Not mine (nor would I build one with this much googaab, but it’s still rad in its own way!), but still cool!
Has Honda V-Tec engine and direct port nitrous oxide injection.
NITROUS in a Mini?
Would like to see the expression on the face of the guy that challenges them to race!
Definately brown trousers time!!!
“Look, that Mini just went into … ORBIT!”
Minis were sports cars in the UK; they used to race them. It’s only in North America that they were marketed as a cheap sub-compact.
My first exposure to the Mini was in Canada and I’ve been hooked ever since!!! 
Mine handles like no other car I’ve ever had…once you go Mini you can’t go back.
So…
when can I take a ride in YOUR mini?
Okay, I’m sorry…that was awful 
Why put a VTECH engine in a mine when there are supercharged Cooper-S engines available stock? Fun to experiment I guess, but VTECH… can’t see the point of it. Now there was this one guy here in Sweden who put a V12 engine in a BMW compact, now that was a cool engine switch.
Are the stock motors the new BWM cooper, or vintage?
Cuz if they’re new, that might be a reason.
Brilliant
Oh. Didn’t look too close at the picture. I thought it was one of the new Mini’s. Then I see the point. My dad used to race with a Mini (the old model of course), he had (according to himself) around 90Bhp in his mini, which was more than enough. Now a VTECH engine could probably be tuned to 200Bhp without costing a fortune and without overcharging.
On top of that, the Honda B16c has been tuned to well over 400bhp in the States (with careful rebuilding and forced induction, of course) But why the heck would you want THAT much power in a car that weighs hardly half a ton? My buddie’s 1275GT Mini with the V-Tech is round about 200bhp and he can pull an 11 sec quarter mile with slicks on a proper track.
Over careful consideration, I might not even go with the honda for mine…
just because the MiniMania supercharged 1320 A-series engine is crated and delievered, ready to drop into a classic Mini with zero alteration to the vehicle for under $8k US, (and gets over 140bhp)…that’s about what I would have to spend to get the v-tech (I sure wouldn’t buy an e-bay special, too many bad experiences with engines there) , the fiberglass front, the subframe mods and engine mount mods.
I might as well be pure classic…besides, there are other ways to make that car even lighter.
To answer your first post, despite the fact that my wife wants a new MINI, I personally wouldnt go with the current Cooper S, because the engine that we get in the States is made for BMW by GM in Brazil along with the engine for the US version of the Focus (also made in Mexico) of which there are varying accounts of reliability problems. The local MINI club here says that they’re only about as reliable as the A-series was 30 years ago…
I’m going to wait for the new version of the engine to hit the US before I buy my wife one…I hear tell that they are doing away with the design alltogether and droping the engine from the Pugeot 903 turbo into it…
They may have turned into sports cars but they were first marketed in the UK as a cheap family runabout that was economical and above all easy to park. Their sporting potential emerged when people realized that they stuck to the road like no other car before and were ideal for rallying.
I’m quite sure that the overwhelming majority of them, at least in the early years and probably right to the end, were not bought as sports cars. I can remember them being introduced (I was six at the time) and I think they cost something like £350…
One whizzed past me on the highway just the other night as I was heading off for a pint with Az. It looked really odd after the BMW version, but it was doing about 125 kph and weaving in and out of the traffic in great style.
I never had one but rode in plenty. When I was learning to drive my dad had an Austin 1100, the mini’s only just bigger brother, and that had incredible road-holding too. I have the fondest memories of hurtling around the country roads of Norfolk in it as an irresponsible teenager. Before complacency and middle age.
This is the unit I’m saving up for… 140 or better bhp from a 1.3 litre!
Picture courtesy of http://www.minimania.com
