The 2011 MINI Cooper John Cooper Works

BMW has announced the recall of some 89,000 Cooper S and John Cooper Works models built for the 2007 – 2011 model year. The recall includes the turbocharged Clubman, Convertible and Countryman models as well, specifically:

- MINI Cooper S, model years 2007-11
- MINI Cooper S Clubman, model years 2008-11
- MINI Cooper S Convertible, model years 2009-11
- MINI Cooper S Countryman, model year 2011
- MINI Cooper John Cooper Works, model years 2009-11
- MINI Cooper John Cooper Works Clubman, model year 2009
- MINI Cooper John Cooper Works Convertible, model years 2010-11

At issue is a circuit board that runs an auxiliary water pump to cool the turbocharger. Under certain conditions, the circuit board can malfunction, leading to failure of the auxiliary water pump and potential overheating of the board and pump assembly. In a limited number of cases, this overheating resulted in an engine compartment fire. To date, BMW in unaware of any accidents or injuries relating to this condition.

MINI dealers will replace the auxiliary water pump assembly (which contains the potentially defective circuit board) when the recall begins next month. Owners of affected MINI vehicles with questions or concerns can reach BMW’s customer service at (866) 275-6464; alternatively, updates are also available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Vehicle Safety Hotline, reached at (888) 327-4236.

The MINI Cooper B-Spec racer. Image: BMW AG

If you want to race cars beyond the ChumpCar, LeMons and SCCA Improved Touring levels, B-Spec may be the most affordable way to turn a wheel in anger. Sanctioned by the SCCA, Grand Am, NASA, and World Challenge, B-Spec is essentially a showroom stock series that pits subcompact automobiles from Honda, Ford, Mazda, Kia (and now MINI) against one another in evenly-matched competition. Engines are left stock, but modified suspensions, brakes, wheels and tires are allowed.

MINI has recently announced that it’s building a car for B-Spec competition, too. Based on the MINI Cooper (and not the Cooper S), the turnkey racer will only make 121 horsepower from a normally aspirated 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, but comes with a KW coilover suspension, front camber plates, Carbotech brake pads, braided stainless brake lines and lightweight Kosei wheels with series-specified Hoosier tires. Inside, the car comes with a driver’s racing seat, a harness, window and cage nets and a full roll cage.

The MINI Cooper B-Spec racer. Image: BMW AG

MINI will sell the B-Spec cars through its dealer in Charleston, SC, since that’s also who’s building them. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but we’d expect the cars to sell in the $30,000 range, which makes B-Spec one of the more affordable pro racing series on the planet. MINI is offering up contingency money for a podium finish, too, but they have worked out all the details on their program yet. The B-Spec MINIs will be available prior to the start of the 2012 racing season.

Image: BMW Group

Last April we told you about the upcoming “Mini Inspired by Goodwood,” the illegitimate love child of a one-night-stand between a Rolls Royce and a Mini Cooper. It’s got almost everything you’d expect to find inside a Rolls-Royce, but in scaled-down proportions. Wool mats? Check. Leather-topped Walnut Burr dash? Check. Cornsilk leather interior? Yeah, it’s got that, too. It doesn’t make the seamless power of a Rolls Royce, but it does come with the 181 horsepower turbocharged engine from the Mini Cooper S.

Image: BMW Group

We told you that only 1,000 copies would be built, and now Mini has announced pricing. Each will sell for £41,000, or the equivalent of about $66,000. That’s a lot of scratch to pay for a Mini, regardless of how well appointed it is, and their press release justified it by saying, “The MINI INSPIRED BY GOODWOOD is characterised by top-grade materials, the highest level of workmanship and stylish supremacy. Its exclusive character is the result of an exceptional collaboration. The special edition of the three-door MINI was built under the guidance of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars designer team and transfers the unmistakable style of the British luxury car manufacturer to the equally unique original within the premium small car segment.”

