MINI 50 Years The Book
MINI 50 Years – the definitive MINI book chronicling the first 50 years of the MINI written by Rob Golding will be released this April 15th. Mr. Golding has many years experience in all things MINI and it shows throughout the book. From the early years of BMC to the GP to the current state of the MINI web, everything seems to get space in the book.
Here’s a brief introduction:
>It’s not the size that matters, Austin Powers tells his son as they look over the MINI, but how you use it. And the diminutive MINI has made it big from the first. This book tells the full story of the iconic car from its initial launch in the late 1950s through its current super-hip BMW-built incarnationright up to the revised version set for release in 2006. The threads that tie together the original MINI and todays are numerous and fascinatingalmost as interesting as the differences that set the two cars apartand MINI 50 Years follows them all. From the swingin 60’s darlingimmortalized in the original The Italian Job in 1961 and again in the 2003 remake to the racing champ to the twenty-first-century hipster transport, author and mini expert Rob Golding treats readers to every thrill that marks the MINI.
Mr. Golding also touches on the MINI web community and even discusses MotoringFile’s impact on the brand in an 11 paragraph section titled “Get Involved”. Here’s a quick excerpt:
>Gabe Bridger runs the most laid-back MINI website. He gave it a general motoring title and then got hooked on MINI and failed to broaden the editorial more than a smidge. Bridger is a wicked man. He tells everyone BMW’s secrets as to what the new MINI will be like long before BMW has told its own dealers or the Press.
>Beneath him, in his secret organisation, is an even wickeder corps of nameless agents who break commercial confidentiality (probably) and submit both tittle and tattle to Bridger.
>Bridger has a virtual presence called MotoringFile.com which has been going for three years in a comfortably unstructured manner. Bridger is an amateur in that he has a day-job to support, but he is an e-commerce creative director by trade, and has a feel for the way that a new website should develop. It seems as if the audience – and there are about 10,000 people watching on a daily basis – like the approach.
You will be able to pick-up MINI 50 Years at most bookstores including Amazon.com on April 15th.
[ MINI 50 Years ] Amazon.com
Nice shout out to Gabe and Motoringfile…congratulations! <i>You didn’t put him up to it, did you?</i> 😉
>You didn’t put him up to it, did you? 😉
I didn’t know about the project until I was contacted out of the blue last summer.
“Bridger <em>is</em> a wicked man”
Nice going Gabe. Congrats
How much for a signed copy from the wicked man?
Gabe, have you seen “Mini: The Book”? How do these 2 compare, as far as content goes?
A wicked man with a equally wicked secret organization??? Wow, I’m finally starting to understand what MotoringFile is all about!!!
Less <em>tattle</em>, more <em>tittle</em>!
It looks like the rabbit hole that is MotoringFile goes deeper than I originally thought…
Actually, this book is available now. I picked up a copy last weekend at Border’s bookstore. Didn’t realize it was just released!
Mr. Miagawi,
I also have MINI the Book. MtB is more of a ‘coffee table’ type book, with lots of great pictures and illustrations. ‘MINI 50 Years’ has a lot more actual information inside. They’re both very different books in my opinion, and both very good. If you want more of a comparison, feel free to shoot me a PM on NAM!
-Paul!
I always thought there was something different and nefarious about you Gabe. Finally it is out in the open.
LOL
Congrats, Gabe, you wicked man surrounded with wickeder friends. 😉
LOL
I received my copy last week from Amazon. Very nice job.
hmmm…I wonder if Gabe and Motoringfile is some sort of “black ops ‘marketing’ operation” for BMW/MINI…a wicked man indeed. ; )
OK, I understand the “coffee table book” vs. information resourse comparison between “MINI – 50 Years” and “MINI – The Book”… but what about models featured?
“MINI – The Book” really had a great deal of info and pics of the newest R56 (and potential variations). I see there is info in “MINI – 50 Years” that would indicate it goes up to “last model update set for 2006”, but does that include any of the R56 designs? Or does it end with the 2006 model year vehicles?
I ordered Mini the book and just ordered 50 years thru Amazon. Thanks for the heads-up.
“also have MINI the Book. MtB is more of a ‘coffee table’ type book, with lots of great pictures and illustrations.”
Is “Mini – The Book” the one from Haynes Publishing? If not, then the book “Mini – A celebration of Britain’s best-loved small car” by Haynes Publishing and Graham Robson, is an outstanding book. Facts, history, some techinical things, lots of pictures, etc. It doesn’t cover the new BMW Mini, but it does cover the years pre 1959, 1959 – 2000 plus a chapter on the design, development, Mfg.
I really enjoy this book. For me (IMHO) it’s to early to buy a book on the New BMW MINI (I own one). Plenty of stuff on the web and magazines about it. In about another 5 or 10 years that would be a good time (for me)to buy a book on the new Mini.
But I’ll go to Borders and “check out” the book “Mini 50 years” for curiosity sake. 🙂
MINI the book has some errors which I noticed on a quick scan through.
1. Page 81. The big photo is not of John Cooper and this isn’t the inside of a Mini.
2. Page 84. The red and white Rally cars did not have white bonnet stripes – they were BMC Works team cars. The John Cooper F1 team cars were British racing green with two white stripes from radiator grille to windscreen – the John Cooper Mini team adopted the F1 colors and stripes.