If you ever get a chance to talk with Mini rally champion Rauno Aaltonen, definitely do so. He’s a wealth of driving knowledge and terrific company. Recently, Rauno sat down with Sympatico’s Matt Bubbers and recounted one hell of a story about a snowy race course, an accidental shortcut and winning the stage by only five seconds. Read the whole story over at Sympatico.

A very fun driving video from MINI USA showing off the new Coupé in the cityscape of NYC. Big thanks to db for pointing it out over on dbmini.us. You’re all reading db’s blog, right? RIGHT?

[Source: EVO]

Top Gear UK presenter Richard Hammond featured the Mini Cooper S MkII in his “Hammond’s Icons” series in the September ’11 issue of Top Gear Magazine. Like any self-respecting Englishman, the Hamster loves the plucky little Mini which like Hammond himself, is impressive well beyond its stature.

But does it work? Yes. Gloriously. With a smile-inducing whine from the transmission, that 75bhp is enough to give a chunky, determined pull straight from the off. If anything, it feels slightly pugnacious; this is a car with ‘small man syndrome’ – and if there’s one thing about which I know anything, it’s that.

It’s a fun read, all of which you can find here.

Sometimes it’s the simple things that make a Monday morning tolerable. Like a vintage cut-away drawing of a classic Mini. Enjoy.

Via Jon Sibal

Here at MotoringFile, we’ve held one consistent point of view when it comes to manual transmissions in MINIs: they’re a must. Sure, some people need an auto, but they’re sacrificing a lot of the car’s character in our opinion. Trouble is, a lot of people, especially here in America, don’t know how to drive a stick. So MINI USA and it’s agency BSSP, in typical cheeky fashion, are encouraging people to go manual.

And yes it’s a brazen move. But it’s inline with how the brand speaks and a completely own-able point of view. And others are noticing. Karl Greenburg over at MediaPost put out a survey asking what brand his readers thought would have “the audacity” to create a whole marketing campaign just around the manual transmission.

Only one person actually got it right (kudos to Tom Keane at USA Weekend.) Yes, it’s MINI. And the BMW unit actually makes perfect sense if one recalls that when the brand (re)launched here in 2002, it offered the MINI Cooper only as a manual-shifter, and most certainly the brand has the highest manual take-rate percentage among any automaker that isn’t a pure sports-car brand. (actually it was the Cooper S Tom, but we’re not holding it against you)

Thomas Salkowsky, manager of MINI brand marketing, says that in spite of an increasingly clutch-free world, about 34% of buyers of the Clubman, the MINI Cooper convertible and the hard top buy the manual version, and that even for the AWD version of the Countryman, MINI’s answer for a crossover, the manual take rate is about 30%. In New England, according to Salkowsky, it’s a 50/50 split between auto and manual, and even in highway-bound L.A. it’s about 15%. That’s a huge percentage, given the national average. AOL Auto’s editor, Kirk Seaman, wrote last year that back in 1985 22.4% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. came with a manual transmission. By 2007, it was 7.7%. AOL Autos says last year it was about 5.5%.

BMW and MINI remain one of the few auto makers committed to making a manual transmission available in their vehicles. Not simply as the economy option for those who can’t afford the auto, but as a performance option for those who want to get the most out of their driving experience. Greenburg mentions the Countryman, which is actually the only AWD crossover in the US market right now that gets better than 30 mpg, costs less than $40k, and has an available manual transmission.

We’ve said it before, and we’re going to keep saying it. If you want to get the most out of your MINI, opt for the stick. Yes the speed and efficiency argument only works when you’re talking about MINI’s out-dated torque converter auto. And when the a DCT becomes an option in the near future the manual will lose on both fronts. But to us it’s not about numbers with a manual. It’s about feel and control and that extra dimension of driving pleasure you don’t get with paddles behind the wheels (all things at the core of the MINI DNA). So it’s great to see that MINI agrees and the press is taking notice. Well done BSSP. This is some of the best work MINI has seen in years.

Check out Greenburg’s full article over at MediaPost, and give BSSP a visit to see their thoughts on the campaign.

It’s no secret that we weren’t crazy about the idea of the MINI Countryman when we first heard about it. The very thought of a MINI SUV was repugnant to most enthusiasts, and still is to some. However, now that we’ve driven it, the Countryman has more than won us over. Regardless of where you stand on the fan/hater continuum, there’s one thing we’ve said many times here and on WhiteRoofRadio: MINI needs the Countryman for long-term financial health, and this previous month’s record-breaking sales figures prove it. This Countryman-powered growth is what makes more enthusiast-oriented cars like the MINI Coupé possible. So we were delighted to read that we’re not alone in this opinion.