There’s no word on which markets will get cars just yet, but my guess is that the bulk of production will stay in Europe or get exported to the Middle East. Deliveries are set to begin in March of 2012. so if you can’t live without one in you garage, now is the time to hit up your local Mini dealership.

Source: Autoevolution

Mini Inspired By Goodwood. Image: BMW Group

If two automakers were ever at opposite ends of the automotive spectrum, they’d be Mini and Rolls-Royce. Mini makes compact but amusing hatchbacks for the great unwashed masses, while Rolls-Royce builds luxurious motorcars for the well-heeled. You probably wouldn’t want to park a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe on the streets of Manhattan overnight, but on the other hand you wouldn’t want to roll up to Monte Carlo’s Hotel de Paris in a Mini Cooper. It’s all about expectations, I suppose.

Image: BMW Group

At least it was until Mini announced the Mini Inspired By Goodwood model, to debut at next week’s Shanghai Auto Show. Named for Rolls-Royce’s hometown, the Goodwood is built under the watchful eye of Rolls-Royce advisors. It gets Rolls-Royce paint (Diamond Black Metallic), a Rolls-Royce inspired interior (in their proprietary color, Cornsilk), and it even gets the Cooper S engine, good for 181 horsepower. As alluring as the outside may be, the inside comes close to over-the-top. Mats are made from thick lambswool, just like on Rolls-Royce models. The Walnut Burr dash is topped with black Nappa leather, just like on a Rolls. Even the switchgear has gone upscale, and now features a piano black finish.

Image: BMW Group

There’s no word on what markets will get the Goodwood Mini, or what the price will be (hint: a LOT higher than a base Cooper S). Mini says the car will see production, and they insist that only 1,000 will be built for all markets. Unlike the Aston-Martin Cygnet, which requires prior Aston ownership to “qualify” for purchase, no such rules exist with the Goodwood Mini. Sure it’ll be expensive, but it’s be the closest that most of us can come to buying a Rolls Royce.

Source: Mini

Here is your new Mini Countryman, the latest model from the ever expanding Mini range. As you can see, the Countryman (also sometimes called the Mini Crossover) is a bit bigger than other Minis, and sports four doors – five if you count the hatch. You’ll also note the “All4″ badge on the back, indicating that the Countryman is AWD, a first for the brand. Which means it will be great in the snow!

I don’t know about you but I know I am excited for the new mini. It is a little chunkier, it feels like a tiny SUV. There’s definitely a bit of baby Porsche Cayenne going on up front and in the stance, though it’s clearly still a Mini.

MINI has some of the coolest “little” cars around which as me puzzled as to why someone would “KRINK” all over it. Well silly me, it is all part of a urban phenomenon that showcases street art on an “urban” vehicle, the MINI Cooper. Below is a newly released video from MINI and press release on the new KRINK MINI. Enjoy!

KRINK MINI – Street art and MINI have a lot in common. Both are an urban phenomenon, both are part of metropolitan streets.

MINI Germany has invited the New Yorker street artist Craig KR Costello to come to Hamburg and design a MINI.

KRINK is the name of his brand, that stands for highest Quality markers and ink (KR-INK) and has a great reputation among street artists as well as designers worldwide.

The typical style of KRINK, the so-called KRINK dripping ink aesthetics can now be seen on a black MINI Cooper S.

PRESS RELEASE

New York street artist uses Mini Canvas. The KRINK MINI.

28.10.2009 Munich – What MINI and street art have in common? The MINI has always characterized the image of the metropolis and is itself part of the urban street culture. Exceptional design has always been to claim the mark. A passion shared by the protagonists of the creative street art.

The legendary New York street artist Craig “KR” Costello has missed last week in Hamburg, a MINI its unique style. His trademark, so-called KRINK dripping ink aesthetics, are motifs for which the color extends downward, as if it were applied too thick. The entire MINI was designed in the typical drop KRINK aesthetics of the creative people from Brooklyn. In the silver color runs along the distinctive shape of the MINI, around the body and side and rear windows of the black car.

