Original Mini Suspension Designer Alex Moulton Dies at 92
The original Mini was revolutionary on a number of fronts. But one that is often forgotten is the unique rubber springs used on the car. The combination of conical rubber springs and small wheels was one of the many innovative developments which allowed design Alec Issigonis to achieve the Mini’s small overall size. And the man who created it, Dr. Alex Moulton, went on to work designing both bicycle and automotive suspensions to great acclaim.
Moulton later went onto create the Hydrolastic system for MINI that connected the front and rear wheel pair on each side of the car giving the Mini a shockingly soft and level ride despite it’s wheelbase.
RIP Alex Moulton.
<p>RIP Dr Moulton, truly a great man. Without your influence in making the classic mini such a great car to drive, we wouldnt be sat here today! I must point out though Gabe that Moulton designed the hydrolastic system while working alongside Issigonis at ‘Alvis’, a British sports car maker, in the mid 50’s. His inlfuence on the Mini started in 1957 after Issigonis had moved to BMC for the Mini project (ADO 15) and asked for Sir Alex to be brought in due to his knowledge of his revolutionary system and how it could be applied to such a small car. Moulton got the contract to develop the system for BMC but, when it came close to the launch of the Mini in 1959, BMC decided they weren’t prepared to put out extra cost to retool for the system as it was too expensive for the price they were offering the mini at (though as legend states, they were to make a £30 loss on each of them anyway). Therefore they opted for dry cone-rubber suspension at launch instead to keep the price down. The system did eventually make it onto the mini in 1965 and was last used (in the UK at least) on the MK3 Cooper S up until 1971, though it survived a little longer on the Austin Maxi, but British Leyland of course got rid of it because they just couldn’t afford to make anything decent. The rubber cone suspension system was an entirely new concept when the Mini was designed then, a couple of Alvis prototypes had used it but it was deemed useless on such a large platform. The Mini was the first to revolutionise it for mass production and thus the first to use it for that purpose, and it surived in dry-form on the mini until 2000. A testmament to Sir Alex Moulton’s orginal design is that, over the 41 years the Mini was in production, neither BMC, BL, Rover or BMW for that matter decided to change the formula. You can read “Mini- The True and Secret History of the Making of a Motor Car” by Simon Garfield if you want to read more into the development of the car and delve into stories of the Mini’s development told by Sir Alex himself. A true gentleman and one of our last connections with the original development of our most beloved small car.</p>
<p>Thanks for the correction James!</p>
<p>Sorry i’ll just edit that a little, it wasn’t used on the Maxi but on the 1100, and it is still used today on the MGf, yet another testament to his brilliant work!</p>
<p>The Maxi did use Moultons Hydrolastic suspension and later Hydragas:
<a href="http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/austin/maxi/the-cars-austin-maxi-development-history/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/austin/maxi/the-cars-austin-maxi-development-history/</a></p>
<p>RIP gentleman engineer.</p>
<p>My sponsor @ Bath University final year project, had tea @ his home………………..</p>
<p>A true gent.</p>