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On Sunday 18th July I had the good fortune to join Surrey New MINI on their organised run to see the MINI racing at Castle Combe racetrack.  As happened last year, local MINI dealer Wellsway MINI really rolled out the red carpet and arranged for a huge convoy to rendezvous in Bath before proceeding to the track.

The fun didn’t end when we reached the track.  Wellsway had arranged for a dedicated MINI parking area and VIP hospitality throughout the day.  To top everything off, Modern MINI magazine were also on hand to cover the whole day in depth.

As you would expect from the MINI Sevens and MINI Challenge series, the racing was intense, competitive and very enjoyable.  Plus we had the chance to cheer on Andrey Magily and the Lohen ‘Polar Bear’ MINI in the Dunlop Sport Maxx races.  Watch out for highlights on Motors TV beginning August 7th at 1800.

Rogan Thompson has posted a fantastic gallery of photos of the races here.
There is a an additional gallery of our day’s adventures here.

We first became aware of MINI’s intended return to rallying back in February.  Well, Autosport.com has news of an impending announcement and more details about the car!  Based on the new AWD Countryman platform, the first rally MINI for forty years has been developed by Prodrive at their Banbury base and will be formally launched in Rome at Rally d’Italia-Sardegna in May next season but several sources are strongly hinting that we will catch our first glimpse of the car in the next few days.

Prodrive has remained tight-lipped, denying that it has anything planned.  The British preparation firm has yet to even admit to any kind of agreement with MINI.  Norwegian driver Mads Ostberg is being tipped to do some of the early development driving – and to take one of the factory seats in next year’s WRC programme.  Ostberg is a long-standing customer of Prodrive and is expected to run a MINI-based team in next year’s WRC as well as driving an official car.  Ostberg has resisted the opportunity to drive any other cars in the WRC or Intercontinental Rally Challenge this season.

You can read the full Autosport.com article here.

Recently, I had the good fortune to be able to participate in the traditional Heritage Run.  Each year, a small selection of MINI’s of all ages travel in convoy to the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon for the yearly MINI Festival.  As always, the convoy is headed up by 621 AOK; the very first MINI ever built.  This isn’t the first time I’ve attended the fantastic MINI Festival, but never before have I been one of the fortunate few to have their MINI accepted onto the prestigious Heritage Run.

This year the Heritage Run departed from MINI Plant Oxford.  Once known as Cowley, this plant was where the MINI was developed and built by Sir Alec Issigonis back in 1959.  To arrive early, and be able to park my MINI next to the world’s most famous MINI, was perhaps the highlight of the day.  Thanks to MiniWorld editor Monty Watkins I now have a photo of myself stood between both MINI’s!  Being able to have a photo taken beside 621 AOK, as Sir Alec himself had on numerous occasions, has enabled me to tick-off one of my list of lifetime ambitions!  I’m not sure the astronaut thing will ever happen…

As you would expect, MINI rolled out the red carpet for us.  The museum was opened for us to explore, photo calls were arranged and we were waved off by a suitably important VIP!  The hour-long trip through the countryside to the festival came with only one instruction; “Don’t overtake AOK!”  Upon arrival at Gaydon were were driven into the paddock one-by-one for a brief interview and then all the Heritage Run cars were parked up outside the front of the museum for the duration of the day in pride-of-place.

You can see a gallery of photos here.

The latest generation of MINI’s have been officially unveiled this week.  As you would expect from MINI, the exterior changes are minimal; when such an iconic design has been so successful for decades you don’t change anything that doesn’t need changing.  However, there is still plenty here for us to report on.

The Hatch, Convertible and Clubman have all been updated with the most obvious external change being new lower front bumpers.  As we have previously reported, these have been changed to incorporate functional air-intakes to cool the front brakes.  There are also redesigned fog lamps and a larger deformation zone will improve pedestrian protection.  The familiar MINI headlights now include an optional feature that will follow the angle of the steering wheel meaning that MINI will now literally be able to see around coners!  The rear lights are now LED and will visibly pulse if braking is applied heavily.

