Viva la MINI Mat Edition
We’ve received official word this morning from MINI France PR that the matte black special edition cars we reported on earlier are indeed coming. Exclusive to France (for now) the small run of 250 cars will go on sale January 21, 2011. Wrapped in a matte black film, each car will feature a numbered side scuttle and matching key ring, along with a checkerboard themed interior and mirror caps. The mat film carries a separate 2-year warranty and there is full factory paint underneath.
Will it comes to other markets? We don’t know. But we do know that (historically speaking) MINI has a habit of sharing ideas from market to market.
You can preview the MINI Mat Edition exclusively at MINI Shades France during an open house starting January 22, 2011. You know, should you happen to be in France.
<p>I’m not in France so ultimately I guess it doesn’t phase me, but if I were going to buy one in the States I’d want actual matte paint, not a wrap (can get a wrap done easily enough after the fact). Oh, and checkerboard interior? Are they trying to use up the lame checkerboard bits no one wanted to buy in the first place?</p>
<p>Done properly I’d be totally down for a matte edition, though – the matte BRG pic in the link from one of the other comments threads was particularly sweet.</p>
<p>It would be cool to have this on a new MINI and have a 2 year warranty to boot. Just think, drive the car for a few years and then peel it off and have a still VERY new looking MINI.</p>
<p>Sweet! I need those wheels on my JCW, BAD!</p>
<p>Matte anything with the proper wheels = delicious.</p>
<p>@Chris Underwood: I love my checkers! It’s retro and it’s MINI…</p>
<p>I would not want a wrap. They are super hard to take off once they start going bad – and they will.</p>
<p>I wonder what colors you can get underneath the wrap since it will cover the entire car. It would be nice to say, have a matte black car for a year or two then take it off and have A new coat of BRG II waiting for you.</p>
<p>So why exactly don’t they just paint the car matte or have a matte clear coat (if that’s possible)?</p>
<p>^John, its cheaper for MINI to vinyl wrap a small run of cars than to create an entirely new color.</p>
<p>Matte finish is a ten day wonder which will go out of fashion as quickly as it started.
The original idea of matte finish especially on hoods of rally cars, was to stop reflections of light onto the driver. Notice how many rally cars still have black hoods. Do NFL players still put that silly black stuff on their cheeks?
English cars went through a matte finish to replace chrome bumpers and trim in the 80’s, and that didn’t last long because plastic bumpers were phased in. Then people started painting the black plastic in body colour.
Only a fashion phase not to be taken too seriously, so a wrap makes good sense as a temporary phase.</p>
<p>minimotoringgraphics.com wrapped a MINI(parts car) clubman in a mat @ MTTS 2010. Not too bad of a job.</p>
<blockquote>minimotoringgraphics.com wrapped a MINI(parts car) clubman in a mat @ MTTS 2010. Not too bad of a job.</blockquote>
<p>I saw that car in the storage garage at our dealership here in Minneapolis. It looked pretty bad ass. I’d much rather have paint than vinyl though.</p>
<p>@Chris Underwood: I love my checkers also! Bite me!</p>
<p>base color should be black. I have wrapped Mini (R53) and my base color is red. if you peak in the gap between the door and the front fender, you can see the base color becasue those are the area vinyl can’t be reach. If the base color is black, then it is not noticeable.</p>