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Yes $500 MINIs do exist. Or at least one does as it showed up recently at the 24 Hour of LeMons in Texas. According to Jalopnik the above MINI incurred a 1066 lap penalty for being too new and too nice to possibly cost only $500. The team bought the car from a junkyard where it ended up after a roll-over accident.

The car finished 122 out of 123 (due to that healthy penalty and recorded a best lap time of 2:09.79. That was some 10 seconds off of the pace of the fastest cars out there. Clearly they either weren’t pushing the car or the team weren’t the hottest shoes out there.

But this all begs the question… how much would you have paid for the MINI above. All mechanicals work but with a salvage title and a body more warped than the mind of military dictator, it’s not exactly pretty.

(image courtesy of Jalopnik).