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Mini Art Beat is a loud, driving social media billboard

Video billboards are nothing new, but a video on a moving car that's blaring music? Now that's something that will catch your attention - especially if you're driving alongside it in the streets of London.
That's the exact intent of Mini's new Art Beat, a Cooper Countryman turned marketing device that is custom-fitted with a staggering 48,000 LEDs. On its nightly drives through the city, the compact crossover showcases brightly colored videos, graphics and animations contributed by people around the world via social media. The Mini Space Blog describes the Art Beat as the "most vibrant and customizable NOT NORMAL ride you'll ever lay eyes on."

Mini fesses up to Countryman clutch issue, plans fix

Aside from the general lack of snow in the Midwest earlier this year that hampered our ability to properly play with our Blizzak-equipped Mini Contryman long-term test vehicle, the biggest problem we had with this crossover during the year we spent with it was the transmission. On four different monthly updates (September, October, November and June), all in the hands of different Autoblog editors, the Countryman's clutch was called out for being too finicky, leading to many stall outs. Apparently, we weren't alone in our assessment of the Countryman's clutch woes.
According to MotoringFile, Mini has updated the Countryman with a different clutch material and improved software. This much-needed change is being implemented starting this month, but Mini hasn't said what it is doing about existing 2011 and 2012 Countryman models that are afflicted with this problem.
Head over to MotoringFile to see the full official statement from Mini USA on this issue.

How Mini shacked up with John Cooper

The late Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, Alec Issignonis to his Internet friends, designed a car that was sold as the Morris Mini-Minor, the Austin Seven and later the Austin Mini. Go to the Mini USA website and check out the models, though, and every one of them is called a Cooper of some sort, e.g., Mini Cooper Paceman or Mini Cooper S Roadster. So who is Cooper?
It's probably obvious that it's the same Cooper we get in "John Cooper Works," those JCW Minis that always make up the top of the line. But many probably don't know that that John Cooper, founder of John Cooper Cars, is the same man who accidentally got the motorsports world to switch to rear-engined race cars and the same Formula One constructor who won two titles in 1959 and 1960 and who fielded drivers like Bruce McLaren and Stirling Moss.
On its way to driving the Mini John Cooper Works GP II, XCAR goes back to the beginning to find out when Alec met John, and how the first Mini Cooper came out in 1961, two years after the first Mini. You can watch the story and the car review in the video below.