Well it may be true that some cars have had faux hoodscoops but your performance cars such as the Ford Mustang Mach V, Chevrolet Camaro, etc had functioning sccops back then. Wouldn’t the new Cooper S be classified as a “performance car” I’m not saying that the fake hood sccop is bad, It’s hard to get used to it when you have a car that has “functioning one”. One other point have you looked at the 90’s Ford Mustang with the fake hood scoop, it doesn’t look that great with the black plug. By the way I actually like the 07 car just not the climate and radio controls. Just my thoughts.

Since the ’60’s cars have had non functional and functional hood and side scoops………… get over it! GGGGGGEEEEZZZ!!!

True – and the MINI’s aero kit has had non-functional scoops for four years now.

Is there an aerokit available for the dash? ;)

There are cost-saving, safety, and efficiency factors in some of the mechanical, chassis, and proportion changes, but I have yet to hear a compelling reason why the individual aesthetics shifted as much as they have. As a designer, I take philosophical issue with change for change’s sake and so much of what I see in this car is that kind of thinking. Form follows function and though there are a lot of design choices that actually accomplish something, there are dozens of adjustments to the design language that serve little purpose that I can see outside of sheer change. Moving the cup holders aft and making them bigger, bulging the hood for pedestrian crash standards, bringing the motor engineering in-house — these are all things that serve some sort of practical purpose. But otherwise every element of the car has been touched and altered, and not all for the better. Unfortunately, the reality of the resulting car is much more derivative than it is evolutionary.

But that said, I actually really like the new car – especially the Cooper – with the STRONG exception of the interior center stack. Despite some of its derivative elements, the overall character of the car remains intact and that’s what’s important. I’m very interested in the upcoming JCW car. But I won’t be trading in my ‘06 MCS any time soon.

Regardless of what we think of the car, the reveal has been awesome!

I have some “visual” issues with the stock R56 MCS. First, the front and rear bumpers with their excess of black plastic trim (And HUGE rear fog lights) make the car look way “high” up the ground. The Cooper bumpers are much better integrated but I am not liking the stock MCS bumpers.

Second, the MCS seems to be riding high in stock form and much higher than the stock R53 MCS. The wimpy bumpers only help increase this visual effect.

The aerokit goes a long way in fixing these visual discrepancies, at least to my eyes.

Hopefully, by the time I am ready to go for a new R56 MCS (Around 2009-2010), MINI by then has already conducted a “Mid-life cycle” refreshing of the car (Like it was done back in 2005 with the R53 generation) and some of these “quirks” and other yet to be known quality glitches will all have been taken care of by then. I also hope MINI does away with the plasticky center console in a couple of years, too.

Here I am hoping for a ‘09 R56 JCW MCS equipped with AWD and a DSG transmission.

the car has more potential than i first gave it credit….

I hope MINI does not lose that but it seems to be sliding that way

I am glad I pick up my MCS 06 next weekend