I've never heard the name Cooper RS for it until now, but I read an article last fall about it. A credible source said that the Cooper S was going to be sent through BMW's M Division, which still did not mean they were going to sell a MINI placed above the Cooper S in the product line. I'm not sure how much more the guys at M would want to do with the car, especially with the price the Cooper S has (especially once you start adding options), but they were sure the minimum horsepower would be around 230.
i have heard of the following rumored cars but no "RS".
- Alpina 200hp version MCS (this has been the rumor for the past couple of years, and still non existent as a production car)
- John Cooper Works version MCS, package to be available to existing MCS for upgrade, or complete car if you are in the UK.
obviously there are other upgraded cars from Hartge and Hamann...
Ford escort mark 1 RS1800
Ford escort mark 1 RS2000
Ford escort mark 2 RS1800
Ford escort mark 2 RS2000
Ford escort mark 3 RS turbo
Ford escort mark 4 RS turbo
Ford fiesta RS turbo
Ford fiesta RS1800
Ford sierra RS cosworth
Ford sierra RS 500
Ford sierra sapphire RS cosworth
And finally we have the lastest edition
Ford Focus RS
Taking all this into account I dont think MINI will use the letters RS.
As far as I know (from what I can cobble together from what I've been 'told' over time).
Alpina MINI. Rumour from the word go. Was a non starter. Even the magazines printed a kind of 'retraction' by saying it was 'cancelled'. To be honest, I VERY much doubt that was more than a pipe dream.
'M' Division MINI. They wont do it. BUT I have been told that M division have been playing with the MINI, but that's a world away from BMW actually branding the MINI with the BMW 'M'.. er, brand. (Too many brands there, sorry).
John Cooper Works. Endorsed, official, and resold via MINI Dealers, warranty in tact. I have it on several good words that this is the extend of BMW 'official' tuning for the Cooper and S.
It seems that the popular opinion is that the RS is a fairy tale. Well, Christal from MINI of Sterling announced a few weeks ago that the RS *would* be comming out with ~200 HP through intake, chip, exhaust, etc... This made it sound suspiciously like JCW MCS to me, BUT she said that there might be some RS-only colors, so I dunno.
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