ONE of the most iconic cars to be built in the city – a 1967 Mini MkII – is being recreated in honour of thousands of workers who have toiled in Oxford’s car plants over the past century.

The stories of those workers are also being recorded for posterity as part of a project to celebrate the city's rich car manufacturing heritage.

The vehicle – which is being built by a team of adults with learning difficulties – along with the audio histories will form the centrepiece of a new exhibition at the Museum of Oxford, St Aldate’s, next January.

One half of the recreated car, made out of wire and MDF, will be an exact homage to the original.

The other side will be adorned with old photos depicting life in the city’s car factories.

Project leader Neil Stevenson said the industry had been under- represented in the museum, which charts the history of Oxford.

He said: “If you speak to most people in Oxford they will know someone who worked in the car factories and it is something they identify with.

“Oxford is world famous for its cars.”

Mr Stevenson, who is on secondment to the museum from the Pitt Rivers Museum, said several models of car had been considered to star in the exhibition but one shone out.

“We have started building the 1967 Mini MkII. It’s a car built in Oxford and it is iconic,” he said.

Car manufacturing in Oxford has included Morris Motors, Rover and Austin since William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, started producing the Bullnose Morris at Cowley in 1912.

The new Mini, owned by BMW, is produced in Cowley and shipped to 80 countries worldwide.

The Oxford Searchers, a group for over-50s, will be researching and recording the memories of former car workers to accompany the exhibition.

Group member Linn Harmer, 70, said: “It’s important Oxford captures these stories.”

She is also researching her great uncle Gilbert Gardner, who was the architect of Morris’s original garage in Longwall Street.

A third part of the project is a film by teenagers at the Trax Motor Project investigating what the city’s car industry means to young people in Oxford now.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said: “This project is celebrating the city’s long and proud history of car production and the legacy of Morris Motors.”

Work began on the car on Saturday at the museum at the Town Hall.

The Big Car Project exhibition will is expected to go on show from January to March next year.