Mini Mini Mini

Everybody knows that the 1969 Michael Caine Italian Job ended with the gang attempting to recover the gold from the end of the bus whilst it was hanging over the edge of the cliff. Big William was the driver but who gets the blame for stacking the gold in one neat pile in the first place? Charlie? Of course, if Big W wasn’t driving too fast the accident wouldn’t have happened in the first place! The last words in the film, from Michael Caine, were “Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea!”

According to The Daily Telegraph the Royal Society of Chemistry has announced a competition to get peoples’ ideas of what that idea was.

Criminal or otherwise, masterminds must base their solutions on rigorously scientific principles – the contest has been set by the Royal Society of Chemistry after all – and may not involve a helicopter.

They must assume that 30 minutes after Croker’s declaration the bus will plunge down the mountain. Mathematical calculations, a description of at least 150 words and a diagram must be included.

The prize for the competition is a three night stay in Turin next year, the 40th anniversay of the film.

I rather like this idea from Dr Lewis Dartnell, astrobiologist at University College London. He said

They could use superconducting magnets to haul the gold to their side of the bus. Unfortunately gold is not a magnetic metal in its natural state and so would have to be vapourised to a blindingly hot cloud of plasma which would then be charged and then pulled by the magnets towards the waiting heisters.Of course, a cloud of superheated metal rushing through the bus would pose one or two problems of its own, but I’m sure Charlie Croker would have an idea for this too.

My problem with this is two-fold:

1. Was the technology for super-conducting magnets around in 1969?
2. How the hell are they going to get hold of them in the mountains?

Entries must be received by Jan 1 and can be sent by email to edwardsj@rsc.org or by post to “Cliffhanger solution”, Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J OBA.

As part of celebrations of the MINI’s 50th anniversary (culminating in MINI United) the company has commissioned their design team to produce a stunning calendar for next year.  Each page depicts a specially-created painting evoking both the past and future of the MINI brand.

A real view of the future, or just the pipe-dream of a MINI designer?  Time will tell…

A great idea, reimagined for a new century.

The MINI is still carving up the track even after all these years.

A glimpse of the 100th Anniversary MINI..?

You can download the complete Calendar here.

Pat Moss-Carlsson, one of the true trail-blazers for women in sport, has died at the age of seventy-seven.  From 1956, for over twenty years, she competed alongside the men and demonstrated time and again that, where speed and stamina counted, a woman driver could succeed against the men. Certainly to the male drivers of that golden period, she was a genuine rival.  Just before she joined her soon-to-be husband Eric Carlsson at Saab in 1964, she drove a MINI Cooper S to duel victories in the Tulip and German rallies.

In 1964 the two-stroke Saab was past its zenith but you would never have known it to see Mr and Mrs Carlsson driving them.  She rarely failed to finish and was rarely placed outside the top ten.  In four years with Saab, she was third on the Acropolis, and fourth on both the Liège-Sofia-Liège and RAC Rally, all in 1964, third on the savage Monte Carlo of 1965, and third on the Czech Rally of 1967 in the new Saab 96 V4.

In 1969 she took a Fulvia to sixth overall on the Monte Carlo and drove in such famous road races as the Targa Florio.  The birth of her daughter then rather distracted her from rallying and, though she made the occasional appearance, she had effectively retired at the start of the 1970s. Moss wrote two books: The Story so Far (1967), a memoir, and (with her husband) The Art and Technique of Driving (1965).

In the 1980s Moss’s interest in showjumping and horses ousted any thought of rally cars in the Moss-Carlsson homestead. But to the rally world Pat Moss will remain an icon indicating that skill, endurance and determination are the true measures of a rally driver’s ability.

Moss is survived by her husband, Erik Carlsson, and her daughter, Suzy.

Read the full Times obituary here.

For a while now this site (and others) has been buzzing with speculation about an electric MINI.  Legislation in the US means all manufacturers who want to sell cars in that massive market will need to be able to produce a zero-emissions vehicle.  The BMW Group made the intelligent decision to use the MINI division as a test-bed for this new technology.  This first-generation MINI E is not the finished article, indeed less than 500 will be made, but this is an important first step for an exciting new technology.

The MINI E will sport some impressive performance numbers along with the (expected) incredible efficiency. Here’s the run-down:

• 204bhp / 150kw of power
• 162ft lbs (220nm) of torque
• 155 miles (250km) range
• 95mph (152km/h) top speed
• 2.5 hours to charge
• 0-62mph in 8.5sec.
• Energy consumption around 4.4 miles/kWh.
• Just under 1.5 tonne (3230lbs) in weight
• 2 seats, back seats taken up by lithium-ion batteries

The MINI E will come standard with Interchange Yellow mirrors interior trim along with a number of special bits and pieces meant to distinguish this rarest of all production MINIs. The car will be manufactured in Cowley and then shipped to Germany where the propulsion system will then be fitted.

The MINI E will debut at the LA Motor Show in November and be released to 490 hand-picked customers in LA, NYC and possibly London later in 2009.

So, with a little over 24 hours since I decided to move server, it’s done - at least for this domain!

