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US market gets the honor of having the Mini Cooper World Championship 50
  Calling all collectors! If you haven’t put in your order for the rare Mini WC50, then you better get a move on. The World Championship 50 is slated to arrive in the US in April, but will only total 50 units which is better than the zero units allotted for the States originally. This vehicle was initially capped at 250 units to be sold in the European market. Now that number has doubled and interest from U.S. MINI dealers have sparked the company to allow for 50 units to come our way. The WC50 was created to celebrate the birth of the Mini brand and John Cooper’s Formula 1 title. Fittingly, the WC501 uses the Mini Cooper John Cooper Works edition as its base model keeping the turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine which produces 211hp and 192ft.-lb. of torque. The WC50 includes a unique Connaught green paint job with one-off trim inside and out and a variety of standard equipment. Special edition content includes a plethora of John Cooper Works carbon fibre parts, 17″ cross-spoke challenge alloy wheels in jet black, leather gearshift and handbrake gaiters in carbon black with red stitching, and bonnet stripes in pepper white without pin-stripes with John Cooper’s autograph on the driver’s side. Hit the jump for the full story plus a fulll list of standard and special edition equipment. Full story MINI Cooper S by Superchips
The British tuner Superchips announced the first details on a new upgrade package for the MINI Cooper S. Thanks to an ECU remap which optimises ignition timing, fueling and turbo boost parameters, the peak power increases by 20bhp at peak (up to 195bhp from a measured 175bhp), while peak torque has been increased from 256Nm (187lb.ft) to a healthy 282Nm (206lb.ft). The new Superchips performance ECU remap for the R56 MINI Cooper S is available now by visiting one of approximately 100 Superchips dealerships in the UK. The price for the upgrade is £445.00. Brazilian artist Romero Britt designs pop art on 2002 MINI Cooper
There’s something about MINI that invites artists the world over to re-design the car to their liking. Can you imagine a Mercedes, let alone a Ferrari, being consistently decked with pop art designs? We didn’t think so too.  But MINI has always been considered a car canvas and the latest artist to take a stab in re-painting the car is Brazilian artist-extraordinaire Romero Britt. Having already worked on a Volvo V50, an Audi RS4 and a Bentley Continental, Britt lends his unique pop art talents on a 2002 MINI Cooper, which he created for Norman Braman, a BMW dealer in South Florida. We love the way Britt blends all the colors together without the whole thing looking like an overkill. The addition of the hearts are also a nice touch and gives somewhat of a hippy look, which, once again, only a MINI seems to be able to pull off. Britt’s pop art-designed MINI made an appearance during the Festival of Speed in Miami, and as you can expect, it did a pretty good job of drawing attention to itself. Video: Mini Cooper S evades a pack of shopping carts
There’s nothing like witty and creative advertising to drum up the interest of the public. When you create the buzz necessary to generate interest in your product, you know that you hit your product is going to stick on a lot of people’s consciousness. In the case of the new MINI Cooper S commercial, we can’t say enough good things to say about the ad. Created by Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, the MINI ad is emphasizing the sleek maneuverability of the new Cooper S as it tries to evade a mass onslaught of rampaging shopping carts in a parking lot. It’s a scene straight out of an old school martial arts flick where the young apprentice battles a pack of ninjas bent on slicing his head off. In this case, the Cooper S tries to fend off the attacks of scheming shopping carts and in doing so, proudly shows off to the audience just how fun driving a Cooper S can be. Hey, if it can maneuver in and out of tight spaces like that, then that’s definitely something that’d stick in the mind of consumers for a long time. Mini Cooper S by Prior-Design
Even if the Mini Cooper S is appreciated especially for the way it looks, there are people that want to take the classic English compacts looks to the next level, and so they did! The guys from Prior-Design have come up with this extreme tuning package for the sporty Cooper S that maintains the general look of the car, and then accentuates the vehicle with some extreme changes to the front and the rear of the vehicle.  The customization program includes a new front bumper for 429 Euro which was designed cleverly to allow the use of the factory MINI fog lights, as well as improves the airflow to the engine and adds an overall more aggressive look to the exterior. There is also an optional rear diffuser for another 419 Euros which allows you to install either center exit or a true dual exhaust system on the Mini, the side skirts go on sale for 349 Euros and tie the modified front and rear ends together quite nicely and gives the entire vehicle a harmonious appearance. The three part tuning package can be ordered as a whole or individually to suit the owner’s taste.
