure to us who follow his creations.
<blockquote>Ketan Apr 2nd, 2007 Link
I really can’t stand this show. I hate the way they say the word passion… </blockquote>
It’s those “dentures” that get in the way.
Also Meguire is bankrolling the show. They aired a behind the scenes look at producting the show once.
Just watched the whole interview. Those idiots showed video of the “S” exhaust when it was the copper exhaust that was presented at that showing. The “S†was the following design.
Bingo … yes, the MC has the actual size beer can exhaust. The MCS is a smaller one.
And Stephenson did a fantastic job with the Fiat 500, it will sure give the R56 a run for its money desing wise come summer in Europe. Wish we could get one here.
The interior of the Fiat 500 is fantastic. Tasteful and oozes with quality. It puts the R56 interior to shame with the cartoonish design elements (Speedo and center console).
Yep, MINI needs to take notice. The 500 has a lot of “MINI” elements in it, including the customization bit that has been the holy grail of the MINI until now.
Go and check out the Fiat 500 configurator and you’ll be automatically reminded of the customization you can do in the MINI configurator utility.
MINI can rest on their laurels. The Fiat 500 can prove to be a formidable competitor in their own turf. The Äbarth”high performance version can give the R56 MCS a run for its money.
Competition is good and can only force MINI to make a superior product if they want to keep their number one spot.
<blockquote>My favorite comment he made during the interview was “You don’t ALINIATE the MINI customer. Each redesign has to follow up on the DNA of the previous modelâ€ÂÂ.</blockquote>
But Stephenon’s design did alienate (spelling) Mini owners.
I believe in what he said about the continuity of the design, but that does not mean you will ever please past owners. Look at all the R53 owners that have been complaining about the R56 – a much more subtle change than the classic to the R53.
But keep in mind that the original Mini was manufactured, virtually unchanged, for 41 years. During that time, BMC tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to replace the original 1959 Isigonis design with more “modern” versions of the car (The 1980’s Austin Metro comes to memory)but customers kept coming back to the old car. The front end of the classic Mini was replaced with the squared off front grill in the 1970’s (The Clubman era) and that aliniated a lot of customers who despised the more contemporary looking front end of the car pitted against the classic body. BMC soon abandoned the Clubman front end and re-adopted the old headlights and big gaping grille in the eighties until production ended in October 2000.
Frank Stephenson’s job was to visualize the evolution of the Issigonis design had it been changed in 1979, 1989 and finally 1999. The 1999 sketch is how he visualized the evolution of the classic Mini and that was what ended up being the R50/53.
Sure the 2001 MINI aliniated the classic Mini community because their beloved car had seen little in the way of change for 4 decades and all of a sudden they were presented not only with a bigger and safer MINI but one with German design/engineering and manufacturing backing behind it. This car was nothing short of an abomination to the followers of the Issigonis Mini which favored the spartan and simplistic design concept of the old car.
You can’t really compare a car that has not seen any significant updates in nearly half a century to a car that has all the modern day amenities and safety that the classic Mini lacked. The old car was an acquired taste and was the holygrail of the “few in the know” and they felt the new MINI took away the elements that made the classic such a sought after car.
This is a very long debate but all I can say is that, after 41 years, the Classic Mini was seriously due up for a complete overhaul. What the recalcitrant classic Mini Nazis fail to realize is that the new BMW MINI brought up an awakening to the old car, specially here in the US were the last new Mini had been last sold in 1968.
A lot of people were introduced to the Classic Mini via the new BMW MINI. We have several members in our local club that own both new and old Minis and their introduction to the “cult”if you will was thanks to the new MINI.
The new MINI has been the best thing that ever happened to the classic Mini community but some of these idiots still fail to acknowledge that fact to this very day. Their classics are more valuable in the market today because of the success the new car not only in the US but worldwide.
The changes from the R53 to R56 are not as subtle as MINI would like you to believe. The R56 is a different car and it is more a baby BMW than a raw Rover MINI. the R53 captures much better the transition between the 1959 Issigonis Mini to the 2001 Stephenson MINI than the R56 due to the either one.
