Mini Cooper 2003 News

Here are our top 10 cars released in the first 25 years of this century.

The new Mini arrives here early next year with new efficient engines, a larger body and some changes to styling, but largely continuing with the signature design recipe. It has however  grown 98mm in length to 3821mm, 44m in width to 1727mm and 7mm in height to 1414mm on a 34mm longer wheelbase at 2495mm to give more cabin room and an additional 51 litres of luggage space. There's big news under the skin too, where the Mini debuts the new UKL platform that will in time underpin more new Minis and some new models from parent company BMW. Watch the 2014 Mini Cooper unveiling video on our desktop site. _______________________________________  

The new unit is based on the one in the 1.6-litre Mini Cooper S, with twin-scroll turbocharger, direct fuel-injection and variable valve control. The turbocharger is tweaked for extra boost and the engine has been fitted with a new high-performance exhaust system – finished with twin stainless-steel tailpipes. Engine outputs are 155kW of power at 6000rpm, and 260Nm of torque from 1850-5500rpm, with 280Nm available for a few seconds on overboost between 2000-5200rpm. It will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission as standard, but there will still be the option of a six-speed automatic with a manumatic mode and shift paddles mounted on the steering wheel. Mini says the new engine gets a weight-saving aluminium block and bearing mounts, lighter crankshaft, reinforced pistons and a high-strength cylinder head. The manual transmission gets a fuel saving stop-start system, and the load on the electrical system is reduced by brake energy recapture with the alternator disengaging at high revs – combining to cut your fuel burn by about 500ml per 100km.  

High performance versions of the Mini Cooper are being recalled worldwide to fix an engine problem that could potentially start a fire.More than 235,000 of the turbocharged Cooper S models built between 2006 and last year are being recalled worldwide to remedy a secondary water pump fitted to cool down the turbocharger.The company has global reports of just over 80 water pump failures and four fires as a result, but BMW Australia and local authorities have deemed the program here to be a technical service campaign,Mini Australia spokesman Piers Scott says just over 3700 Cooper S (of which one may have experienced the smoldering engine bay issue) and John Cooper Works vehicles built between 2006 and 2011 are effected in Australia."This was deemed to be a technical campaign, in-line with similar campaigns conducted in the past," he said.Mr Scott said the use of the term `recall' overseas to describe the issue."It is the Department of Infrastructure and Transport that we liaise with locally and they would advise us if it were to be a safety Recall.""There is no less urgency under a technical campaign - replacement parts are now in the country and Mini Australia has already begun contacting affected customers," he said.The worldwide recall of 235,000 cars includes 29,868 in the UK and 89,000 in the US and involves replacing the water pump free of charge.The company head office said that the turbocharged engines are fitted with an additional water pump to remove residual heat from the turbocharger after the engine was switched off."Under high operating temperatures an electro-migration can occur at the circuit board installed in the additional water pump," it said."This can lead to a failure of the additional water pump or smoldering and even a fire cannot be excluded."More than 200,000 Minis are built each year at the company's Oxford plant, where production started in 2001and recently passed two million vehicles built - the car is exported to more than 90 countries.The turbocharged engine is shared with Citroen and Peugeot, but both French companies said there engines employed different electrical systems.

So the 2011 Mini Cooper S facelift photographed by Carparazzi in Europe is essentially … more of the same.There are some small changes in terms of a revised air intake and it’s likely there could still be a surprise under that bumper camouflage.  Some attention has also been paid to the light clusters, with the rear set now sporting LEDs.However, with the increasing pressure of emissions regulations, the Mini is also likely to have some upgraded engine technology aimed at reducing CO2 while improving outputs.Insiders are tipping that a variable-valve system will be added to the current 128kW/240Nm turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine, while the naturally aspirated 88kW/160Nm version will also be tweaked – although there are no hints of how much it will increase the outputs of either.

