Striking MCS Cabrio Gold in Central London

New wheels, new color, new car, what more could we ask for in a spy shot. We've seen the wheels (seen here several months ago) and we've seen the car many times over via spy photographers but we've never seen a fullfledged 2005 spec MCS Cabrio. Another big thanks to MINI2 founder Paul Mullet who with a friend risked an altercation with rather large men to get the above photo. Here's an excerpt of the whole story:

During a recent conversation with a MINI representative I asked if they could tell me anything at all about the forthcoming MINI Cooper S Convertible. I was politely reminded it hasn't been confirmed yet! So, when I received a hot tip that something was going on in central London, myself and colleague Lewis Pobjoy just had to take the chance, and embark on what was most likely to prove a complete wild goose chase!

As luck would have it, we struck gold. There, right outside one of the tube stations we took in during our “MINI Hunt of London” was a beautiful MINI Cooper S Convertible, and what's more, in a new colour, we believe will be called Blackeye Purple, with a lovely Blue and Black leather interior, and a blue canvas hood. It was also shod with the as yet unreleased R91 5 spoke alloy wheels! The hood was folded back, and the car was creating quite a stir, much to the apparent annoyance of the rather large security team and various technicians on site.

After chatting with a rather nice (but big) man who kindly told us to put all cameras away (well, who wouldn't try their luck at once), we gathered that the car, in full production spec, was being used to film a commercial for MINI. We couldn't get anymore information than that, but we were a few feet away from a production spec car, that, officially, doesn't exist yet!

…As far as we could tell the car was a complete '05 spec MINI Cooper S convertible. The interior dials had the new chrome surrounds (shown exclusively on MINI2) as well as the new three piece dashboard. From the rear we could also take a peek into the opened boot area, which is almost exactly the same as the hard top, only it's “cut off” at the top, where the parcel shelf would usually be. The hood looked very tidy when retracted. We did not see them close the roof at any stage, despite the threat of rain from above.

Well done Paul. You can read the entire article at MINI2 here.

You can learn more about the new wheels here and the 2005 MINI Cabrio here.