As a MINI owner and enthusiast there are few things more interesting then taking an official tour of the MINI Oxford Plant. MotoringFile reader Joshua Kane has just taken the tour and has a great review of the trip on his blog. Here’s a quick excerpt:
>When we entered the second building you could see the MINIs come in from the paint shed, and be put into a mechanized frame that allows them to be rotated about 300 degrees to be worked on. They start with all the wiring looms and interior bits. Moving on to the dash or cockpit. There were some options for the dash which I have not seen in the states. There were Walnut Trimmed dashes. We saw one BRG MINIS with a Walnut dash being made. Eventually we saw the same mini being fitted with the black and tan leather seats, it was quite striking. From there they show how the body and the engine are “married”. This is amazing to watch.
>They have the engine line synced to the body assembly line and the engine is literally lifted and bolted into the frame. From there the exhaust is fitted, and the the next part is to put add all the personal touches, and finally fitting on the doors, bonnet, boot, and tops for the convertibles. These parts are done last as there is less risk of the associates pinching their hands or damaging the cars if the large movable parts are not added on till the end.
>There was a large number of Park Lane, Checkmates, and “7’s” being produced while I was there. I believe the “7” is an option package for the MINI One. I will also note that I stood by the “Tyre” fitting station for a good amount of time and I counted at least 25 different style rims being fitted onto the MINIs.
You can read the entire review here:
[ MINI Oxford Plant Tour ] Joshua Kane
Related:
[ Oxford Plant Tour Reader Review ] MotoringFile
[ How to go on a MINI Oxford Plant Tour ] MotoringFile
[ MINI Plant Tours Throughout the Years ] MotoringFile
Perhaps it’s ‘me’ but I’m getting a network error message when I try to read the tour review.
It is my Server. It went south the other night. I will try to have it up in the next day or so. please bare with me.
— Joshua
I have the text of the visit on our local MINI groups site. You just lose some of the pictures
<a href="http://www.sunshineminis.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7885&start=0" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.sunshineminis.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7885&start=0</a>
me too.
me three
No luck here either – I’ve tried the same link from GBMINI.NET for 4 consecutive days and it has always failed.
Joshua’s Movable Type server died. I’ll try to get it on Sunshine MINIs.
The text is on Sunshine MINIs but evidently the photos were still hosted on the downed server, so they will not show up.
Better the MT server than the MINI 🙂
Hey guys,
Is it possible to see your ordered car in production then take it for a spin, kind of driving school?
<blockquote>It is my Server. It went south the other night.</blockquote>
After the Slashdot-effect, now the MotoringFile-effect? 🙂
Just to add, the Seven is not only an options package for the Mini One, but also for the Cooper. (Also, over here in Europe, these are not really marketed as options packages, but as Special Editions.)
while we’re on the topic, here’s a similar vid i came across the other day…
<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8612249921988001830&q=MINI+Cooper&pr=goog-sl" rel="nofollow ugc">http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8612249921988001830&q=MINI+Cooper&pr=goog-sl</a>
Unfortunatly, I think that the plant tour is currently suspended indefinately because of continuing plant expansion, or so I was told by MINIUSA last week. I spent this week in London on business and was hoping to get up to Oxford for a day – having just taken delivery of my 2006 JCW MCSc a week ago… They offered me no date for when the tours would restart but confirmed that they would certainly be restarted this year. I have no other confirmation of this other than my one discussion with MINIUSA.
Bill