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MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 7:22 pm
by mab01uk
"MINI has completed its comeback season at the World Rally Championship and narrowly missed out on a podium finish at Wales Rally GB.
Success in the competition could have a baring on thousands of jobs in Oxfordshire.
It is seen as important both for the MINI brand, and Prodrive, the company in Banbury behind the rally team."

BBC News Video:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ox ... e-15740130

Tours at Prodrive now included the WRC MINI workshops. 8-)
http://www.prodrive.com/level3.html?id=811

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 7:35 pm
by Pete
MINI's 'comeback season' :?: Has MINI been successful before ? Must have missed that ! ;)

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:20 pm
by mab01uk
MINI Countryman, Wales Rally GB, 2011 WRC. Hafren
(Spectator videos taken by Mike - The Mini Forum)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNnDZIRh ... r_embedded

Prodrive Customer Rally MINI on stage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClSUe8GX ... r_embedded

Castle Combe Rally Day pictures of WRC MINI and GRX 310D
"Natalie got invited to take GRX 310D along side the new WRC - Pro Drive Works MINI as GRX 310D is the most used ex works Mini. She was also asked to do 3 laps of the feature stage at midday, little did we know we would have the WRC car behind us..... The organisers left a considerable amount of time for a gap on the track but obviously didnt quite give enough as on the last corner Nat suddenly had mirrors full of the the WRC monster. I was the passenger in 310 on the track and having been in the car before and poodled about I didnt know what it was capable of, but I was in awe whilst Nat was throwing the car into the corners in a mass of immense noise and excitement. As Natalie is Burnham Motor Clubs best lady and a regular Wiscombe Park class winner she is perfectly used to making minis dance and getting the best out of them.
We met the works team who are all so helpful and polite - even offered us a cup of tea! Nat was also asked if she would like to be part of the new cooper dvd which is coming out soon, hopefully they managed to get some footage of us going around the track. As a bonus we managed to get KRIS MEEKE into GRX 310D for a special interview talking about the differences in the two works minis - which he really seemed to enjoy."

Thanks for photos and rally day report to KMP (Mini Cooper Register) 8-)

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Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:45 pm
by Ronnie
Listening to the rally radio it was stated that the mechanic's had a proper mini in the service park up on big axle stands next to the works MINI.
Any idea's which car? :?

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:55 am
by mk1
I for one reckon its great news. If for no other reason than it means we have a bit of UK based interest in the WRC again.

However, I doubt that this competition success will have much of a bearing on sales as most of the people I see driving all derivatives of the BMW Min are 30 something Mums on the way to the Gym.

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:12 am
by DD50
Ahem ... I write as a 60-something, non-mum, non-gym attending bloke who bought his first Mini in 1967AD and who has owned over a dozen since including, most recently, a Mk1 Cooper which now figures in the Masters series (sadly no longer in my hands) and I bought a MINI Cooper S four weeks ago. I traded in a Subaru Impreza, Pro-drive tuned WRX for it ( a fantastic hooligan of a car :o ) and I have to tell you that I absolutely love the MINI - one of my all-time favourites.

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:26 am
by Pete
It's a great car ! Whenever I have one of my little snipes at the publicity dept blurb as above it's usually because they're using the heritage of the Mini again to sell it. No biggy really is it but it's not a bloody comeback, it's a debut ! (by a huge great 4x4 with about as much connection with the Mini as Shakin Stevens had with Elvis ! :lol: )

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:28 am
by cookie1071
"most of the people I see driving all derivatives of the BMW Min are 30 something Mums on the way to the Gym"

Does that make Surfbue63 the odd one out?! :lol:

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:37 am
by mk1
Don't get me wrong, I REALLY Have nothing against the BMW Mini at all, if you check back through my posts on the forum you will see that I have been consistent in my view since they came out.

I have driven a few different ones from standard coopers to a fully hooliganised Cooper S that my brother had for a year or so when the S first came out. They are great fun & as far as I am concerned a worthy cousin of the original BMC offering. I am sure that there are plenty of BMW Mini Cooper S's driven by blokes who have bought it as a small fast sports saloon & good luck to them, it fulfils that role perfectly, but speaking as I see it people like this are in a very small minority as far as the BMW MINI demographic is concerned.

I see very few Men driving them, I see practically no young people at all driving them, apart from the odd peroxided trophy girlfriend, and the vast majority of ones I see are, as I say driven by 30 something mums. Very similar to the type that drive Freelanders & for that matter the revised VW Beetles.

