Although designed first and foremost a city-friendly econobox, the original Mini began its transition into a rally icon when it caught the attention of John Cooper, a good friend of Alec Issigonis, the man behind the car’s brilliant design. Cooper had made a name for himself by dominating Formula One in 1959 and 1960 with his innovative rear-engined race cars so he was no stranger to engineering. Story has it he noticed the Mini’s potential as soon as Issigonis showed him a set of early design sketches.
Mini has just released the details on the upcoming 2013 Countryman, it’s all-wheel-drive, less-mini Mini. Available starting this month, the new Countryman benefits from changes that are more of the refreshed variety, rather than sweeping substantial ones.
For 2013, Mini has released an all-new version. We don’t have a great deal of information (yet), but the new JCW GP was revealed at the Paul Ricard circuit in France during the Mini United festival. Like the original GP, it’ll be limited to 2000 units.
We love the Mini Cooper S as a budget driver’s car. It’s quick, communicative, eager to rotate, and economical. But the budget goes out the window when we start playing with the manufacturer’s configuration tool. With the oodles of packages and accessories, we managed to make our Cooper S more costly in options alone than the price of the base car. Have a look.
The name Sir Jack Brabham is very well known among Formula 1 fans, but lately Sir Jack has been fading into the background and we thought we would refresh everyone’s memories with his mind-boggling accomplishments.