I think the best aspect of the R56 is the powertrain. But the exterior wrapper has fallen victim to draconian safety regulations and manufacturing cost cutting. The beef that a lot of R53 owners have with the new car is with the exterior looks and the perceived “dumbing down”of the car to attract the non-enthusiast masses.
<blockquote>What the recalcitrant classic Mini Nazis fail to realize</blockquote>
<blockquote>The new MINI has been the best thing that ever happened to the classic Mini community but some of these idiots still fail to acknowledge that fact</blockquote>
Sheesh! Don’t let Frank hear you alienating community like that…
I would be interested in seeing the ’69, ’79, and ’89 drafts that he used. I never have seen them, anyone?
Another quote from Frank Stephenson:
“For me, it’s not about making a statement, it’s about respecting the heritage that got the company to where it is at. If it needs to change, then you have to do something about it but if you are on the right track there is no reason to go off on another track; you don’t fix what isn’t broken. You get it wrong or you try something new and set off on a new track and you could destroy the company.”
Nice profile here:
<a href="http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=7742" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=7742</a>
Another quote:
The ability to make things happen quickly is one of the reasons the Moroccan-born stylist says he left BMW for Ferrari/Maserati. Working at a big car company is a lot like directing a Hollywood movie. It’s work done by committee, and if you’re lucky, you just might recognize your original vision when it hits the silver screen – or the showroom. Not so at a place like Ferrari/Maserati.
“As a designer, the last thing you want to do is compromise, and here, there are a lot fewer compromises,” he explains.
He tells the story regarding Ferrari vs Maserati like a real company man. Maserati aficionados might take exception to the subjection of their favorite mark as second string to Ferrari. But hey, there may not have been any Maserati any more if not for the situation. Much like Mini.
Is true lavardera, but that is product position and controlled by the strategic planners who want to keep seperate the buyer segments of each brand in the company portfolio. After all, there is a significant price difference between the 2 marques. So I think he is speaking about high end exotic and daily exotic machines, I understand this philosophy. What is interesting is Stephenson’s design approach of importance of beautyful and attractive shapes, which make his designs for us all to like.
Hum, even though Car Crazy is “Cheesy” I enjoy most of the enthusiasm of the individual car owners. Barry is what he is. He was nice to me when I met the man and his company puts on a nice cleaning clinic for our club. I agree the Car Crazy them gets very old. It reminds me of a 1950’s show that might have been on TV, like Cal Worthington stuff. But I like kitsch. can’t be any worse than Viva La Bam, which most of you probably watch. If ya treat it like what it is it’s kinda fun.
Not all can be Final Gear or top Gear quality.
No comment of Frank… he speaks for himself.
Hiya Giacomo, I was the other Giacomo.
Hum, even though Car Crazy is “Cheesy” I enjoy the enthusiasm of the individual car owners. Barry is what he is. He was nice to me when I met the man and his company puts on a nice cleaning clinic for our club. I agree the Car Crazy theme gets very old. It reminds me of a 1950’s TV show that might have been on like Cal Worthington stuff. But I like kitsch. Can’t be any worse than Viva La Bam, which most of you probably watch. If ya treat it like what it is it’s kinda fun.
Final Gear or Top Gear it ain’t for sure.
No comment of Frank… he speaks for himself.
Hiya Giacomo, I was the other Giacomo.
Hi RB, nice to hear from you again. Sorry for using same name, I wasn’t aware at that time. Anyway, great that we all like Frank’s works. I look forward to next July 4th, which is the official launch day of his latest design, the Fiat 500! We will see if he has bettered the MINI…
I didn’t know there was a new Censequento (SP?) coming out. One of my favorite cars, ever. No Prob on the name, not really mine anyway. My Daughter who lived in Roma for 6 years nicknamed me Giacomo Ballardini because I loved Italia sooo much.
Hey can someone remove my double post? Anyone minding the store? Hello.