The Birmingham-built Austin Mini is universally acknowledged as one of the best cars ever created - a ground-breaking vehicle that was the blueprint for virtually every stylish, small and affordable car that has come along since.
But surprisingly little fuss has been made of a whole generation of cars it directly spawned.
Now a Dutch writer, Jeroen Booij, has penned a tribute to cars derived from the classic Mini - the first book of its kind.
Such was the success of the Mini that a host of smaller niche manufacturers used its underpinnings to create a whole host of small GTs, sports cars, roadsters and fun cars.
These Mini-derivatives were the toast of the specialist motoring market in the sixties and the practice continued through the decades.
All in all around 400 different Mini-derivatives were created, ranging from the colourful to the crazy, but always out of the ordinary.
From the well known Mini Marcos and Unipower GT that even raced at Le Mans, to the very obscure but equally exciting Coldwell GT or Sarcon Scarab.
These Mini spin-offs are the subject of Maximum Mini, a book which contains more than 500 pictures of Mini-derivatives, a treasure trove of information on them and interviews with the people who designed and made them.
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The idea for the book came out of an interview in 2003 with Chris Lawrence, who designed and built the Deep Sanderson cars and who raced them at Le Mans in the 1960s.
Mr Booij said: “I met one of the friendliest men I had come by and what a great stories he had to tell.
“I made a list with the Mini derivatives that I knew of - at the time only some 50 cars - and just started to try and find them one by one.
“The list is now over 400 different models and still counting.
“Many of these cars were built in very small numbers - sometimes just a prototype and that was it - but I try to track them all down. The majority have disappeared but a surprising number remain.”
Maximum Mini features a wide variety of vehicles, among them the Stimson Scorcher, which Mr Booj describes as “pretty weird”, as well as several ‘Twini-versions’, which feature two engines, both front and back.
There are also three-wheelers, six-wheelers, the Quasar Unipower - which is taller and wider than it is long - and the four-wheel driven RTV.
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Asked why the Mini was such an inspiration for others to base their creations on, Mr Booij said: “The British have always been mad about building their own cars and when the Mini came out in 1959 the British kit car industry was absolutely in its heyday, with many Ford, Austin and Morris-based sports car bodies on offer.
“The Mini simply made them look and feel outdated overnight as it was such a modern car compared to all these others with their ladder chassis and side valve engines. Besides it proved to be a terrific base for a kit car with its subframes carrying all of the mechanicals and suspension.”
Few of the Mini-derivatives were money-spinners, according to Mr Booij, who admitted “virtually all of them were a disaster in financial terms”, though better known ones like the Mini Marcos and the Scamp did sell well.
Many of the companies who made them were based in the Midlands, including Broadspeed GT (Birmingham), Fletcher GT (Walsall) , Gitane GT (West Bromwich) and Landar R6 and R7 (Birmingham) and another derivative the Jimini 2 is still made in the West Midlands
The good news for classic car fans who like something a little more obscure is that most Mini-derivatives can still be acquired for a reasonable outlay.
Mr Booij said: “The market really is an enthusiasts’ market, with no people buying them as investments, though there have been a few cars sold for a lot of money within the last few years.”
He also paid a fitting tribute to the original Mini on which they are all based.
He added: “It was a brilliant design and all the small cars that you see on the road are based on the principles first used on the Mini.”
* Maximum Mini is published by Veloce and costs £18.99.