Mini has launched a special edition Cooper inspired by The Beatle’s guitarist George Harrison’s unique take on a 1966 Mini Cooper S, the vehicle that starred in the band’s Magical Mystery Tour film. The psychedelic Mini will be handed over to George’s wife, Olivia Harrison, at Mini United, a three day enthusiast gathering at the Silverstone circuit in the U.K. The one off Mini will then be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Material World Charitable Foundation, a charity set up by George in 1973. As a final homage to the great rock star Mini will be releasing a new Cooper inspired by the design of George’s creation.
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The English automaker Mini is releasing a new value-minded option package that upgrades the appearance of their base models to match that of their higher-performing options. Every version of the Mini Graphite will be covered in a Dark Silver shade of metallic paint, choice of white or black hood stripes, piano black interior and unique Graphite badge on the B pillar. Rolling stock for the upgraded Minis consists of either 15 inch Rotator Spoke rims or 16 inch Bridge Spoke alloys for the Cooper models.
This value minded appearance package will start at £13,075 for the Mini One version, £14,590 for the Cooper version and up to £15,660 for the diesel powered Cooper D.
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This is one interesting Mini. The pink convertible was designed by the American designer duo, The Blonds, for the Life Ball, a benefit event to raise awareness and funds for Aids research. The singer songwriter Kate Perry, "I kissed a girl", will escort this one of a kind Mini down the blue carpet at the event where it will be raffled off with all the proceeds going towards the Life Ball.
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Formula 1 is full of surprises this season. Like the sudden success of the new for ’09 Brawn GP team and Jensen Button’s ability to stand atop the podium. In the spirit of the nation’s recent reason for national pride with, the automaker Mini has announced the John Cooper F1, a special edition that celebrates the 50th anniversary of John Cooper’s first F1 car.
The Mini Cooper F1 will be unveiled at the MINI United event on May 22nd in Silverstone, England. The vehicle features a flat coat of British Racing Green, high performance JCW drivetrain, a unique aero kit and some exclusive F1 badging throughout. Mini will only produce about a hundred of these limited edition John Cooper F1S.
It was only a matter for time before the in-house tuner division at Mini got tired of twiddling its thumbs. The people at John Cooper Works have already finished
thier work on the new gasoline-powered versions of the Mini coupe and convertible, so now the team may be crossing over into diesel engines.
The high-performance diesel could raise the power of the Mini D’s 1.6-liter engine by almost a third. That translates into going from 110 hp to around 160 hp, without taking the MPGs out of the mid 40s range. The only problem: the diesel Mini is not currently sold in the U.S.
Since the folks at JCW are already stepping outside their usual box, they may just try to take over the whole Mini lineup. Although it was preciously reported that John Cooper Works wouldn’t touch the Crossover, they may just try to cure their boredom again by working their magic on the production version of little SUV.