It is probably the most thinly disguised competition machine for the road. And as such, in our estimation, it is the coolest motor car. Ever.

When the Mini first appeared in 1959, the average family car buyer simply couldn't understand it. After all, it was just 10ft (and a quarter inch) long, and there was simply no way it could accommodate a family of four and their luggage. It just wasn't possible.

But Issigonis' wizardry on wheels could do just that, thanks to hugely clever packaging. But that's not what made the Mini cool - it was the sheer classlessness of the thing, and how the coolest people in the business took it to their hearts collectively. Once the Beatles, Peter Sellers and Mary Quant started getting seen in the right places behind the wheels of theirs, it was job done.

40-plus years on, the Mini remains an object of cool, although it's been helped - and hindered - by the arrival of the BMW MINI in 2001...

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