MF Exclusive: Rolls Royce Creating Limited Edition MINI

At first I thought, “What are they smoking in Bavaria?” Then, on reflection…well, I still think that.

But it should be noted that the idea of a ridiculously luxurious small “touring” car isn’t necessarily completely bonkers. In its own way Ford is heading in the same direction with the Lincoln C concept, for example. (Yes, I know Lincoln and Rolls are not quite in the same league.)

China might buy a few Rolls-MINIs — it would be the sort of thing certain wealthy Chinese would like to show off — so I wonder if that’s the particular target country BMW has in mind for such an odd brand fusion. It’s a very strange (and very big) auto market, where Buick is one of the strongest luxury brands.

Motoring in a MINI does often fill me with the spirit of ecstasy, so does this mean I can have one raise from the bonnet as well?

Wonder if the turbulence is good for the airflow over the I/C.

This is pretty neat news – weird for sure, but neat. A bespoke interior is something a lot of enthusiast owners do anyway… having another option to distinguish one MINI from another, as well as increase the visual and tactile quality of some of the interior materials is appealing. Hopefully they won’t overemphasize the Rolls Royce brand, which can regrettably conjure up tacky overt displays of wealth (it wasn’t always this way with RR, but RR models released under BMW’s stewardship are not exactly “quietly lovely” designs). At the least, it’s a talking point that will generate significant press and is in keeping with MINI’s brand values of offering a “premium compact”. Now just need to shore up the “sport” part of the brand as this seems to have been neglected a bit in recent years.

Here’s another possible take. The RR crew is good at designing limited production runs, and Mini likes to sell limited production runs. BMW owns both, so why not keep the RR crew busy and the MINI crews focused on the high volume stuff?

Really, the success or failure of this has less to do with who does the designing, than what is designed. If we get more $50k Minis with nothing more than an interior re-do, the market will speak, and the sound will not be good. If we get some realy unique offerings at a good price point, everyone will be happy.

Matt

Fantastic idea to me, since a performance car is less likely to come from Mini the idea of a coachbuilt Mini would work well. I for one would be very interesting to see what they come up with. If RR could just bring up the fit and finish quality of the Mini it would be worth it.

This appeals to the “Imelda Marcos” types that have to have top grain leathers, designer dashboards/seats and loads of useless, overpriced junk that add nothing to the performance of the car.

I think weed has become the smoke of choice up in Munich.

The Chrysler TC by Maserati was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Of course, that car was mostly crap to start with, but still, I applaud mini for the decision, and look forward to parking a MINI by RR next to a Porsche 924 in the disastrous crossover section of my dream garage.