| The whole section of the rear bench where your bum sits is just clipped into position. With a bit of force you can unclip it by pulling up on the front edge of it. If you have a release ring and cable it is on the left hand side as you look at it and should be obvious as there is nothing else under there. However not all MINI's have them. Both my Nov 2001 Cooper Works and Jan 2003 Cooper S have no release mechanism even though it's been in the manual since day one.
It was acceptable in the 80's | 
