This car doesn’t officially exist.

During a recent conversation with a MINI representative I asked if they could tell me anything at all about the forthcoming MINI Cooper S Convertible. I was politely reminded it hasn’t been confirmed yet! So, when I received a hot tip that something was going on in central London, myself and colleague Lewis Pobjoy just had to take the chance, and embark on what was most likely to prove a complete wild goose chase!

As luck would have it, we struck gold. There, right outside one of the tube stations we took in during our “MINI Hunt of London” was a beautiful MINI Cooper S Convertible,
and what’s more, in a new colour, we believe will be called Cool Blue, with a lovely Blue and Black leather interior, and a blue canvas hood. It was also shod with the as yet unreleased R91 5 spoke alloy wheels! The hood was folded back, and the car was creating quite a stir, much to the apparent annoyance of the rather large security team and various technicianson site.

After chatting with a rather nice (but big) man who kindly told us to put all cameras away (well, who wouldn’t try their luck at once), we gathered that the car, in full production spec, was being used to film a commercial for MINI. We couldn’t get anymore information than that, but we were a few feet away from a production spec car, that, officially, doesn’t exist yet!

Between them, the crew and security team were doing an extremely good job of crowding out the MINI, making any attempt to take a photo at that stage useless. At this point the car was completely uncovered and undisguised meaning we were able to take a good look all around. The first thing to comment on is the colour.

Cool Blue, it’s a pearlescent colour, which is mostly a dark slightly purplish blue, with a grey pearl “low light”. The effect of this colour in the grey January light of central London was quite dramatic, and it looked very deep and “interesting”. Personally I was extremely impressed. Very nice.

As far as we could tel the car was a complete ‘05 spec MINI Cooper S convertible. The interior dials had the new chrome surrounds (shown exclusively on MINI2) as well as the new three piece dashboard. From the rear we could also take a peek into the opened boot area, which is almost exactly the same as the hard top, only it’s “cut off” at the
top, where the parcel shelf would usually be. The hood lookedvery tidy when retracted. We did not see them close the roof at any stage, despite the threat of rain from above.

We did manage to get some photos later on in the day, from a distance as the car rolled out to another location for filming. The second photo reveals we were spotted again at this point! Byt this time they had applied a green plastic “shield” to the front and back of the car. For what it’s worth, as we’ve maintained, the Cooper S front and rear bumper where unchanged in appearance from the current model. Click either picture for an enlarged view.

A lot of time had previously been spent trying to get a closer look at the car, and trying to grill various technicians, crew, and just about anyone in the vicinity about the car,
why it was here, where it was going. But, alas, to no avail, we found everyone to be very tight lipped, and understandably so! For almost the entire time the car was crowded out or
partially hidden by various crew members and security staff, it was a tough job getting a shot. So we decided to camp on a nearby wall while waiting for the car to drive off (that’s where we got the above shots from). Is there a better way to spend a Saturday?

While we sat there, freezing cold and beginning to doubt our own sanity, Lewis decided to take another walk around, scope out the area, see what was going on. As he rounded the
corner he found the Cooper S Convertible was almost completely clear, the security team had piled into a transit van, and the police escorts who had been on the scene the entire time also seemed preoccupied. Seeing his moment, Lewis pulled out his camera and started flashing away. Which was a great thing, but also a bitter sweet success as the flashes quickly alerted the security team, two of whom shot across to Lewis and started acting extremely unhappy, telling him he shouldn’t be there, and shouldn’t be taking photos. Oh well, at least he had time to capture the following (click to enlarge).

So, while you are looking at the above, exclusive MINI Cooper S Convertible photograph. Please remind yourself that this car doesn’t really, officially speaking, exist yet.