A Photo Tour of MINI Production at Oxford
The Oxford plant tour should be on every MINI fans bucket list. However given time constraints and high prices of air travel for those outside the UK, many of us will never make it. So we’re bringing the tour to you.
The following gallery is a look at current production which includes the F56 and F55 as well as a few photos of the R56 and R50 being produced. We also dug up some classic Rover production photos from the same facility.
While photos can’t quite compete with the actual tour, you can clearly seen the attention to detail, commitment to quality and the high-tech nature of the facility itself.
Oxford production
<p>Am I missing something – there seems to be only one picture?</p>
<p>Worth mentioning to everyone that (as far as I know) photos are <em>not</em> allowed, if you do go on the tour.</p>
<p>An album format offering a slideshow would have been so much better,</p>
<p>That’s exactly what this is – just without the annoying ads. Click on an image. Then you can click on the left or right arrow to move through the gallery. Alternatively you can use the arrow keys.</p>
<p>Oops, I missed that.</p>
<p>This stuff is great. In particular, I could watch video of the MINI production process for hours.</p>
<p>I am surprised that the plant opened during WWI. I would have thought the demand for new cars would be pretty low and the factories would have been repurposed for the war effort.</p>
<p>And it was… Production started 1912. At the outbreak of WWI, car production was switched to military armaments. After the war ended, Morris built factories in Abingdon, a town about 15 miles away from Oxford, as well as in Swindon and Birmingham. The mass production conveyor line system, pioneered by Henry Ford, was adapted by Morris for his own factories. By 1924 Morris Motors, Ltd had 51% of the home market.
You don’t expect BMW being German would refer to this period do you?</p>
<p>Don’t forget the video (posted originally on NAM): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8C6tc9qXaY#t=46" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8C6tc9qXaY#t=46</a></p>