Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, 18 November 1906 - 2 October 1988

Abstract

Sir Alec Issigonis was an automobile engineer whose name will always be associated with the design of the Morris Minor and the Mini motor cars. He followed a line of innovative British car designers that includes amongst their number Frederick Lanchester, William Lyons (principally for styling) and, later, Colin Chapman. With Ettore Bugatti, Ferdinand Porsche and Dante Giacosa he was one of the last of those who were totally responsible for their cars’ design, styling as well as engineering - disciplines too often separated in modern industrial practice. He was an unusual Fellow of the Society, more artist than scientist, although the two were blended to make the engineer. He liked to describe himself, self-deprecatingly, as an ironmonger - not a term which the modern professional mechanical engineer would much like. In truth, although he himself would have contested it, because he thought of himself primarily as an engineer, the artist was probably as strong as the engineer in his make-up. This showed itself in his working method, which was to produce freehand sketches of his requirements, leaving others to do the necessary calculations and to convert the sketches into working drawings, although, as will appear later, he was no mean draughtsman himself. Issigonis was a believer in the product being design-driven rather than market-led - he was very scornful of market research. The product, of course, had to be his - he was not known as Arrigonis for nothing, and he was sometimes disappointed when the customer did not see it his way. This was exemplified by the Mini, which he conceived as a simple, cheap, peoples’ car but which turned out to be so expensive to make that it is doubtful whether the manufacturer made much profit from it, and it became a cult car for the few rather than a cheap, car for the masses. Nevertheless, by his innovative ideas on car packaging and perhaps particularly by his work on suspensions - latterly in association with Alex Moulton - he did much to influence thinking on motor car design within the industry, and to raise the public profile of the engineering designer and of the automobile engineer in the UK. Although he was autocratic in his working methods, he could also be very charming and invariably secured the respect of his team and of his collaborators, exemplified by the large number of tributes its members have paid to him since his death.