What we can see here is actually one of the more interesting design-choices in cars: In the original Mini, the grill in the front was pretty much useless, because the radiator was positioned as shown here, sucking up air from the engine room and expelling it through the left wheel-well. This was done because of the feature that made the Mini such a success - the transverse front wheel drive layout that almost everyone uses now, but was pretty much unheard of back then. While this saved a lot of space, it came with a few engineering constraints, such as engine+transmission having to fit between the wheel-wells, but also less obvious things. The radiator-fans weren't typically electrically driven back then. They were driven directly by the engine itsself. But by turning the engine 90°, the radiator had to follow or have its fan powered otherwise. Mini went just put the radiator sideways.

fuzzygears said:
What we can see here is actually one of the more interesting design-choices in cars: In the original Mini, the grill in the front was pretty much useless, because the radiator was positioned as shown here, sucking up air from the engine room and expelling it through the left wheel-well. This was done because of the feature that made the Mini such a success - the transverse front wheel drive layout that almost everyone uses now, but was pretty much unheard of back then. While this saved a lot of space, it came with a few engineering constraints, such as engine+transmission having to fit between the wheel-wells, but also less obvious things. The radiator-fans weren't typically electrically driven back then. They were driven directly by the engine itsself. But by turning the engine 90°, the radiator had to follow or have its fan powered otherwise. Mini went just put the radiator sideways.

Okay, Jeremy Clarkson! Check out the brains on you! Someone's doin their homework!