The interior of the latest MINI’s has also been redesigned and silver plastic has been replaced by matte black.  There are also additional upholstery and fascia options plus new interior colour lines available to trim the doors.  The integrated MINI Connect system will be available as an optional extra; integrating bluetooth, satnav, Google and Apple iPhone functionality  into the redesigned centre console.

As previously explained, both the Cooper and Cooper S will be getting new engines.  The Cooper will now have map-regulated oil pump which will help reduce fuel consumption by an average 3%.  Power will rise to 122bhp.  The Cooper S will retain the same level of fuel consumption and CO2 levels as the current model, but thanks to the new fully variable valve train power will rise to a meaty 182bhp.  These changes will also be incorporated into the next generation high-performance JCW models.

MotoringFile has an in-depth article on the new MINI’s here.

We’ve already covered the engine and exterior design changes of next year’s range of MINI’s.  Now MotoringFile is able to provide us with a first look at the substantial changes to the MINI’s interior that will arrive with 2011’s new models.

MINI will be changing from shiny silver plastics to high-grade matte black materials.  However, the big change is the totally redesigned satnav system. The new navigation system will be hard drive based, feature MINI Connect and will be much, much faster.

You can read the original MotoringFile article here.

Yesterday saw one of the biggest regular event on the MINI calendar; the MINI Cooper Day at Beaulieu.  Organised by the MINI Cooper Register, this amazing event has taken place every year for twenty-four years. Having attended for the last six years I can testify to the fact that the amount of Classic and New MINI’s on display continues to increase year-on-year.  The show is now twice the size it was when I first visited Beaulieu in 2005; a healthy sign for a car entering it’s fifty-first year of production.

One of the best aspects of this show is the sheer amount of space available at Beaulieu.  The motor museum is surrounded by acres of lush countryside and every time you think this event will run out of space they just open another field!

Along with several other members of South Coast New MINI, I headed down early to help erect our stand.  The benefit of having so much space available meant you could have parked all 25 of our cars on our stand and still had space to stage a small football tournament.  Two other excellent New MINI clubs, with whom SCNM share many members, helped to expand the inaugural New MINI area of the show.  TotalMINI and Surry New MINI are both stuffed full of dedicated and fun members old and new and if you’re new to the MINI scene there is no better way of beginning your journey than to check out all three clubs.  Join a club and you realise there are thousands just as crazy as you are!

Of course, MINI Cooper Day began as a Classic MINI event.  As such, the amount of classics on display is amazing.  When you stand and look across the sea of happy little cars it seems as if every Classic MINI in the country is assembled in one place.  As always, there is also a small collection of MINI celebrities on hand reminiscing about the history of the biggest little car in the world.  As well as rally legend Paddy Hopkirk and BMC team manager Stuart Turner, we were also joined by TV chef James Martin.

You can enjoy a gallery of photos here.

Dedicated readers may remember our past coverage of the regular summer Poole Quay events.  Last May, July and August I accompanied other SCNM members to Dorset and this past Friday I happily repeated the experience. As part of the regular ‘Quay for my Car’ program, hundreds of MINI’s are regularly welcomed into this bustling tourist area for a relaxed early-evening static show.

You can check out a gallery of photos from Friday’s event here.

Those ever-vigilant people over at Auto Express have managed to snap a few photos of the new facelifted 2011 MINI.  Most of the changes you can see in the photos are cosmetic, but the engines will be getting a substantial makeover as well.

The Cooper S lower bumper has been altered and now incorporates functional brake ducts finished in chrome.  The revised rear bumper will incorporate a similar arrangement.  New lighter 17″ S-lite wheels will also come as standard on the Cooper S.

Both the Cooper and Cooper S will be getting new engines.  The Cooper will now have map-regulated oil pump which will help reduce fuel consumption by an average 3%.  Power will rise to 122bhp.  The Cooper S will retain the same level of fuel consumption and CO2 levels as the current model, but thanks to the new fully variable valve train power will rise to a meaty 182bhp.  These changes will also be incorporated into the 2011 JCW model.

