Nov 30th, 2011
MINI Getaway is one part tag, one part FourSquare. Last year MINI turned a large area of Stockholm into a playing field where players could win a MINI Countryman. This year it’s Tokyo and the MINI Coupé. Using the MINI Getaway app, players home in on a virtual Coupé. Once they’re within 50 meters of the virtual car, you can “take” the car. Easy right? Trouble is, once you possess the virtual Coupé, your competitors are now after you. Any competitor that then gets within 50 meters of you can steal your virtual car away. Whoever can possess the virtual MINI Coupé until the end of the game wins one in the real world. Pretty slick. continued →
Nov 29th, 2011
Here at MotorongFile we’re making December JCW month to celebrate five years of the GP as well as discuss the future of the brand. And there is no better way to start this celebration than re-running some of our favorite pieces on the mythical JCW GP over the years. Today we give you the first of three articles from the MF Vaults that tell the story of the most special (new) MINI made yet. We’re going to talk about the details behind the car as well as another epic drive in it. Finally we’ll focus on the future of JCW. But today we want to present our very first full review of the GP as it was posted on MF almost five years ago to the day.
The MINI JCW GP is the ultimate expression of factory performance for the first generation MINI. It’s a car that eschews most of the typical compromises to focus on performance both at the road and track. But what’s it like to actually live with a GP for a week? Is it a car that can become part of daily life or does the lack of compromises make it less useful as regular transportation? With all the recent GP reviews over the last few months we thought it was more appropriate for our review to focus on these questions rather than simply the basics covered elsewhere.
My week with the GP started with frigid temps and salt encrusted roads. Having driven in winter conditions since I had my license, I was generally prepared for the lack of grip. But it’s hard to be truly prepared for the power of the GP if you haven’t driven a seriously modded MINI or JCW MINI. And it was that power that made winter or cold weather driving so interesting and at times fun.
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Nov 28th, 2011
There is something elementally fun about mud. Rally drives and off-roaders have known about it for years. But few of us have ever had a chance to some go all out down muddy trails. Recently I had an opportunity to take the MF Countryman long-term tester out to the muddy trails and dirt roads of rural Indiana. The goal was to test the All4 system. But somehow I ended up with me, an hour later, drifting around muddy corners steering the R60 with the throttle. continued →
Nov 25th, 2011
Back in September during the MINI Coupé press launch in Nashville, I got to drive several Coupés with a variety of specs. There were JCW cars, regular Cooper S Coupés and a variety of colors to choose from. What each car had in common, however, was MINI Connected w/Nav, and a MINI-supplied iPhone with a pre-release version of the MOG app installed. While I wasn’t previously aware of MOG’s on-demand music service, its main rival, Spotify, had just launched in the US a few weeks earlier. So I was at least familiar with the concept. Additionally, this was my first real chance to use MINI Connected for an extended period of time, so I didn’t have any pre-conceived bias as to how it should or shouldn’t work. continued →
Nov 24th, 2011
First off our readers. Secondly that our Countryman has ALL4. How about you?
Nov 24th, 2011
MINI Motorsports News caught up with MINI WRC driver Kris Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle about their outlook for the 2012 season. With two podium finishes, it’s been a very strong first season back in rally racing. As the team prepares for next year’s races, MINI fans are as hopeful as Kris and Paul appear to be. Full interview after the jump.
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Nov 23rd, 2011
The current 1.6L MINI engine wasn’t quite born out of the strange bed-fellow partnership that the previous power plant was. The Tritec came to MINI from of Chrysler (where it was engineered and designed in Detroit) via Brazil (where it was produced). It just so happened that it turned out to be a robust and characterful power plant that suited the R50 and R53 rather well. continued →