Mini will not bring Cooper D to USA
It looks like the bad news keep coming for the US market. After announcing that the Alfa Romeo MiTo will no be offered on the US market, here’s another bad news: Mini will also not offer the Cooper D for us. But while for the MiTo the problem was its size, for the Mini the problem is the cost: converting European Diesel engine to US specifications will cost way to much for the car to be profitable. Even if MINI USA charged 10%-15% more, they’d never make any money and at the end of the day based on our sources. On the other side of the equation, is MINI USA priced the car at 40%-50% more to pay for the re-engineering required, few would buy them at today’s moderately low fuel prices. The cooper D is powered by a 1.6-litre diesel engine that delivers 108bhp. The car sprints from 0 to 60 mph in 9,9 seconds.
MINI rolls out 1.5 millionth car
It’s been quite a historical year for MINI to say the least. After celebrating its 50th year anniversary with a number of special edition MINIs, the celebrants have reached yet another milestone: Number 1.5 million. The particular model is a Mini Clubman in Chili Red and it was recently rolled out of the plant in the presence of BMW big wigs Ian Lucas and Ian Robertson. After being resuscitated from its deep slumber in 2001 by BMW, the MINI has rebounded quite well with newer models that have caught the attention of the younger generations. The classic British car, which was made famous in a number of movies and TV shows throughout the years, is now being sold in over 80 countries, a remarkable achievement considering that the brand was nowhere to be seen at the turn of the millennium. Continued after the jump. Full story
Video: Mazda MX-5 vs. Mini Cooper S Cabrio
Touring car driver turned Fifth Gear host, Jason Plato had a chance to compare two lightweight convertibles that you wouldn’t normally put in the same category. He admits to liking the Mini Cooper S Convertible but he says that the Mazda MX-5 is much more fun. So which is quicker around their test circuit the Japanese roadster or the BMW owned Brits? Check out the video to see for yourself. Arden MINI Equipe
The MINI Equipe was built as a tribute to the legendary victory of the Equipe Arden 1969. It will be limited to only 40 units, each of them being signed by Jochen Arden.  The dash board, seats and doors completely enclosed in leather combine sportiness and luxury. The new Arden 2-Tone Design extends over each interior element. Besides hand-stitched and newly revised casings the MINI offers also new approaches in terms of performance and exterior design. Handmade stainless steel and chrome grille adorn the front and rear of the smallest Arden.  Extremely light 6.9 kilograms Arden Gram-light aluminum wheels in 8Jx18Zoll provide the necessary grip and reduce the vehicle weight by a few kilograms. The engine also received a manual work-over. The revised engine electronics, a new intercooler and a complete stainless steel exhaust system with racing catalytic converters give the MINI a performance gain of approximately 50nm and 40hp. Press release after the jump. Full story
MINI Cabrio by AC Schnitzer
BMW tuners AC Schnitzer have just revealed their take on the drop top version of the classic English sport compact, the Mini Cooper. The tuners from Aachen not only focused on improving the styling both inside and out of the Mini Convertible, but paid close attention to the vehicle’s performance as well. They started off by adding a pair of aerodynamic lips to the front and rear bumpers of the car, this not only makes the Mini look like more of a racecar, but also helps it to perform like one as well. However, the AC Schnitzer decals are purely decorative. The optional 18 inch rims not only look great, but also allow the owner to mount wider rubber; this gives the Mini a larger contact patch and greatly improves the vehicle’s handling. The AC Schnitzer suspension components take full advantage of the extra grip from the wider tires; by lowering the vehicle and stiffening the chassis the AC Mini will handle like it is on rails. The interior of the Mini is already well equipped from the dealer, so AC Schnitzer decided that all it needed was a little dressing up. So the German tuners provided pieces like metal shift knobs, parking brake handles, aluminum pedals and some velour floor mats to make this Mini their own. The German engineers have tuned the little 1.6 Liter engine in the Cooper S to make 226 HP, up from the 175 HP offered from the factory, this is quite an impressive improvement considering the displacement of the motor. Press release after the jump. Full story | featured reviews: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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