The Issigonis 9X
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In a nutshell, Sir Alec Issigonis thought that the only way he could produce a replacement for the Mini was to work from semi retirement (see the Metro story for more details) and gather a small team around him.

He threw away all vestiges of the original Mini and started from the wheels and worked upwards. The 9X incorporated conventional suspension and a brand new OHC engine (unrelated to the ADO74's H- and K-series engines!) and also managed to improve on the Mini, by actually ending up not only being shorter in length (an astonishing 9 feet and 8 inches), but also lighter, whilst incorporating a hatchback rear door. Why did it never appear? Call it post-Leyland takeover production values, and the fact that the Mini was still selling well at the time, whilst the Maxi and 1800 were not.

Although 9X is generally considered to be an Issigonis design, it should be noted that the body was engineered by John Sheppard, while the car's styling is attributed to Fred Boubier and Sid Goble.

Here we can compare the original mock-up of the 9X design, as built by Pininfarina (top), with the resulting fully-engineered prototype (above).

Again, an interesting comparison between mock-up (top) and prototype (above).

This sectioned view of 9X displays its space efficiency to good effect, and makes for an intersting comparison with the sectioned Mini).

Consideration was even given to extending 9X into an ADO16 replacement. Compare this with the proposed ADO16 facelift. (Both cars eventually lost out to the Allegro.) This design also bears a passing resemblance to the Autobianchi Primula, which itself looked rather like an ADO16 hatchback.

Issigonis continued to work on Mini projects during his retirement, and one of his pet projects was the development of a gearless car. This is the so-called "9X Gearless Mini", which used the 9X ohc engine.

Copyright © 2002 Keith Adams