Designer of the “original” new MINI and friend of MINI2, Frank Stephenson, appears to have landed himself another dream job in the world of car design.
While some may feel they’ve achieved enough after penning such impressive car designs such as the Maserati MC12, Ferrari F430, and of course the new MINI, Frank Stephenson is rather looking forward to having “serious fun” as Director of Design at Alfa Romeo, who aren’t exactly known for pushing out ugly tin boxes as it is! Not a bad CV for a man born in the same year as the original “Classic Mini”.
While at Fiat, Stephenson oversaw the creation of the forthcoming Cinquecento, the Lancia Delta HPE concept and headed up the development of the Fiat Punto and Bravo models.
It will certainly be interesting for us to see what Alfa come up with under his charge.
Children of the 70s and 80s may come over all fuzzy while watching these rather offbeat commercials for the “Other MINI” (that’s MINI Clubman to you or I) which appeared on Google Video last week (while were were buried in site recoding work, sorry!).
You can analyse these all day, but it may be safer to NOT delve into the minds of the creative team as it could be a strange, faraway place indeed. The message is certainly getting around though, and that, at the end of the day, is what it’s all about.
It may not be as literally as cool as the SMEG MINI Fridge, but issue number 53 of Visionaire, entitled “Sound”, could well be one of the most exclusive collectables featuring the MINI we’ve seen.
Due to go on sale in November 2007, with a retail price of $250 (although amazon.com have it listed with almost $100 off) Visionaire #53 “Sound” features an acrylic dome case, five 12-inch vinyl picture-disc records, 2 CDs, and (for MINI nuts this is the best part) a Mini Clubman “Vinyl Killer” record player. Visionaire #53 includes contributions by David Byrne, Michael Stipe, Yoko Ono, Courtney Love, Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang, and Doug Aitken.
We’ve no idea of the demand for this publication usually, but it has a serious following in the “World of the Cool”, and is limited to a run of 4,000.
MINI Middle East film festival 2007 is the follow to to the successful 2006 event of the same name, designed to encourage MINI and film enthusiasts from the Middle East to get creative with their cameras. A short film competition aimed at encouraging and developing the blossoming regional film community, the MINI Film Festival 2007 will open for submissions from 7th June, and entries will close 1st November 2007.
Commenting on last year’s results, Raymond Gedeon, Brand Manager for MINI, BMW Group Middle East said: “We received 55 high-calibre entries last year, from filmmakers across the entire Middle East region including Iran, India, and Pakistan. We even received international entries from the USA and Denmark. The MINI Film Festival 2007 is another opportunity for talented people to really think laterally, creatively, and innovatively to come up with some exceptional views of life in the Middle East to share with the world.”
Whenever someone posts up their rolling road results on MINI2, you can almost guarantee an ensuing debate about dyno graphs, drivetrain loss, airflow, temperature, humidity and just about anything else that can affect the outcome and interpretation of such tests. The conclusion generally being that they’re a decent measure of before and after modification power, or for a bit of fun and one upmanship, but not much beyond that.
With that in mind it was interesting to read that Stockholm based Rototest have collated figures from more than 550 engine tests performed using their own unique dynamometer which bolts directly onto the wheel hub in a handy to use web format. And at the same time drawn the conclusion that the average vehicle only achieves around 90% of it’s stated output.
However, according to Rototest (and of interest to us), manufacturers providing more power than their official claims include Mazda, VW, Skoda and MINI. While three of the top five models had forced induction engines.
The Globe and Mail filed a report last week claiming BMW are considering bringing the MINI Cooper D to Canada.
The revelation is mentioned purely as an aside in an article focusing on senior auto industry executives’ desire for the federal government to establish a national fuel standard to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve standards in the industry in general.
The important quote reads:
“We need a clean diesel fuel in Canada,” said Lindsay Duffield, president of BMW Canada Inc., whose company will start selling diesel vehicles in Canada next year and is considering bringing in a diesel version of its Mini that now sells in Europe.
Whether or not this came from the horses mouth, or is pure speculation on the part of the Globe of Mail is left to us to decide. But it would be a good move for them to do so. And while they’re at it, why not ship it South of the border too, we’re sure it’s wanted.
It may not quite be the biggest, but it’s got to be one of the highest MINI meetings in the World!
The fifth annual MINIsOnTop takes place Today (June 16th), when around 250 MINIs and their 500 occupants will voyage over 6,000 feet above sea level to the top of Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
Being on the other side of the pond this isn’t an event we’ve managed to haul ourselves to as yet, but the photographs are always incredible, and the feedback (not the mention build up) are always brimming over with enthusiasm. To cap it all off, they even find time to raise money for good causes.
MINIsOnTop is certainly one of the more adventurous and high spirited MINI meetings. For more details, see the MINIsOnTop website, the MINI2 Discussion, and for some eye candy, check out the 2006 MINIs on Top Flickr Group.
MINI Japan are celebrating the Grand Opening of their latest showroom in Hiroshima Today.
MINI Hiroshima is apparently a sight to behold, has room to display a total of ten cars inside the showroom, split evenly between new MINIs and “MINI NEXT”, the MINI Japan approved used scheme. There is even a MINI VIP lounge on the 2nd floor for customers to relax in while waiting for their MINI to be serviced or pampered at the new on-site service centre with five service bays.
The official press release makes much noise about the design of the showroom being as fresh as dynamic as the staff (with an average age of just 25, if our translation is even remotely accurate), and we would love to show it to you. Unfortunately no images of the showroom could be found, so until any photos materialise, we’ll just have to picture it in our minds. And it’s beautiful. You never know, they may even appear on the official MINI Hiroshima site.
We’ve not seen transatlantic tensions like this since the Boston Tea Party, but when pride, not to mention the not insignificant matter of a World Record is at stake, it’s understandable.
This post on MINI2 started things in motion, and on March 28th this year a group of British MINI (and Mini) enthusiasts claimed a new Guinness World Record for most Minis/MINIs in a row. Well, despite having no official from the good book, sorry Guinness book present, a group of American MINI enthusiasts thought they could go bigger and better, and on 11th June we reported on MINI2 they had achieved their goal.
Well, in the best tradition of Dunkirk Spirit (or something like that), and not to be outdone, plans are now afoot for the plucky Brits to grab back their sovereignty, sorry, record from the the colonies. We were unable to find a representative of the foreign office prepared to comment on these slightly unnerving International tensions, but you have to wonder, will this madness ever cease?!
March 2007 was MINI UKs best selling month since launch in 2001, with 7,869 new cars hitting the streets.
To follow this, April and May of 2007 have been the busiest April and May since sales of the new MINI began, with MINI returning impressive figures of of 3,729 and 3,776 new vehicle registrations respectively.
For those unaware of the UK registration, those figures may seem a little odd, however this can be explained by March being one of two annual “new plate” registration changes, March 2007 seeing the introduction of the “07″ plate. This accounts for twice-yearly peaks in March and September in UK vehicle sales.
Sales of used MINIs under MINI UK’s official MINI Cherished scheme are also remaining strong, with 764 orders taken for used MINIs over the weekend of June 2nd-3rd alone.
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