In 1969 a film that would represent the English culture at that time would be unleashed to the public, one that even today has a bigger following than back then. The stars were not Micheal Caine or Noel Coward but in fact 3 mini coopers painter read white and blue. These Minis would take on the might of the Italians, but because most of it was filmed at the Fiat factory in Turin, you will only see a Fiat in a good scene.
The Mini was born in the late 50’s but not seen as popular until the fuel crisis of the 60’s, then when big stars started to be seen in them, the country then followed, making it one of the most popular British cars ever. But with just about all of British made cars, they were either sold off to another foreign manufacturer or just disappeared.
The German connection is that BMW bought Rover who owned Mini and then made the new Mini popular again. Although it looks similar and has similar handling, everything else is different, from size to engine power. It was great to see the Mini back again, but most Brits would have preferred it had been done by a British owned manufacturer.
Of course the new mini inspired a sort of remake of the Italian job, but even with a few English actors it just did not make the grade for use traditionalists. This year sees the 40th anniversary of the original Italian job and many motoring programmes are doing stories an the old min and how it won Rallies etc. For me I wait for the proper remake of the Italian Job or maybe part 2, where we see what happened to the gold.