There will be a few kinks until I can get them all ironed out, in the meantime we return you to your scheduled programming!

Many thanks for your patience!

According to Motoring File, Mini USA is recalling the 2009 John Cooper Works MINIs.

The suggestion seems to be that the brakes are either not up to the job, the wrong size or not what the original specification said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in its recalls summary pointed out that the affected vehicles have the 16-inch diameter, not 17-inch, front brake discs. “Depending on traffic and road conditions, as well as a driver’s reactions, reduced brake performance could increase the risk of a crash,” NHTSA said.

Is it me or does this not make sense? Surely the last sentence is true whether the brakes are the wrong size or not?

Anyway, if you are the lucky one in North America with one of these vehicles then a quick trip to your dealer might be a good idea.

If you were wandering round Miniworld’s Castle Combe Action Day like I was a couple of weeks ago then you will have had a hard time trying to decide on all those nice shiny bits you want for your Mini.  You know, the standard fare - mirrors, fog lamps, wheels, bumpers and the like - all available at this wonderful little show you would be forgiven for missing two guys standing behind a table with not too many products on display.

Of course, you may have been distracted by the lady selling sweeties - seemingly one of the most popular stands all day!  Anyway, the two guys I am referring to were the nice men from DSN Classics Ltd.  Quite literally, their stand was no more than a folding pasting table with a table cloth over it and a couple of bits on the table.

If you had gone up to that table and handled the items on display you would have seen their new alloy top engine steady (left) and towing eye.  Well, I did go up to the table and although I was too scared to talk to them I did pick up the engine steady.  And what a gorgeous little item it is too.  The standard unit (sits on the driver’s side of the engine and connects the engine to the bulkhead) is a solid, heavy, cast item that just does its job.

For those people that are into “poshing up” their engine bay with the alloy rocker cover, radiator, blue hoses and chrome clutch covers, you really need one of these.  Very light (suitable for racing or not I don’t know) and a good anodising job mean that it will look fab replacing that grotty, rusty, oily grimy standard unit.

Available in Red, Blue (pictured) and alloy silver, the bar costs just £17.01 + VAT (and P+P presumably) and is available on the DSN Classics website.

You will have no doubt seen pictures in the motoring press of the MINI crossover concept.

Whilst the low quality images shown generally around the web don’t do the vehicle any justice at all, most comments I have seen suggest that the front of the new vehicle is not gaining widespread approval.

It must be said however that the original MINI concept had a very similar front and that never made it to market, giving instead the much sleeker and classic looking front that we have grown to at least accept, if not love.

The big thing to know about the Crossover concept is that it is a four wheel drive vehicle.  The exact specifications (according to Autoblog aren’t fully known yet but it is likely to be about 6 inches wider and taller than the current Clubman model.  With these dimensions in mind and the expectation that the naturally aspirated and turbo charged 1.6 litre from the current Cooper range are likely to make an appearance I can’t see this vehicle competing with the likes of the Freelanders and RAV4s of this world.

Being of BMW origin however, it should be perfectly capable of towing a small to medium sized caravan across the campsite and carrying the passengers with just a little more space and comfort that the standard vehicles.

Lots of press style photos are available on the autoblog gallery, but this one caught my eye. The door arrangement for the rear entry is good, it means that the door can be fully opened in a restricted space.

Thankfully BMW have decided to abandon that stupid suicide door from the Clubman too. Unfortunately though the designer(s) seem to think it’s a good idea to create two different rear doors. Why? With the amount of re-design required to create the vehicle in the first place, could they not have either put two standard or two “slidey” rear doors in rather than one of each? Perhaps it’s just me preferring symmetry. As this is still the concept, not due until 2010 this might all change.

I know it’s probably a minor styling thing, but why is the driver’s seat a different colour?

There’s a huge (and I mean HUGE!) press release for those that are interested available on the Autoblog write-up.

I’ve added a poll on the right, please vote and let us know what you think by leaving a comment too!

Saturday 27th September sees the legendary Castle Combe Circuit once again host the annual MiniWorld Action Day.

As members of the Portsmouth and Southampton Mini Owners Club both Collin and myself will be there, along with our MINI’s.  If you’re going, feel free to stop by the club’s stand.

Our ’sister’ club South Coast New MINI will also be there with another very impressive collection of MINI’s.

As Collin revealed a little while ago, work is underway on a small number of electric MINI’s.  Due to be unveiled at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November, these cars have now been spotted undergoing testing on the roads around BMW’s Munich base by Car Magazine.

By 2012, any company wanting to sell cars in California must be able to offer a zero-emission vehicle.  Only 500 will be built with only 490 being leased to selected members of the public; the remainder will be used for exhibition and publicity work.  The electric MINI’s will have a distinctive paint-job consisting of a silver body with a yellow roof.

Commenting on the Mini project, BMW boss Norbert Reithofer said: “This step will allow the BMW Group to gain an initial knowledge of how mobility can be achieved efficiently using electrically powered vehicles.  Our task here is to combine the ultimate driving experience with an efficient electrified drive with practically no emissions.”

Click here for the complete Car Magazine article.