The project was the “first love story” and the photographer Ali Salehi.

Am 28.10. presented the Hamburg trendy KRINK MINI in the bar “First Love” to the public. Am 31.10. interested will have the possibility of the MINI, and other works by the artist from the Vicious Gallery (HH) to admire.

Erstenthüllung:
Wednesday 28 October, 19.00 – 23.00 clock
First Love Bar, Michaelisbrücke 3, 20459 Hamburg

Opening reception and exhibition:
Saturday 31 October, from 20.00 clock
Vicious Hallery, Kleine Freiheit 46, 22767 Hamburg

For more information about the project and an interview with street artist can be found at www.MINIspace.com.

About KRINK.
Craig “KR” Costello earned in the 90 years of downward trending silver signature great fame in the scene.

This resulted in the brand KRINK. Today’s tags can be found in doorways, on walls, subway stations, street signs, etc. in the cities weltweit.Bereits in his youth, he lived in Queens, New York, developed KR graffiti colors. What began as a personal experimenting with homemade materials, quickly became a first strictly limited product line with special silver paint in bottles, which he distributed to selected friends. The result is a thriving company has grown, offering under the name KRINK (KR-INK), a wide range of specialty inks and markers that represent the highest quality and have a genuine cult status.

BMW has officially confirmed two new MINI models for production, the MINI Coupe Concept and another vehicle that has yet to be named. The sweet looking MINI Coupe Concept that was revealed last week is going to be a reality will be showcased at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show and possibly the Los Angeles Auto Show in December.

We have to keep our fingers crossed hoping that the MINI Coupe Concept will make it’s way into MINI showrooms in the US next year.

Press Release Below.

PRESS RELEASE:

MINI Frankfurt show stars confirmed for production at Plant Oxford

* 03.09.2009
* Press Release

Dr.Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management, BMW AG has announced that two new MINI models are to be built at MINI Plant Oxford.

Reithofer confirmed the production plan during his two-day visit to BMW Group UK operations earlier this week.

One of the models based on the MINI Coupé Concept and a concept of the second vehicle will be unveiled for the first time to global media at Frankfurt Motor Show on 15 September.

Images of the stunning MINI Coupé Concept were issued to press on 26 August 2009, exactly fifty years after the first classic Mini was presented to the public.

Likely to feature the impressive 1.6-litre turbocharged MINI John Cooper Works power train, the MINI Coupé Concept is designed to be the most dynamic and agile MINI ever built. Strictly a two-seater, the low roof line, compact dimensions, perfect axle load distribution and lightweight construction are all trademarks of a genuine sports car.

Details of the second model have not yet been announced.

The two new models will join the existing Hatch, Clubman and Convertibles on the production line at Plant Oxford, where all derivatives are produced seamlessly just-in-time and just-in-sequence.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said: “The production of the two new MINI models is very good news for Oxford, and for the UK car industry. It is a demonstration of BMW’s long term commitment to the UK as it celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

“British drivers have had a long love affair with the MINI and I’m sure that this will continue for many years to come.”

Dr. Juergen Hedrich, Managing Director of MINI Plant Oxford, said: “The fact that Plant Oxford will be building these exciting new models shows the high level of flexibility of the plant and its associates. The MINI family has a bright future.

The Mini E is a project to demonstrate the possibilities of creating and selling a new environmentally friendly vehicle. The Mini brand has been thriving lately and even in its 50 years it still has a knack for getting people around. Has it been that long you may ask… Yes, Mini, as you may remember made its debut as that small little capsule looking car dubbed the Mini Cooper about 50 years ago. Still a big hit in the states, BMW has taken it to a new level with introducing the zero emissions Mini E and now the all new “Always Open” Mini Cabrio.

View the World Premier and Milestone in Detroit video below after the jump…