This website is as cheeky and inventive as the car whose 40th birthday it celebrates. Here we find a history of the Mini’s technical and stylistic evolution, a biography of its designer, Sir Alec Issigonis, and a great deal of trivia - or is it social history? - about the Sixties.

But the big attraction here - at least for children and design and technology teachers - is a feature that enables you to design your own Mini using a range of virtual components. If you wish, you can enter the design in a competition or play around with it in the “arcade” games area.

The end purpose of the site is, presumably, to sell more Minis. It is PR, but PR of such quality that you can forgive it, just.

Bill Hicks - https:www.tes.co.uk