Car designer, best know for the Mini.

After his family was evacuated to Malta from Anatolia, where Issigonis' father was a marine engineer, his mother took him to London and here he enrolled in the engineering course at Battersea Polytechnic. He suffered initially, because of a lack of mathematical ability, but was able to find employment in the motor industry. In 1936 he joined Morris. Simultaneously with his work for Morris, he developed the experimental 'Lightweight Special' hillclimb car which he raced with George Dowson.

During the Second World War Issigonis was used in various defence projects as well as in designing a prototype of the Morris Minor. The Minor proper was released in 1948 and was a success in spite of the nay-saying of Morris' Lord Nuffield, who called the car 'the poached egg'. After a short time at Alvis Limited, Morris Motors (by now subsumed into the British Motor Corporation) reclaimed Issigonis.

The petrol rationing following the 1956 Suez crisis put an emphasis on economy. Issigonis' inventive solution was the Mini, developed in 18 months (in the usual autocratic Issigonis manner 'there was no delegation - we had to do things his way' recalled a team member). Issigonis combined engine and gearbox in the bonnet so that they shared an oil supply, and introduced tiny wheels, thus saving precious space. Of course this was in spite of the 'experts' - defined by Issigonis as '[people] who tell you why you can't do something'.

Issigonis continued to work for the company until the Leyland takeover of 1968; the new committee-based approach to design that came with it did not agree with Issigonis, and he left to work on his own projects shortly before retirement. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1967 and was knighted in 1969.