We’ve all gotten a parking ticket before. Chances are though, when the local parking enforcement officer ticketed your MINI, it wasn’t attached to the side of a building. It’s also very likely that your MINI is a real car, and not a lightweight fiberglass dummy car that’s part of MINI’s current “Not Normal” campaign. continued →
Think your MINI sounds mean? Check out this race-setup classic Mini, “Old Red” taking its first steps forward in nearly 30 years. This car belongs to a chap called Gary Snyder and it looks like he’s prepping it for competition in the VSCR series. This story came to us from a very cool car blog, The Chicane. Check them out.
Here’s a story for dog lovers and MINI fans alike. A New Zealand animal rescue group is using a modified MINI Countryman to do something improbable: teach dogs to drive. The dogs in question are actually rescued and up for adoption. The thought behind the driving stunt is simply to show that these forgotten mutts are not only adorable and enthusiastic, but smart. The group hopes all the attention will attract new pet parents to come take charge of these second chance dogs. Video after the jump.
A lot is going to change with the next generation MINI. The aesthetic design of the car will be part evolution and part revolution, and the underlying chassis platform was designed from a blank sheet in close collaboration with BMW. At the center of all this change is a new family of engines — not simply a refresh, but a whole new engine platform. It’s the soul of the machine, so MINI fans around the world are hoping BMW gets them right. As we’ve previously reported, the engine lineup for future MINIs (and a few cars in the BMW lineup) is based on a half-liter-per-cylinder platform. This will mean not only a drop in engine displacement from 1,600cc to 1,500cc, but a change from four cylinders down to three.
Perhaps “down” is the wrong way to put it, though. Doing more with less has always been at the heart of MINI.
A hot VTEC 4-cylinder motor in a classic Mini is nothing new to most Mini and MINI fans. Nor is one blasting around the Nürburgring. This video, however, is a little different than most of the ones I’ve seen in the past as it’s from an onboard perspective. So click on through, because there’s 9:41 of classic Mini fury after the jump. continued →
More and more images of the F56 test mules are popping up around the web every day as MINI gets closer and closer to the final production version of the car. The folks over at Motoring Authority have some nifty video of an F56 test mule stretching its legs on the ‘Ring. Expect to see more and more of these videos popping up over the coming months. But for now lets talk about what we can really see here behind the swirls. continued →
Winding Road is currently running a story about small, fun rides that offer driving excitement to rival larger, more expensive sports cars. They’re taking their “Involvement Index” and pulling out the fun cars that are actually affordable. Ranked at #2 is MINI’s new Coupe. They like it. They like it a lot.
Mini Cooper S Coupe: Involvement Score 78, Starting Price $25,300. So good we ended up booking a year-long loan in one. The Cooper S Coupe is the ultimate sub-$30,000 performer for the Mini brand, and goes toe-to-toe on our Index with Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG and V-6-powered Porsche Panamera. It’s go-kart-like driving dynamics and zippy turbo make this two-seater an affordable Involvement alternative.
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: Best of the Web, Marketing Jan 7th, 2013 11 Comments 
