Archive : Anyone for tennis?

With the Mini celebrating its 60th Anniversary in 2019, it gives us an excuse here at AROnline to scour our picture archives for images that could not be used elsewhere on the site.

So, with Wimbledon just gone, here is an image of one of the top tennis players of the 1970s, Ilie Nastase, known for his on court verbal antics, posing with a Mini City.

The Mini City was first introduced in 1979 as the base Mini model with an 850cc engine and was upgraded to a 1000cc engine in 1980.

Ian Nicholls
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10 Comments

  1. This feature made me fondly recall the 1987 special edition Mini ‘Advantage’ finished in all-white attire and featuring tennis inspired graphics on the bottom of the doors.

    • Same here, I did wonder if the intended to use the name Wimbledon to go with the other London district themed special editions, but the Lawn Tennis Association objected

      • Am surprised at the LTA objecting as Wimbledon is also a district within London rather than just being about the All England Club. Austin Rover Group also had a contract with the LTA at the time to supply cars for ferrying players and officials around in, which was widely publicised by ARG’s press office.

    • Yes, I remember the MINI Advantage special edition too. More recently, Ronaldo featured in a TV commercial driving and promoting the Suzuki Swift… an unlikely car for him to own in real life I think!

      • Not forgetting Thierry Henry advertising the Renault Clio…va va voom!

        Suzuki recently used Ant and Dec to advertise the Swift…until Ant’s motoring “incident” made him extremely inappropriate to advertise cars…

        • I remember Nigel Mansell (minus moustache) & Murray Walker advertising Metros in the late 1980s.

  2. This also highlights a problem with using celebrity endorsement. In recent years Nastase has made a number of court appearances for misbehaving and unpleasant activity/attitude. I’m not sure anyone would want to be associated with him now.

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