.
Innocenti Mini 90/120/De
Tomaso 1974-1993
In
1974, Leyland's Italian subsidiary Innocenti introduced a rebodied,
3-door hatchback Mini, sytled by Bertone. However, within a year of its
launch, BLMC went bankrupt and Innocenti was sold to de Tomaso. This
page contains a couple of magazine articles charting another sadly
missed oppotunity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article
from Autocar magazine, week-ending 16 November 1974
Not for
us
Click here to read this
article
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Motor
Road Test: Innocenti Mini De Tomaso
INNI MINI
MINY MO...
...catch a concept, let it go? Perhaps not, but whether or not BL is
right to keep it off the UK market, one thing is for sure; it ain't half
fun! Jeremy Sinek has tested one.
BELIEVE IT
or not, almost five years have already passed since Innocenti unveiled
its pert little Mini-derived hatchback at the Turin Show and sparked off
a chorus of pleas for BL to put it into production, or at least market
the thing, in the UK. Sadly, that still hasn't happened, and indeed, BL
has in the meanwhile sold its Italian subsidiary to automotive
entrepreneurial whizz-kid
,
who has continued to churn out Bertone's butch babies to the extent that
they are now commonplace in practically all of Western Europe's major
cities, except our own.
Much as de
Tomaso would like to export them to Britain, he isn't allowed to, but of
course there's nothing to prevent the individual bringing one in
privately, provided you, manage to cut, or at least disentangle, the
relevant red tape. That was certainly no problem for Mario Condivi, who
is the UK Concessionaire for Maserati and de Tomaso (the supercar
variety), and whose daughter Loretta thereby took delivery last year of
Willy, an Innocenti Mini of the de Tomaso variety, to give its full
title.
Thus it is
to Loretta that our gratitude is due for so generously, and bravely,
allowing her personal transport to fall into our hands for a few days to
be subjected to the rigours of a full Motor road test. It should be
stressed, though, that this is not a formal road test of a car that is
available through normal channels in this country; moreover, the car was
a privately run example that had been plucked straight out of its
owner's hands without any of the meticulous preparation normally
lavished on press demonstrators. Loretta's car (which was swiftly and
ever so neatly converted to right-hand-drive by one of Modena
Concessionaires' own mechanics) is the top model in a three-car range
collectively known as Innocenti Minis, the individual models being the
90, the 120, and the de Tomaso. All three share the same Bertone-styled
hatchback bodyshell, and are based mechanically on the basic box we all
know and love so well, though with the front disc brakes and 12-inch
diameter wheels of our top-of-the-UK-range 1275GT, and with a
front-mounted radiator cooled by an electric fan.
Enginewise
it's the familiar A-series in 998cc form in the 90, and 1275cc form in
the 120 and the de Tomaso, but performance-wise they're like nothing
that's been seen in this country since the days of the Coopers. The 998,
for example, is rated at 49bhp (DIN), 10bhp more than the UK version,
while our own 1275GT's 55bhp looks distinctly weedy compared to the
65bhp (DIN) of the 120, or the 71bhp (74 on 1978 models) of the de
Tomaso. In fact the latter is to all intents and purposes in Cooper 'S'
tune, though it uses a single 1.25in SU in place of the S's twin 1.25s,
and has an ordinary 1275 camshaft, advanced by 4 degrees, rather than
the old S's wider-overlap grind. What's more, these pokey units are not
specially breathed upon by some Italian tuning wizard, but are actually
produced in the UK and then shipped out to the Italian manufacturer,
which makes you wonder what's to stop BL from slotting them into the
1275GT; excuses about 'rationalisation' begin to sound a bit hollow...
Should the
sceptics among you be inclined to suspect the worth of Italian horses,
we can only suggest you direct your attention to the performance
figures, remembering as you do so that the Inni Mini is almost 2 cwt
heftier than the home-grown variety, that the car we tested had been
plucked straight out of the commuter routine in Central London, and that
out of deference to its 'civilian' status we didn't try too hard to
shave every last tenth of a second off the standing start times. In
spite of all of which, Loretta's Mini turned in a set of figures not far
off those of the original 'S', and comfortably quicker than practically
any modern alternatives. The 0-60 mph sprint, for example, took 12.0
sec, compared to 10.9 sec for the 'S', 12.9 sec for the 1275GT, 13.0 sec
for the Fiesta 1300S, 13.9 sec for the Peugeot 104ZS and 12.3 sec for
Fiat's 127 Sport. Its maximum speed lap (in windy conditions) round
MIRA's banking of 94.7mph wasn't quite so impressive, but still good;
the Cooper S (96.8) and Fiesta 1300S (96.6) are faster, but the Peugeot
(94.3), the Fiat (92.5), and the 1275GT (88.7) were all slower.
In top gear
the BMC cars are clear leaders, the Inni taking 9.4 sec for the 30-50mph
increment compared to 9.0 sec for the 1275GT and the S's astonishing 7.3
sec; the Ford (11.0 sec), Peugeot (13.2 sec) and Fiat(11.9 sec) are a
long way adrift, and for the 50-70mph speed increment the story is much
the same except that the Inni Mini has overtaken its modern British
counterpart. So it's certainly got the urge to go with its cheeky charm,
and from the driver's seat you don't half know it. The engine has that
raring-to-go eagerness that's the hallmark of any nicely tuned A-series,
zipping up through the rev range at the merest tickle of the throttle
and making you want to keep blipping the pedal just for the sheer fun of
it. Even if it's not quite as flexible as the 1275GT, it's still got the
same quickly-without-trying punch in the low and middle rev ranges, yet
revs much more freely and smoothly at the top end.
