Archive for October 2005
Oct 31st, 2005
A win in the final race of the weekend allowed Maxime Martin to seal overall victory in the MINI Challenge World Final. The Belgian driver had the edge over the 19 fastest MINI drivers from ten different countries over the four disciplines of this multi-faceted championship. Second in the standings was the Swede Fredrik Lestrup, ahead of Johannes Stuck (Austria) - son of racing legend Hans-Joachim “Strietzel” Stuck - in third. The world championship was just one of the attractions on the bill at the inaugural MINI United event.
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Oct 31st, 2005
Based on info we’d received over the pasts few months we had expected the JCW GP to eventually make it to the North American market. I’m now happy to report that this has officially been confirmed by MINI USA today. US MINI dealers should get their an allotment of five cars starting around July of 2006.
As we mentioned last week the Recaro seats won’t make it (due to the seat cushion airbag sensors) and instead the US market will get black cloth and leather seating. That aside the rest of the car should stay relatively intact. In fact MINI USA is even studying the feasibility of a Delete Option for both the A/C (further reducing weight) and DSC. This Delete Option will be available elsewhere in the world.
Here’s the official press release just issued by MINI (as seen on the MINI USA press site). While it doesn’t include any US specific information, it does expand on the press release issued earlier in the day from MINI UK:
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Oct 31st, 2005
The following is the first official UK press release on the new John Cooper Works GP Kit. We expect more information as the week progresses.
The launch of the new MINI in 2001 set a new standard in the small car market for handling and driving enjoyment. Over the next four years rumours came and went regarding the arrival of a lightweight, high-performance MINI.
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Oct 30th, 2005
We have more Phil Wicks for you this week. Todd and I are back with the 2nd half of our interview. This week we touch mostly on Phil’s motorsport heritage. 50 years worth. We also hit the news of the week and tackle a few reader emails. Enjoy!
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Oct 29th, 2005
More photos after the jump…
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Oct 29th, 2005
We left Frankfurt on Thursday night and drove the first strech to a small village near Zürich in Switzerland. On the next morning we woke up with beautiful sunshine. A perfect day to go across the Alps. So we decided to go over the “Klausenpass” with an altidude of 6404 ft. It’s a small road that continuously winds up and down the mountains. A spectacular experience.
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Oct 28th, 2005
First here’s the official press release from MINI USA:
The MINI USA/FTR made its drag strip debut at the NHRA Sport Compact World Finals at the Pomona Raceway in Pomona, California this past weekend. In its inaugural run the car posted an impressive time of 12.54 seconds for the Quarter Mile with a top speed of 115.79 miles per hour making it the world’s quickest MINI in the quarter mile.
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Oct 28th, 2005
I live in the land of the Autobahn. There is a lot you can do here in Germany to enjoy the performance of a MINI Cooper S. But what’s the point of going fast on a wide, flat straight with a MINI? Isn’t it made for narrow, twisty country roads?
Fortunately here in Germany we also have one of the worlds most demanding and famous twisty country roads: the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Ok, calling it a country road is quite a drastic understatement. Let’s make it clear from the beginning: The Nordschleife is a racetrack. A quite hazardous, tight, and very long track that goes up and down and left and right like a roller coaster all the time. Because of its location in the green and hilly mountains of the volcanic “Eifel” region and its reputation for danger, the Nordschleife is also known as the “Green Hell”. Jackie Stewart coined the term and I think he’s damn right.
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Oct 27th, 2005
MINI United: First International
Annual Meeting of the Global MINI Fan Community.
MINI United is celebrating its premiere ‘ and many fans of the brand are coming: Several thousand participants from three dozen countries have registered for a unique three-day event on the Misano Race Track south of Rimini in Italy, with fans of MINI coming from countries as far away as Ghana and Thailand. Other participants are coming by car from distant places such as Lisbon, Birmingham, and St. Petersburg to enjoy this very special highlight of the season.
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Oct 27th, 2005
We’ll have the full press release and official photos soon… but to tide you over here are the preliminary numbers that have been released by MINI Press:
- 218 BHP (around 215 HP)
- 88lbs weight reduction (for a total of just under 2600 LBS).
While neither is quite as high as some had hoped for, these figures could still represent the fastast MINI ever to be officially released. We’ll have more info soon.
Update: MotoringFile has learned that we should expect an official MINI USA annoucement about the Works GP availability in the US next week. We’ve also learned that the Works GP will come equipped with only select options and will not be custom configurable.
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Oct 26th, 2005
MINI.com has a fantastic feature on both the 2005 MINI Concepts that have recently debuted. The site features both the Concept Frankfurt and Concept Tokyo as well as the various prototype components that went into both. The site also has an in-depth video showing the process of designing and building of the concepts. Excellent stuff and definitely worth checking out:
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Oct 25th, 2005
Rumored no more.
MINI2 is now confirming what many of us had assumed all along. The images posted on the web this weekend are indeed early sketches of the upcoming MINI Cooper S John Cooper Works GP Tuning Kit. The photos are to be part of a larger press package to be released later this week (and will be seen on MotoringFile).
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Oct 25th, 2005
Dan over at dcmini.blogspot.com has a great write-up concering the growing problem with the ever popular web-spoke wheels. Here’s an excerpt:
The Problem:
Sometime in the middle of June I noticed a consistent clicking upon each revolution of the wheel. I initially noticed it coming from the front left wheel but after I had others people lend me their ears, I was told that it seemed to be coming from the other wheels as well.
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Oct 25th, 2005
For those that just can’t get enough about the latest MINI concept, here’s a transcript of the speech given by Dr. Michael Ganal (Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG) at the introduction:
MINI Press Conference
39th Tokyo Motor Show 2005
Tokyo, 19 October 2005
Hello and welcome at our MINI stand. I am very pleased to present MINI to you here in Japan - the country in Asia where the MINI has touched people’s hearts for decades.
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Oct 24th, 2005
Here’s the show many of you have probably been waiting for. Todd and I (no DB this week) go in depth with Phil Wicks (of the Phil Wicks Driving Academy) about both his school and his new US racing series. And I can promise you, Phil likes to talk about both subjects.
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