New Countryman owner and obvious MINI enthusiast Aaron has been chronicling his Countryman ownership experience from order to current motoring adventures. The old guard here at MotoringFile should recognize this enthusiasm, as it’s exactly what many of us did back in the day when we ordered our R50s an R53s. Recently, he pointed to a post by automotive commentary and analysis site Good Car Bad Car, going in-depth along the same lines as our long held opinion that the Countryman is critical to MINI’s long-term growth and success. They do a great job diving into the numbers.

Don’t go confusing the Countryman with the Honda CR-V or even the Volkswagen Tiguan. VW, for instance, sold nearly twice as many Tiguans as MINI sold Countrymen/Countrymans in May. And for every MINI Countryman sold, Honda sold 9.5 CR-Vs last month, and it was a bad month for the CR-V.

But that’s beside the point. MINI doesn’t introduce models intending to take over mass market segments. Anyhow, we’re studying the Countryman’s impact on the MINI fleet. This leads us to discover that, without the Countryman in May, MINI would’ve been down 3.4%. So far this year, the Countryman has helped MINI post an 18.7% improvement. But without the Countryman, MINI’s year-over-year jump is just 6.3%, not nearly as healthy as the overall new vehicle market’s 14% improvement.

The full post is definitely worth a read. Particularly interesting is their breakdown of how the Countryman and the Hardtop models are essentially carrying MINI sales at present, as Convertible and Clubman sales decline. Furthermore, they go on to explore the Countryman’s impact in Canada, where it has to go up against the BMW X1. Big thanks to Aaron for pointing this out and kudos on sharing your enthusiasm with all of us through your blog.

[Source: Good Car Bad Car via Countryman Motoring

An oldie but a goodie, for those of you into classic Minis, here’s one we couldn’t pass up posting about – even if it’s just for the great pics. And of course it’s for sale (via our friends at Bring a Trailer). For just $13,000 all this could ge yours:

Unlike so many questionable Minis out there, this 1960 Morris Mini is a genuine car with a British Heritage Certificate showing its original DoB in June of 1960. It was given a bare-shell repair and repaint approximately 5 years ago in Old English White with a black top, a classic color combo. A 1275 cc engine and disk brakes bring it closer to Cooper S performance, and the overall interior and exterior presentation is very clean and period correct.

So classic Mini owners out there – let’s here from you. Tell us about your cars and your experiences.

Amd of course check out the fully story here.

The donor MINI is a 2002 R53. Great testbed for such a conversion. Be sure to click back to read all about their progress.

Anyone have any interest in doing something like this to your MINI? $25k seems pretty reasonable for this kind of conversion to us. What say you?

We’re getting to be bigger and bigger fans of the chaps over at Winding Road. While we’ve written about the topic for years, it’s great to finally see another outlet pick-up the story.

We recently featured their rather good comparison between the new Fiat 500 Sport and the MINI Cooper. They’re back, and this time with an in-depth look at what might happen if you pitted a factory Cooper S JCW against a regular Cooper S with aggressive aftermarket tuning. What kind of performance could the aftermarket provide, and for how much less than the $6,100 JCW premium?

The article breaks down the upgrades gained in the factory JCW, then explores what can be hypothetically be done at aftermarket tuning shops like Detroit Tuned and OutMotoring (who they mention specifically) and for how much less money. The end result of this little mental exercise? A savings of about $1,000 for similar or arguably better performance. There’s a catch though.

You see, modifying your car is a great way to void the factory warranty, should something go wrong because of your modification. Therein lies the appeal of the JCW, in that you can get a great deal of performance, with the security blanket of a warranty for less than $2000 over the price of the aftermarket car we just built here.

So there you have it. The JCW looks like the best choice on a new car. Once your Cooper S is out of warranty though, well, that’s a horsepower of a different color. Take a look at the full article over at Winding Road.

One of the MINI Coupé JCW press cars was spotted today in New York City stopping for, we can only guess, a big slice of pizza. Keep your eyes open in The Big Apple, as this car will be making the rounds among local automotive journalists. Speaking of which, this photo was snapped just a few blocks from Jalopnik’s headquarters.

