In an effort to keep sales up for the final year of production of the current car, MINI will be offering a special options package for the 2006 model year. While details are scarce at this point, we do know that MINI plans to market this car not as a “commemorative” edition but as a special options package. What’s the difference between commemorative and special you say? Well we don’t have a definitive answer yet, however it’s worth noting that we’ve been told that this package will be much more unique than the previous commemorative edition MC40. In other words expect something truly special.

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For starters the package will feature some impressive new sport seats. We can now confirm that the seats will in fact be Recaros. They will feature fore and aft movement and will grip much better than the current sport seats offered on the MINI. They will also offer side airbags (like the oem seats).

Another interesting aspect of this package is that it’s looking like it will be installed at the factory and not at individual MINI dealers. We’re also hearing that it may be available on both the Cooper and Cooper S however that has yet to be confirmed. Dealers should be informed in June. Expect the package to be available after the initial start of the 2006 model year and possibly as late as January 1, 2006.

The special edition package will undoubtedly offer a few more surprises and as soon as they become more clear will pass along the information on MotoringFile.

In all it would seem that MINI is going to give us plenty of reasons to look at buying the last model year of the current MINI.

Note: the Recaro sketch above is not necessarily the seat that will be offered by MINI