Peter Carroll marks the 50th anniversary of the pioneering Mini with a 1,000-mile test drive of the latest model fo the new breed of MINIs.

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The creator of the iconic Mini was famously forthright in his opinions and appeared to pay little heed to committees, market researchers, or focus groups.

Which is possibly why Sir Alec Issigonis was able to create one of the best, most radical cars of the 20th century.

Even today, any small car with front wheel drive and an engine mounted sideways to save space is doffing its cap to the pioneering four-seater which revolutionised motoring in 1959.

Of course, we have a new type of MINI these days, distinguished by its upper case spelling and greater accent on style, quality and features.

When Sir Alec laid out the blueprint for the original Mini, or project ADO15 as it was initially called, he envisaged a small car no more than 10ft long, with few creature comforts.

He valued engineering above design and had a notably spartan approach to driving.

He did not care for distractions like radios or comfortable seats; nor did he like seat belts, as he thought they interfered with his driving style.

The second generation of the new MINI Convertible, on the other hand, is over 12ft long, comes with an excellent audio system, an electrically-powered hood which does not eat into the boot space, and has decent seats (with belts).

It is larger, greener and better equipped than the first Convertible which has been a great success since its launch in 2004, with 160,000 sold worldwide.

As ever, with the new incarnation of the MINI there are a host of options, including the oddity that is the Openometer, a gauge which measures the time spent driving with the roof down.

The Convertible is initially being sold in Cooper and Cooper S form. The former costs just under £16,000 to put on the road and has a 120hp 1.6 engine.

The S is more driver-focused, with 175hp under the bonnet for another £3,000. The car was launched in south west France and I was invited to drive one back to the West Midlands. Here’s how the trip went.

FRIDAY:

The trip started at 2pm with a chance to drive the new MINI Cooper John Cooper Works Convertible round the Circuit Arnos, near Pau.

This is an undulating, technically-demanding circuit with short straights, twisting bends, blind crests and surprising changes of gradient.

The JCW is not that much quicker than Cooper S on paper but comes with beefed-up componentry and an electronic limited slip diffential designed for greater speed and stability through bends.

It¹s great to drive but will set you back anything up to £25,000 once you have taken option packs into account.

We then set off on the 1,000-mile journey back to the West Midlands in a more humble Cooper, with the aim of using minor roads instead of the faster but less interesting autoroutes.

From Pau you can see the Pyrenees rising dramatically in the distance but the terrain to the north soons flattens out as you approach the wine making area of Bordeaux.

We were aiming for Cahors, slightly to the east, but the extra Friday night traffic meant we only got as far as Moissac.

SATURDAY:

Continuing north, we passed through historic Cahors and headed towards the dramatic cliff-top village of Rocamadour.

The scenery was spectacular round here ­ and so was the driving: lots of traffic-free stretches where the MINI could be wound up and let loose through bend after bend. You need a good quality map or a sat nav to make the most of it though.

After Rocamadour we headed north west on minor roads into the Dordogne, where again we found superb, quiet roads, tranquil rivers and beautiful villages.

The Convertible was impressively stable to drive, with huge levels of grip and little evidence of scuttle shake. Ride quality depended on the state of the road and the car was occasionally caught out by poor surfaces.

After lunch at Perigueux, the road to Limoges proved drearier than expected. I suspect it might have been better to drift out west to Angouleme, before heading up into Le Mans.

As it we was, we ended up at Orleans for a look at its imposing cathdedral with stained glass windows relating the story of the town¹s most famous inhabitant: Joan of Arc.

SUNDAY:

We were still four hours from Calais so it was time to forgo the local roads for a stretch on the autoroute.

The Convertible proved fine to drive on the motorway, and as long as you have a wind deflector in place (a £180 option), you won¹t get buffeted too much.

The height of the windscreen means only the tallest of drivers, or those with radical hairdos, need worry about spoiling their looks.

The cabin does get loud at 80mph, however, and we found it less fatiguing to drive with the top up.

We also found that fuel consumption started to fall away from nearly 40mpg to close to 30mpg at motorway speeds.

Eventually we arrived at the leafy resort of Le Touquet on the north coast for a late lunch. This is where Issigonis, who took regular motoring holidays in France, would put his car on a boat before making the short flight over the Channel.

We¹d missed our chance to buy some wine en route and the Cité d¹Europe ­ a sort of Gallic Merry Hill Centre near the French entrance to the tunnel ­ looked ominously quiet.

But however shut it may look on a Sunday ­ and most of the centre certainly is ­ you will generally find tiny Le Chais, on the bottom floor, open for business and knocking out cases of wine. The prices were reasonable ­ even if the exchange rate was not.

My driving colleague and I managed to squeeze a dozen cases of wine into the Convertible, plus our four smallish bags, which gives you some idea what you can fit in the car.

As expected, by far the worst part of the journey was the motorway shlep from Kent to the West Midlands. An overturned lorry had blocked the slipway to the M40 from the M25 and the M4 was at a standstill.

We had to carefully pick our way past Slough before rejoining the M40. And it was still busy.

It is because we have to endure roads like this that we need cars like the MINI Convertible to brighten up our motoring.

It might not have been right car for Issigonis: it’s at least 2ft too long, far too comfortable, there are far too many designer features on board, and Lord knows what he would have made of the gimmicky Openometer.

But secretly, I guess Sir Alec would have been delighted that the spirit of the Mini lives on today and continues to retain a place in the hearts of drivers across the world.

By Peter Carroll