Category: MINI

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MINI

MINI John Cooper Works expected down under in 2008

MINI John Cooper WorksWhile attending the MINI Challenge at Wakefield Park last weekend I picked up quite a few snippets of information. One very tasty tidbit was in regard to the upcoming factory built MINI John Cooper Works. The car should, at the very least, be on show at the Sydney Motor Show in October and with any luck deliveries to Australian customers could take place before year’s end. But that’s not all, speculation that the car would have a list price of no more than AU$55K was all but confirmed. While a firm price was not mentioned by the little birdy I spoke to, I was told that the pricing should compare favourably to the previous R53 MINI Cooper S JCW. It is believed that Australian delivered JCW cars will be based on the Chilli spec of the regular R56 Cooper S. Now that BMW owns the John Cooper Works brand name they will be building on that by only releasing the hottest R56 Cooper S as an independent model line, akin to a BMW M3, and it won’t be available as a retrofit kit option like the R53 model. Visit your local MINI Garage for more details.

For a more comprehensive view on just what the MINI John Cooper Works will entail, apart from close to 160kW, read this excellent MotoringFile report. Keep in mind that the info in that article is based on US spec cars and some of the finer details may differ for the Australian market. Suffice to say the fundamental engine mechanicals will be largely the same.

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MINI Motorsports

Eastern Creek MINI Challenge – TV highlights

Round 1 of the MINI Challenge kicked off in Australia over the weekend of 7-9 March at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway. Here are three youtube clips from the highlights package which aired on Channel 7 today. This was the worldwide debut of the R56 MINI Challenge cars you can read more about the MINI Challenge by following the links below:

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MINI News

Ever wanted to know how AutoSkin is applied?

AutoSkin, what the hell is that? It is a self adhesive vinyl that is applied to cars (usually) for the purposes of promotion of businesses and so on. People in Melbourne may have seen the newly released MINI Clubman around town recently and wondered just how this stuff works. If you go on over to the Decently Exposed website you can find out all about it.

See below for the finished product.

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MINI Motorsports

Paul Stokell looks forward to new Wakefield success

MINI Challenge racer Paul Stokell is looking forward to an “unpredictable” round at Wakefield Park this coming weekend (4-6 April). Stokell has plenty of experience at the tight 2.2 kilometre circuit just outside of Goulburn, including stints in a Lamborghini Murcielago in the Nations Cup and a Volkswagen R32 in the Australian Production Car Championships. When Round 2 of the MINI Challenge series kicks off he will be behind the wheel of the DecoRug Motorsports MINI. Leading up to the event Stokell said, “It’s a nice little racetrack and being front-wheel drive, the MINI Challenge racecars should be perfectly suited to the circuit.”

Both Stokell and series leader Neil McFadyen will be burdened with extra weight, or “success ballast” on account of their good form at round 1 held at Eastern Creek. Stokell will carry and extra 15kg and McFadyen will have 25kg ballast added to his M3 Motorsports team MINI. In what will be a new experience for McFadyen he commented, “It will be the first time I’ve driven in a class with success ballast, so I have no idea yet how it will affect my times or driving. I know what having a passenger in a racecar does to the handling, whilst it won’t be quite that dramatic, I have no doubt the 25kg will alter the way in which we approach the weekend.”

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Fifth Gear MINI Renault

Renault Clio Cup v MINI Cooper S JCW

Renault Australia, get your arses into gear! Why do we not get the Clio down under? It was released when Napolean was telling Josephine ‘not tonight!’ There’s no excuses, surely!

Rant aside, this is a clip featuring the Renault Clio Cup and the MINI Cooper S with JCW tuning kit, as broadcast on the final episode of Fifth Gear’s series 13 (more on that to be posted later). Jason and Tiff abuse the cars around Cadwell Park and in a close affair the Clio Cup takes the beans from the mildly tuned Cooper S. While a more seriously tweaked factory built MINI John Cooper Works has been announced, which should give it the edge over the lightened Clio, it will get nowhere near the Clio Cup if ‘bang for buck’ is high on your purchasing criteria. C’mon Renault, bring it to Australia, you know it makes sense!