MINI enthusiast Ozan Halici sent us a link to his entry in a video competition put on by Castrol Edge in Germany. He’s looking for votes, but given the quality of the video, we have no problem giving him the MF bump. Head on over to the Castrol microsite and click on “Mein Favorite” so we can get Ozan bumped up the rankings. The site might require a bit of clever German language wrangling for those who don’t read/speak it, but it’s well worth the hassle to help push on a great piece of video work.

MINI France has commissioned a rather creative Facebook application, MINI MAPS, that combines Facebook, Google Maps and Flash to let you not only race a virtual MINI on virtual roads all over the world. You can challenge your FB friends or just random people using the app. You pick the track, location and even time of day. The game even simulates weather and other environmental factors. Win races to unlock new MINIs and zoom your way up the worldwide rankings. Take that, Farmville.

[Source: Creativity]

A new trailer for season 17 of Top Gear UK just hit the interwebs and in it, there’s a moment of special interest to MINI fans. At about 0:10, we see none other than Captain Slow himself, James May, driving the fire out of what appears to be the MINI Countryman WRC race car. He seems to be racing against something, although we aren’t shown what. Knowing Top Gear though, it’s as likely a cheetah on methamphedamines as a jet engine powered BMX biker. Either way, we’ll definitely be tuning in.

The clever kiwis at MINI of NZ and DraftFCB Advertising have stuck 330 harmonicas to the exterior of a MINI Clubman, dubbing it “The Carmonica.” All in the key of G, the combined sound is sort of an angelic hum strangely unhindered by the doppler effect of the car coming and going. Sounding mostly like a disembodied hip hop sample, it’s only fitting that MINI NZ has created a music video mixer feature on their website at MINI.co.nz/carmonica/ where you can mix and match clips and beats to make your own MINI mix. Catch a news report video after the break.

This video has been on MotoringFile before, but it’s worth reposting in the context of MINI’s epic return to the World Rally Championship. We’ve seen the official S2000 version of the rally car this week and MINI has confirmed the race venues for this season. Now let’s take a look back at the two chaps who helped build that rich racing heritage as they take a modern MINI ’round the snowy curves of the classic rally route.

Fun fact: During the filming of this segment, Rauno pitched the car around one of the corners so hard, he dislodged the nose camera rig right off the front of the car — something the film crew assured him he couldn’t do. The moral of the story: Never underestimate a MINI.

From MINI Connected to MINI Financial Services, MINI seems to be one of those companies that “gets it” when it comes to mobile. The latest offering is actually for the dealers: mobile-optimized versions of their websites. Customers on their Blackberry, iPhone or Android phone can now search dealer inventories, find hours and even call in for sales or service help. It’s a simple thing in the grand scheme, but keep this in mind. One UX report I read recently said that only as few as 15% of the fortune 500 have mobile-optimized websites. Of those, only about 5 are any good. Mobile web use is on the exponential rise. So well done MINI. Welcome to the future.

Our friends down under at AUSmotive.com sent us this review of the MINI Countryman, which has just launched in Australia. It’s great to get diverse reactions to the car and this one is definitely worth a look.

Now that the Countryman has arrived in Australia we can really begin to form a solid opinion. So, after seeing the car for the first time today, and enjoying a brief test drive, we’re leaning towards loving the love-or-hate four-door MINI. It’s not a full on love affair yet, but we’ve seen enough to warrant a second date.

So go give it a read. Big thanks to Liam for sending it in.

What do you get the gamer who has everything? You get him this: a radical gaming chair literally made out of the nose of a classic Mini. Built by designer David Gawhtorpe, the chair includes a built-in Xbox 360, 500W amp, speakers, strobe lights, lasers, a small refrigerator at the back and — wait for it — a remote controlled smoke machine. Doubling also as a home theater chair, there’s a rumble pad under your backside to really put you there. A one-off, the original chair has been sold to a London fellow, who’s going to put it up for sale in his Pimlico shop. It can be yours, for a mere $12,967. See the chair all folded up after the break.

Some people like to describe their tuned Cooper S as “fire breathing”, but BMP Design of Tyler, Texas wins the brag with the MINI Jet. The 420 hp, 400 ft-lb of torque, RWD monster is literally powered by a Rolls Royce-Allison helicopter engine (the 250-C20B to be exact). Complete with helicopter style lever throttle between the seats, it’s unclear if the MINI Jet retains its original engine up front as well. If it does, that would make this the most seriously badass hybrid to date. More video after the break.

[Source: Jalopnik]