Racers take note, looks like MINI is getting serious about Racing (from 4Car):
>Until now, competitive race series such as the John Cooper Challenge have been run on a country-by-country basis, but BMW is considering a series of linked international series, all to the same template. There are plans for Mini racing championships in Asia (a pan-Asian series with events in Japan, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong) and North America, and there is also interest in smaller-scale championships in countries including Italy, Belgium and Spain.
>All the championships will use the 2008 Mini racer, which will be “more extreme” than the current motorsport-adapted Cooper S, according to a project insider, and “more professional, more like a proper racing car.” It will be more like the car used in the German Mini Challenge than the British John Cooper Challenge car: it will not be road-legal, and it will have more sophisticated aerodynamic features, such as a diffuser-type rear spoiler. It will be completely stripped-out to just seats, basic instruments and a roll cage, and will feature necessary additions such as fire extinguishers and track-to-pit radios.
Very good news for sure. A well developed racing program tends to do some great things with the evolution of the street offerings. Might have to check out what they are going to offer for a R56 platform racer. Have been racing my 2003 S for a little while and think its getting about time to ugrade my platform.
Great news Gabe, thanks
Interested… Perhaps a raw, pre-caged chassis will be available similar to how BMW sold a few “factory race” E46 M3 shells.
Cool, can’t wait for more details
I read this and all I can think about is the price. How much would a factory racer MINI cost?
From what I recall the factory racer BMW’s are in the 100,000 EURO (1-series) to 200,000 EURO range (Z4 coupe).
Here in New Zealand we are getting our MINI Challenge series up and running in November. 18 of the 20 cars that were used in the Italy MINI United event have been taken for their new owners to prepare for the series. Our NZ driver Mike Eady is helping co-ordinate the series – Mike recently raced at the 24 hour Nurburgring in a Honda and won his class.