British Pathé, “one of the oldest media companies in the world” and a producer of newsreels until 1970, just released its entire collection of 85,000 historic films, in high resolution, to YouTube. One of the newsreels (broken into three video parts) is a 1961 promotional video by the British Motor Corporation during the early years of the classic Mini, then called the Austin Seven (sometimes spelled Se7en).
This is a fantastic look at the early development of the classic Mini with shots of Alec Issigonis, early prototypes built and road-tested, production and assembly, press launch, and press review headlines.
The total length is 28:43.
Visit the pages on YouTube if you’d like to read the transcripts of the videos.
“The Incredible Seven” Part 1:
“The Incredible Seven” Part 2:
“The Incredible Seven” Part 3: