Beyond the MINI plant in Oxford there aren’t many places for enthusiasts to go and pay homage to the brand. For BMW owners there’s BMW Welt, the BMW Museum, the ‘Ring and a number of manufacturing facilities around the world. For the MINI, there’s really only one public place beyond the plant that deserves mention, Park Lane MINI. The central London dealer is claimed to be the center-piece of all BMW owned MINI dealers and boasts two floors of everything MINI.
Recently I had a few hours to kill in London and decided to finally check off Park Lane from my list of MINI related to-dos.
If anyone needs any extra incentive to visit the NYC auto show in its last weekend, here’s the official press release announcing the US pricing and available of the new factory JCW MINI that debuted earlier this week in NYC.
Official MINI USA Press Release: MINI USA announced today the debut of two all new performance models at the 2008 New York International Auto Show. Following their successful World Premier in Geneva, the MINI John Cooper Works hardtop and the MINI John Cooper Works Clubman are showcased at MINI’s display and represent the first new models from the recently integrated John Cooper Works Brand.
In addition, pricing for both new models were announced today. The MINI John Cooper Works hardtop will be offered at $29,200. USD. The MINI John Cooper Works Clubman will be offered at $31,450, USD. Both prices include a $650 destination and handling charge, MINI USA’s Free Full Maintenance Coverage for 3 years/ 36,000 Miles and a 4 year-50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty.
Is Alfa Romeo building the next hot hatch? Taking cues from MINI and Fiat, it would seem they are.
As well as having sporting pretensions Alfa Romeo is also making sure the Mito is highly customisable. Having watch Mini’s success, and learnt lessons from Fiat’s launch of the 500, the Mito will come with a large options list. Even the headlamp and taillight surrounds will be switchable so, Alfa says, you’ll be able to give your car ‘eye-liner’.
Like I said in a previous article, this is a comparison that is going to go on forever. But this time, Cars.com has changed it up a bit by adding the Opel Saturn Astra to the mix with the Volvo C30 and MINI Cooper S.
So you want something small and relatively fuel-efficient, but it also has to be stylish and fun to drive. If that’s you, then a hatchback is a good choice. Here, two new ones - the Saturn Astra and Volvo C30 - square off against the car that jolted the segment when it was reintroduced for 2002: the Mini.
It’s a great comparison with MINI getting the nod on most of the categories and the win (which we all already knew). Still interesting to see the Astra in the mix.
AC Schnitzer usually turns their efforts toward tuning BMWs. Look like they have decided to take a shot at tuning MINIs too. Besides suspension and body kit, they have tuned it to have 49bhp more than the standard car.
And without so much as a second glance we’re sitting on the speedy side of 140mph. Perhaps it’s not such a bad thing the new Mini’s speedo is enormous… Pressing down into the tarmac, the Schnitzer feels totally stable at this speed.
We’ve had a couple of readers write to us with juicy rumors of the dealer installed JCW Engine kit being discontinued now that the factory car has been announced. So we’ve reached out to our contacts and at MINI for clarification. The answer is that the dealer installed kit will continue to be available for the foreseeable future. And at $2100 we believe it (along with the JCW suspension) continue to be a relative performance bargain.
MF Exclusive: Love it or hate it, the R56 Aero kit has always looked unfinished. We have discussed it here at length and even talked to the head of MINI design about it.
Well, it looks like MINI agrees with us (or more likely decided to invest more money in tooling for the rather unpopular option) and will be updating the Aero kit for the fall of ‘08 to start the ‘09 model year. As you can see in the picture above, the wheel arches will come matched to the body color. It will not effect your roof or mirror color choice.
We’ll have more in the coming weeks and months including better pictures.
GoodCleanTech.com has a very interesting story about a BMW 520D and a Toyota Prius driving from London to Geneva.
It looks like that is exactly what happened on a 545-mile London-Geneva run, when a diesel-powered BMW 5-series posted better MPG stats than a petrol-based Toyota Prius hybrid. The BMW 520d with a 2.0-liter diesel engine and regenerative braking posted an impressive 41.9 mpg - about 0.9 mpg better than a full hybrid Prius. The difference may not seem huge. But given that the Prius weighs about 500 lb less, BMW’s fuel economy lead was significant enough to raise new questions about which drivetrain technologies are more environmentally viable and should become the future mainstream of sustainable transport.
Impressive to say the least. A 5 Series that gets better MPG than a Prius. We can only imagine how well a MINI Cooper D would fare.
As we’ve been saying for the last bit of forever, the four of us will be at AMVIV later this week. If you are going, be sure to come by and say hi! Or keep an eye out here for audio, video, photos and words. We’ll have your covered!
Sure we like to provide you, the fine Motoringfile reader the information, but it’s the sponsors and advertisers that really keep us going. If you are looking for parts, accessories or you are finally ready to pull the trigger on the JCW upgrade, good chance one of them will be able to hook you up.
The MINI seems to attract create types like almost no other car out there. And true to this tradition the fine folks at Outmotoring have commissioned an piece unlike any other. Artist John Weber has created a incredible MINI logo built out of products we all know and love and in turn Outmotoring has created a poster of it we can all enjoy. Here’s Arron at from Outmotoring to help explain:
Having a deep appreciation of art and design as well as all things driven by creativity I commissioned John to make this 100% sweet work of art for Out Motoring. It was a very fluid process that actually started one day in the Out Motoring install and test facility at the world HQ. We were talking and just happen to get on the topic of the finer points of how artists know when something is ‘done’ and ‘done right’. Realizing that he shared a certain passion for quality design it became evident that we should do a project together. Within minutes we had narrowed in on a concept and John was off and running, literally grabbing hundreds of products off our shelves, squirreling them away in numerous boxes in the boot of his 2007 MINI. He had a few twinkles in his eyes…. In a flash he was gone. I was left with not a doubt that a) I would see the $5,000 dollars in product again someday and b) that John would do something amazing. As an artist who has created work for many well known clients and has assembled a portfolio of unique imagery, I knew he would come up with a unique interpretation of our idea.
The charm is that it is much more than ‘just a bunch of car parts’. The more you look at it the more you will see. A spring resting on a checkered flag valve cap. A spark plug comfortably wrapped in a watch. It’s layers will draw you in the more you study it.
Incredible stuff. A big thanks to Aaron for being the catalyst for this project and to John for actually making it happen. You can check out the artwork and the limited edition poster that’s currently available for sale at Outmotoring below.
Michael Pezzullo, the newest contributor to Bimmerfile, got the chance to go to the NY Auto Show. Since he was there, he thought he’d snap a few photos of the JCW MINIs and the MINI Challenge Car for us to look at over here.
Be sure to follow the link above for a great write up of the auto show as well as some equally cool BMW photos!
Nothing new to most MF readers but MINI USA officially rolled out JCW pricing at the NYC auto show. Including destination the JCW coupe will start at $29,200. The Clubman will be priced a little more at $31,450. This is the same preliminary pricing we had reported last month but this time it includes the $650 destination fee.
Scheduling conflicts have kept us away from the NYC Autoshow this year but fear not. Our friends at Jalopnik have the goods in the way of photos so be sure to click over for some hot JCW Clubman action.
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1st Gen MINI R50: One & MC Coupe R52: All 1st Gen MINI Convt. R53: MCS Coupe 2nd Gen MINI R55: Clubman R56: One/MC/MCS Coupe R57: One/MC/MCS Convt. R60: MINI SUV
Sections: MF Feature Mar 31st, 2008 26 Comments 
Since Gabe is out of town, we thought it would be a treat to have 
