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.
1st Gen MINI R50: One & MC Hatch R52: All 1st Gen MINI Convt. R53: MCS Hatch 2nd Gen MINI R55: Clubman R56: Hatch R57: Convertible R58: Coupe R59: Roadster R60: MINI Crossover R61: MINI Crossover Coupe 3rd Gen MINI F55: Clubman F56: Hatch F57: Convertible F60: MINI Crossover F62: Traveller
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Sections: Official News, R56 (Hatch) Mar 24th, 2008 28 Comments 
Since Gabe is out of town, we thought it would be a treat to have 
