The Original New MINI is Revealed (1997)
Here’s a blast from the past for this week’s MF video Friday. This is a BBC news report from the day that the first new MINI prototype was first shown off to British press. A fascinating glimpse back to a time that seems almost impossible to imagine. It’s interesting to note that the angle taken by the press at the time was all about British jobs and not about a potential successful product.
And a quick note… Nick Stephenson (interviewed in the piece) and Frank Stephenson (the actual designer of this MINI) are not related and are not the same person.
A big thanks to the Youtube user who dug this out of the archives!
Wow, John Cooper is in this one.
“You don’t have to be first, just the best” lol
100,000 MINI’s in a year? no way!
It’s cool to see the old logo on the bonnet and boot.
Long live the R53!
I did catch the old logos and the twin tailpipes, on a Cooper no less…wonder what happened to that?
The wing mirrors are different too, so the tailights. It woud have been 3 years later that BMW would have severed their ties to Rover and take production of the New MINI from the Rover Longbridge factory (Where the classics where made until 2000) back to Cowley, also known as Oxford. This video was made in the midst of a very turbulent time between Rover and BMW and for anyone that has read the history of the development of the original New MINI you will be left wondering how such a wonderful and successful car could have born out of such troubled and sour relationship. Today Rover is out of business and BMW owns one of the most successful products of all time.
Interesting what the next 10 years will bring to the marque.
-Nigel
It looks like the distance from the doorline to the roof is actually less than in the R50.
A fun blast from the past, I was lucky enough to see this when it was on origonaly.
I vividly remember that day – I had been hoping that Minis would come back to the States someday, and even though it looked closer in size to the 1100 or an early Honda Civic in size, it had that essential Mininess about it – I had a flash of insight that somehow it was gonna show up in my driveway someday. My son started thinking about it without telling me – he was even more sure than me I guess. It was pretty much defined by that point, I see – I wonder if they kept it somewhere for posterity, rather than disposing of it like the old Orange Boxes from back in the day. I would love to have that hood emblem!
great find! thanks for posting it!
Ah 1997! Time flies by. Some interesting comments from Rover officiados. Thank goodness BMW kept MINI otherwise we would be driving Chinese Minis like the new MG’s.
The badge was off the last old Classic Mini Coopers and you should be able to buy one at minisport.com or minimania.com to name a few.
wow. That was great to watch. I remember back in 97 ordering one of those postcards showing the concept from the old mini site. I had that thing framed until the day I had my mini delivered in 2002
Cool video! Like Jayomatic and Vanwall above, I very vividly remember the day in September 1997 when the first images of the new MINI appeared on the Internet straight from the Frankfurt motor show. Looking at that image of the red prototype “new Mini” appearing on the stage, I had an immediate emotional response to the design as it clearly reminded me of all the classic Minis I had owned. I told my wife at the time that if somehow the car were to become available in the US, I would absolutely own one of the first ones – mark my words. It took nearly five years of (impatiently) waiting from seeing that first image to my purchase of one of the very first MINI Cooper S models ever made — and that ’02 car still sits proudly in my garage.
<blockquote>It’s cool to see the old logo on the bonnet and boot</blockquote>
Although it did not appear as a bonnet or boot badge on the new MINI, don’t forget the old Mini logo you are referring to appeared in the form of the automatic climate control switch gear on the R50/R53 models.
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First and foremost,great post,Gabe!
Second,I finally get to see and hear from the man himself: MR. JOHN COOPER. A treat in of itself,for me.
Third,I hope that when MINI does their limited edition car in this cycle,that they do one,that looks exactly like the one in the video(with two seats;and a,”tricked out” JCW engine),hint,hint for the 50th Birthday Celebration perhaps?
Fascinating. It’s interesting to see the original logos on the bonnet and boot. 🙂
Rover…???? :confused: Who they….?
Wow……how cool is that. :o)
A decade ago, how time flies !!
Rover who? I suggest a visit to the Wikipedia site for a history lesson on origins of Mini and British motoring industry. Otherwise the next question will probably be – who were Herbert Austin and William Morris?
I come across younger people all the tme who don’t even know there was a person called John Cooper and what he achieved, and how he relates to the car’s name.
The Mini “Wings” derive from the first Austin badge – and the Wreath and Cooper script are of John Coopers F1 Race team badge.
I was in the UK from 1996 to 1998 and didn’t even see anything on the launch or media reports around the new MINI (it could have easily been confused as being the concept car, right?)
Had forgotten how conservative the British are / were and the good old quality of British understatement. Interesting seeing its origins from Rover – who would have thought it would be taken over by BMW? Thanks for the decade old memories of England.
and I thought it was about the classic Mini introduction.
Glad everyone likes the video news clip and I have enjoyed reading your comments and memories. I posted it on You Tube after discovering it in my own Mini video tape archive when I was transferring it to DVD recently. I had long forgotten I had taped it off the TV back in 1997 here in England but it brought back many memories and surprise at how quickly I had forgotten Rovers involvement in the MINI development. When I found it also included an interview with John Cooper himself I knew many MINI Cooper enthusiasts around the world would also want to see and hear his comments on the new MINI.