Supercharged, Leather, Pano Roof on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Honda engines and giant killing in the classic Mini Cooper

Electric Federal has taken a fresh look back at the enduring legacy of original Mini with a video interview with Heritage Garage's Graham Reid, one of the foremost experts on classic Minis. As Electric Federal points out, it's important to remember that the Mini did not start out as a performance car. It was built in response to the Suez Canal crisis of the mid-50s, which had a similar effect on British gas prices as OPEC did on American prices in the 1970s - rationing and rapid price jumps.
Through the years, Minis have grown from their budget roots to become seriously competent performance machines. As Reid says, a 150-horsepower Mini on the right track should have no problem outpacing a contemporary Porsche 911.
For some time now, classic Mini owners have been dropping Honda engines under the tiny hoods of their classics. With up to 250 horsepower pulling a car that tips the scales at barely 1,200 pounds, the upgraded Mini is "a real sleeper," Reid says. Interestingly, Reid doesn't mention another increasingly common swap in the Mini community - Suzuki Hayabusa-powered Coopers.

Mini interns turn Paceman into Adventure pickup

With coupes and convertibles, hatchbacks and crossovers, Mini has done just about every bodystyle we could think of, and then a few more as concepts. But it hasn't done a pickup. At least it hadn't until now.
What we have here is a Mini Paceman (that, of course, being the coupe version of the Countryman) which has been transformed into a pickup by a group of BMW interns. It's called the Mini Paceman Adventure, and it's currently on display at the Mini dealership in Munich. According to BimmerToday.de, the project involved not only chopping the roof and installing a makeshift pickup bed, but also reinforcing the body, reforming the underbody and B-pillar, fitting off-road tires (including a spare fitted to a roof rack) and a handful of other minor modifications.
The photos are a little sketchy (although the dealership tells us a better set will be available soon), but from what we can see, it looks like a pretty solid project - one that makes us wonder if the apprentices' bosses might be paying attention. Because next to the Mini Coupe with its oddball backwards-hat roof treatment, this one-off looks as sensible as you'd expect from a group of German interns.

2020 Mini Cooper SE First Drive | Little range, big fun

The all-electric Mini Cooper has been a long time coming. The company’s first step toward electrics began in 2008 with the experimental Mini E, a car that used a powertrain co-developed with an outside company and that had some major compromises. It didn't have a back seat, there was even less cargo space than a regular Mini and it wasnÂ’t available to purchase, being offered in limited numbers for a short lease. More than a decade later, the 2020 Mini Cooper SE is available for purchase or lease to anyone, and offers the complete Mini experience, with in-house BMW-Mini technology and fewer compromises. ThatÂ’s also how Mini is marketing the Cooper SE: The S in the name is there to tell you it's as much fun to toss around as the grin-inducing Cooper S. The blunted performance from extra weight and limited range might say otherwise, but from behind the wheel, this is a Mini worthy of its S, and not some fun-challenged economy-mobile. The powertrain uses the same electric motor youÂ’ll find in a BMW i3. It makes 181 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque, which is just 8 hp and 8 lb-ft less than the gas Cooper S. Weight is an issue for performance numbers, since the 3,153 lbs SE lugs around an extra 453 lbs compared with its gas sibling. That reduces its 0-60 mph time from 6.5 seconds to 6.9, and its top speed also drops to just 93 mph as a function of its single-speed transmission. But a half-second to 60 mph is less significant from behind the wheel. Simply put, the Mini Cooper SE feels sprightly. It has the electric motor trademark of instant throttle response, which is amplified by the more aggressive throttle setting in Sport mode. The other trademark is a big lump of torque, though not quite as much as the tire-torching Chevy Bolt EV or Hyundai Kona Electric. These characteristics make the Mini fun for squirting around town and for making passes on the highway. Power starts falling off if you keep your foot down, so on-ramps arenÂ’t as thrilling as the longer-legged gas Minis. Also impressive are the regenerative braking modes. The Cooper SE has a mild mode and an aggressive one, with the former feeling a bit like the engine braking in a manual-equipped gas car, and the heavy one making it easy to drive with one pedal. The extra weight doesnÂ’t hinder handling. In fact, there may be some incremental improvements, as the electric Mini has a 50/50 front/rear weight distribution, better than the front biased gas Minis.