He was born on November 18, 1906, in Smyrna, Asia Minor. His father was of Greek descent but was a naturalized British subject in Turkey who ran a marine engineering business.
In 1922 the family found themselves amongst the many evacuees fleeing the conflict between the Turks and Greeks.
Educated at the Battersea Polytechnic, Issigonis began his working life in 1933 as a draughtsman at Rootes, the Coventry car manufacturer.
A period as an enthusiastic sports driver in the 1930s and 1940s familiarized him with all aspects of car design.
In 1936 he moved to Morris Minor at Cowley. Issigonis‘s first major triumph came with his Morris Minor in 1948. Starkly functional, it was greeted with little enthusiasm by Morris sales staff. It went on, however, to sell 1,293,331 models before it was withdrawn in 1971.
Issigonis dislike mergers, and after merger of Morris with Austin to form the British Motor Corporation he left to join Alvis in 1952. The car he designed there, a V8 saloon was built as a prototype but was never put into production.
Issigonis returned to BMC to become Technical Director in 1955, and he took his ideas further in 1959 with his famous design, the Mini Minor. Despite some initial faults there was never any doubt that Issigonis’s model would sweep the world.
He died on October 2, 1988.
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (1906-88) - British car designer
