Minis roar in for Museum Job
They are as iconic as the hit film which they helped promote and now these three original 1960s Mini Coopers which were used by Paramount Pictures to advertise the 1969 film The Italian Job, inset, have gone on show in London.
The vehicles have temporarily traded places with the Lord Mayor's state coach which is usually on view at the Museum of London.
While not the actual cars used in the film, none of which survived the making of the movie, they are original Mini Coopers built between 1965 and 1969. Part of the film, starring Michael Caine, Nel Coward and Benny Hill, was shot on London Wall, opposite the Museum's City Gallery, while the famous chase scene was filmed almost entirely on location in Turin.
The Mini was designed for the British Motor Corporation by Sir Alec Issigonis. It remains an icon of the Swinging Sixties but was in production between 1959 and 2000.