Frank Stevenson—the person who literally reconstructed a legend: he was responsible for the design of the resurrected Mini Cooper, and in an interview with RBC Radio, he fondly recalled how this image came to life. Stevenson approached the task not as just another project, but as a dialogue with history: «I mentally sketched how the Mini could evolve each decade—from 1959 onward. I drew versions for 1969, 1979, 1989—to understand what the Mini should look like in 1999. It wasn’t just a sketch; it was a hypothetical evolution that helped find the right design language.»

The design that ultimately won, he compared to an English Bulldog: «I wanted the car to be cute, but also commanding. Like Winston Churchill in a car: short, broad-shouldered, confident, with character.» However, Frank is also candid about the compromises: strict safety regulations significantly hindered pure design. For instance, requirements regarding the hood deformation zone (a minimum of 70 mm of free space between the hood and the engine) forced them to raise the seats and the roof—which altered the proportions.
But the most important thing he managed to preserve was that very emotion for which people buy the Mini. «The Mini is about the drive, about how the car responds to every turn of the steering wheel. If you don’t feel that connection, you’ve lost the essence of Mini.»