Maybe out in the wilds of Yorkshire my experience is different to other people's, but I suspect it isn't.

Finally, I want to make it clear I am NOT dissing your car or you, as I have said the Cooper S is a great little sports saloon, but it isn't treated like that by most of the drivers that I see in them.

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 12:12 pm
by DD50
"Dissing" ... dissing? I'm not familiar with the word.

Whatever can it mean?

Must be a young person's word.

I pose, clearly, like the judge who affected not to recognise The Beatles (a popular music combo m'lud).

I never for a moment thought you were dissing me or my new toy Mark.

Chill man . . . . . 8-)

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 12:38 pm
by billycooper
When my "proper" Cooper S's had to go, and i had to replace our road car (used the bulk of the time by my other half) we plumped for a BMW Cooper S, just to keep a link there, its been fab this year having a car to follow on the WRC, specially with Meeke involved too.

The cars are great fun, turn in amazingly well, only downside is MPG, when driven hard you can see the fuel gauge move !!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/6041292619/

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 2:09 pm
by mk1
That's me, jeans hanging down by the back of mi knees, down wi di kids :lol:

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Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 3:39 pm
by DD50
. . . . only downside is MPG, when driven hard you can see the fuel gauge move !

Compared to the Impreza the MINI is almost teetotal :lol:

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 8:15 pm
by mab01uk
mk1 wrote: I see very few Men driving them, I see practically no young people at all driving them, apart from the odd peroxided trophy girlfriend, and the vast majority of ones I see are, as I say driven by 30 something mums. Very similar to the type that drive Freelanders & for that matter the revised VW Beetles.
The New Beetle is not a drivers car in any sense and is I think almost 100% seen as a females car, as is the new Fiat 500. The Abarth versions may help the 500 image as the Cooper has always done for the Mini/MINI and the latest new Beetle has recently been revamped and lowered to make it more sporting in an effort to attract male buyers.

Seem to be plenty of male MINI drivers seen around London and the south east, mainly as you would expect in the Cooper S. Also as you would expect the numbers of young MINI owners are increasing as the used entry level prices drop (my 20 year old son has just replaced his old Fiesta with a modded 2001 MINI One and most of his friends with Unos and Clios (male and female) now want one too. Don't you think that the high volume of 30 something mum owners was due to the originally high price to get into MINI's and them holding their value for so long with low depreciation? I guess the young mums had the money to spend and still like to feel young, cool and trendy about town! Also it seems on the MINI forums that many initially get bought for wives and girlfriends only for the husband/boyfriend to realise what a great drivers car they are and then start borrowing it more and more! I would agree the MINI Convertibles are almost 100% driven by women and believe BMW are hoping the Coupe/Roadster will sell and appeal more to male drivers. The classic Mini before was also mainly bought new by the fairer sex according to the later Austin/Rover marketing surveys certainly during those years without any Coopers on sale.

I have owned a 2002 MINI One as a second/commuter car for the last 4 years and compared with similar priced but now dated looking superminis of the same year, the Mk1 MINI still looks current and is worth far more than a similar price/specced Clio or Fiesta, etc of the same year.......as well as being far more fun to own and drive!

If you get to know what weakspots to look for in MINI's then something like this Cooper below at £2,250 as recently sold on ebay can be pretty good value for a youngster and far cheaper/rust free/more reliable than say a late Mini MPi Sportpack.......much as I love my classic Mini's, I wouldn't want any of my kids using one as a daily driver now mainly from a safety point of view.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI. ... EF:GB:1123
(Who knows if early MINI's should ever achieve classic status one day, then these yellow ones may become as popular as those rare Fiesta yellow Mk1 Mini's are now!) :lol:

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:56 pm
by HuwGreenMiniVan
Very very impressive debut by the WRC MINI in the rallies that they have done this year. Some teething problems, like Meeke's alternator on Wales Rally GB that caused him not getting a podium, but fourth will do.

Am looking forward how it turns out on the Monte in January.
http://www.bmwpassion.fr/photos.php?mar ... carlo_1965

Results if you missed it from the last rally of the year,
http://www.best-of-rallylive.com/en/cla ... -position/

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 2:55 am
by HuwGreenMiniVan

Re: MINI completes Rally Car comeback

Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 12:25 pm
by georgek
HuwGreenMiniVan, What a great picture!!!