The absence
of the British car's engine-driven cooling fan eliminates at a stroke
one major Mini noise source, and although the Inni substitutes another
for it, the negligible silencing of the Italian car's intake and exhaust
is hard to dislike, except for a rather nasty mid-range boom period. At
the bottom end the carburation growls, developing a rasping snarl at
about 70mph, then smooths out to a remarkable degree at 80mph, at which
speed it'll cruise quite happily without drowning out the radio and is
quite capable of creeping up to 90mph without you even noticing it.
Good ratios
and a snappy, quick gearchange nicely complement the
bubbling-over-with-enthusiasm engine, and although the clutch action is
a little sharp and juddery on take-off, it's easy to make smooth
gearchanges on the move. Larger tyres compensate for a lower final drive
ratio to give identical gearing to the 1275GT, at 16.5mph per 1000rpm,
but the steady speed fuel consumption is nonetheless a long way down on
the (exceptionally good) figures we recorded with the 1275GT, resulting
in a touring consumption down from 39.6mpg to 33.5mpg (34.6 on the 'S').
Similarly, our usual enthusiastic driving gobbled fuel at the rate of
28.2mpg overall, compared to the GT's out-standing 33.4mpg and the S's
29.9mpg. Even so, it's not a bad figure on a fun-per-gallon basis.
The fun
continues with the handling, which is much the same as the British car's
except that the quick steering is a little heavier — which isn't
necessarily such a bad thing as it provides a shade more feel — and with
the fatter tyres the roadholding is even better. The handling is
chuckable and safe and the attitude understeer or tuck-in, can be
controlled at will with your right foot. The only flaw is the
easily-provoked steering tug and wheelspin when powering out of a 2nd or
3rd gear corner.
Braking
effort is a little on the heavy side, but the system is nonetheless
powerful and progressive. With its heavier body and lighter (alloy)
wheels we expected the Inni Mini to behave better on bumps than the
British car, but that proved not to be the case. It is similar, i.e.
just about acceptable, over small bumps and most sharp edges, but the
jerks and sheer bounciness over large bumps and humps were, if anything
even worse — to the extent that on country lanes we sometimes had to
slow down just to keep from hitting the roof; perhaps the heavier body
has the effect of using up some of the already very limited spring
travel, a theory supported by the fact that the ride deteriorates
further with a load aboard.
Accommodation-wise, what you gain on the roundabout compared to the
normal Mini you lose on the swings. What you gain is a lifting tailgate
providing access to a boot slightly larger than normal, and the facility
to tip the rear seat forward to obtain a flat and usefully shaped cargo
deck. What you lose is some legroom, not because the interior is any
shorter than the British car's, but as a consequence of valuable
fractions of inches stolen by the more plushly upholstered front seats.
On the other hand, said seats really are quit comfy, and help you make
the most of the strange driving position forced on you by the curiously
angled steering wheel.
Switchgear
follows Italian rather than British practice, with the light master
switch on the facia, and one left hand column stalk that alternatively
selects side, dipped or headlights, and also operates the horn; a
smaller left hand stalk operates the indicators, while that on the right
of the column caters for the wash/wipe systems.
The heating
system has proper slide controls for both distribution and temperature,
the effectiveness of which could not properly be determined during the
warm weather of our test; ventilation is by ram effect only, through
face-level penny-flap vents, and didn't seem quite as effective as in
the British version. Highly reflective glasses in individual round
housings cover the numerous instruments, which comprise of speedometer
and tachometer with needles rotating clockwise and anti-clockwise
respectively, and smaller gauges covering battery voltage, water
temperature, oil pressure and fuel level. The whole instrument pack is
set into a neat, symmetrical facia moulding which must have greatly
facilitated the right-hand-drive conversion, with a useful open
compartment on the opposite side where the instruments used to be.
There are
bins on the doors — the latter trimmed in vinyl and a denim-like cloth
that matches the seat upholstery — with further bins either side of the
rear seat, and the floor is covered by a tidy one-piece carpet. The
fairly plush overall effect is somewhat let down, though, by large areas
of bare painted metal. As for the exterior appearance, the pictures
speak for themselves.
We found it
irresistable; an engaging little car with an on-the-road performance as
chirpy as its appearance; but it isn't, as has sometimes been suggested,
the car that BL should have produced as the successor to the Mini. For
all its charm, the Inni Mini still has all the old failings of the
original article — turbulent ride and high noise levels especially —
with even less passenger space. Nonetheless, there would surely be a
market for it as a cult-car appealing both to chic-about-town
Chelsea-ites, and "bring-back the Cooper S" enthusiasts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related
articles:
Innocenti: a potted history
Innocenti IM3/IM3S, Austin I4/I5
Innocenti Mini
Innocenti Regent
Innocenti Mini 90/120/De Tomaso