You can see more photos from Auto Express here.
MotoringFile has more technical information here.

Behold the MINI Countryman; a MINI with four doors and with four wheel drive!  This is a real change from previous MINI models and, despite the name, there isn’t a similar model from MINI history with which to compare it.  MINI are promoting the new MINI Countryman along the lines of a ‘mini’ SUV; freedom, versatility, and fun.

The MINI Countryman will initially be offered in all MINI model specifications and the MINI Cooper D Countryman and MINI Cooper S Countryman will also have the option of an all wheel drive system branded ALL4.  The ALL4 all wheel drive system features an electrohydraulic differential positioned directly on the final drive, which varies the distribution from front to rear in an infinite process. Under regular driving conditions up to 50 percent of the engine’s power is directed to the rear wheels, while under more “extreme conditions” this can increase all the way to 100 percent rear wheel drive, which is certainly something never seen before on a production model MINI of any variety.

Luggage capacity is 350 litres as standard, which is 90 more than the Clubman and more than double that of the standard MINI. The rear seats move forward and back individually for the four seat model or in a 60:40 split on the five seat version. The backrests can also be tilted forward to increase capacity, for the three seat bench this is in a 40:20:40 split. With seats tilted forward, capacity increases to 440 litres. The maximum stated luggage capacity is 1,170 litres.  The MINI Countryman comes equipped with front, side and curtain airbags, inertia reel seat belts all round, and ISOFIX child seat fastenings.

The MINI Cooper S Countryman with ALL4 will feature runflat tyres as standard, a technology which MINI have recently appeared to be moving away from, and they will remain optional across the rest of the range.  The MINI Countryman will be offered in a range of eleven colour options, with customers of the Cooper Countryman, Cooper D Countryman and Cooper S Countryman having the ability to select a black or white contrasting roof.  All petrol variants feature a 1.6 litre (1,598 cc) four-cylinder petrol engine with twin-scroll turbocharger, direct fuel injection and fully variable valve management based on the BMW Group’s VALVETRONIC technology.

The MINI Countryman is obviously the largest vehicle produced under the MINI banner in the fifty-one year history of the brand.  Comparing the Countryman to the original 1959 Austin and Morris models produces a particularly startling comparison!  However, it’s important to realise the Countryman is part of MINI’s drive to push the marque into unexplored sectors of the automobile market.  The Countryman may seem large when parked next to a Classic MINI, but park it beside any one of the dozens of  AWD family vehicles available and it becomes obvious that 4X4’s have just become MINI!

Find out more about the MINI Countryman here.

This past weekend I attended the annual London to Brighton MINI Run.  Organised by the LSMOC, this event began as a simple run down to Brighton for a mere six MINI’s and has since developed into one of the biggest events of the year.  Roughly 2200 MINI’s of all ages attend the run with many more following along unofficially.

The gates at Crystal Palace open to campers on Saturday afternoon, although on this occasion I decided to travel up to the event on the Sunday morning.  Leaving Basingstoke at 0530, we arrived at the departure-point at about 0700.  Although the run was due to begin at 0830, MINI’s didn’t begin streaming out into the morning traffic until 0900.  This year there seemed to be real difficulties in getting us out of Crystal Palace.  I’m not sure what caused these excessive delays, but it’s possibly as a result of the Chelsea team’s open-top bus parade through south-west London taking place at the same time.

Finally leaving Crystal Palace at about 1150, we hit the road and arrived on Brighton seafront at about 1400.  Despite the weather now starting to turn against us (something that normally happens on the L2B!) we were able to grab dozens of photos of some fantastic MINI’s and meet up with several friends.  A special mention must go out at this point to our new friend Nazri San; keeping the MINI flag flying in the State of Brunei!

There is a gallery of photos from London here.
There is a gallery of photos from Brighton here.