Mini designer Alec Issigonis and performance tweaker John Cooper had a brain explosion in 1964 and developed a model with twin motors. Cooper crashed it, spent eight months in hospital and the idea was officially shelved. It hasn't stopped many backyard mechanics from having a go ever since, including Brisbane dentist Bill Westerman."Five years ago I was drinking beer with my friend Fred Sayers and we both decided to build one," he says in his garage littered with Mini engines in various states of rebuild. "Right from the word go — when the hangover cleared — we got stuck right into it."His 1964 Mini Cooper S with a "worn-out" 1293cc engine in the front and another in the back is called "Nuts". "Because you have to be nuts to drive it and it's better with two," says Westerman with a cheeky grin."I don't know what I paid for this one. It came from a shell. I had a shed load of Minis at the time. It's a sickness, you know."The graduate dentist began learning his mechanical skills from his first car which was a composite Series II Land Rover he made from two he bought at auction. His love of Minis started with his second purchase in 1969 when he bought a new Cooper S for $2500 and headed off to work in outback Waikerie, South Australia."I realised fairly quickly that what you really need in the outback is a V8, so I bought an XY Falcon ute," he says. "It went through a set of tyres every 6000 miles (9656km), a set of shocks every three months and universal joints at least once a year over those corrugated roads."His next car was a modified VB Commodore V8 wagon donated to the young dentist by Holden. He had it about five years before returning to Brisbane, more study at the University of Queensland and the start of his amateur career racing Minis from 1986 to today."The aim was to race all the circuits in Australia and I've just about done that except for Perth and Darwin," he says. "I've had a lot of fun. Racing has been very good to me. I've always been in the middle of the pack because I didn't spend enough money on the race car to win."His efforts to get more power out of a Mini and get further to the front of the pack led him down the ignominious Issigonis path of a twin-engined model. "We were worried after the first drive as it was an extremely difficult beast to keep on the road," he says. "There has to be co-ordination between the two motors. The gearing is the same and all the internals in the engine are the same, but we set the front so it was revving slightly harder so there is a bit of a pull factor."The revelation that kept the beast on the road came from an article in a 1960s Sportscar World magazine about the Formula One Ferguson all-wheel-drive race car. "We got a lot of hints from that; you need an overdrive diff on the front and back," he says. "We put one in the front and it made a bit of a difference and then we put one in the back and all of a sudden it goes. The diff takes up the front-to-back bias. It used to crab before that."The other major problem was the suspension. "Minis usually understeer, but this one was really taily at the start, not because of the weight in the rear but the front suspension we put in the rear. The problem was the back castor ... it had too much toe-in and we had to remove it. Instead of a steering box and steering geometry we made it into a straight-ahead suspension. Now I can drive it over all the ripple strips and still maintain control of the car. We have handling reasonable so now we are after more horsepower."Two more powerful engines in various stages of rebuild are sitting on the floor of his garage waiting to be thrown into the "Nuts" car. "I have the theoretical knowledge of mechanics to build an engine but Fred has the practical knowledge to make it work," he says. "It's been an interesting engineering exercise."Unfortunately, the car won't be ready in time for the second annual Cootha Classic hillclimb which Westerman organises for the Historic Racing Car Club of Queensland. "Maybe next year," he says.The Cootha Classic will be held on May 29-30 featuring more than 250 cars and about 50 motorcycles from the 1920s to today in timed sprints around a 1450m track up and down Sir Samuel Griffith Drive with seven corners and chicanes.Racing starts at 8.30am. Entry is $20 a day, $15 for concession, $30 for a two-day pass and $5 for parking in the J.C. Slaughter Falls carpark.Visit: www.visitbrisbane.com.au.

The new Mini Challenge will hit Australian racetracks in style with a spectacular opening race next year, probably at the Australian Grand Prix.Though Mini Australia spokesman Alexander Corne can't reveal details of the new series calendar, he says it will have a big beginning.“I can't confirm anything specific but we want to start things off with a bang,” Corne says. “We want to put the Mini Challenge in front of the widest possible audience.”Mini already has a history at the Australian Grand Prix, it provided the cars for the Celebrity Challenge in 2002.Negotiations about next year's calendar are taking place with several key stakeholders. It is likely to support the V8 Supercar Championship and run alongside the Porsche Carrera Cup. According to Corne several parties have already shown interest in the category.Mini will unveil the new-for-2008 Challenge racer at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October. The new cars will be built at the company's English factory and be race-prepared in Germany before coming here. The plan is to try to have a race car here later in the year to help promote the new series to competitors and fans.Next year, cars will use a turbocharged version of the engine, replacing the previous supercharged model. They will produce the same amount of power, 154kW but the turbo engine delivers better torque and mid-range performance.Another addition is a limited-slip differential to improve traction in tight corners.The company has also improved the cars' aerodynamics to improve performance and keep the racing close.The Challenge racers will do 0-100km/h in 6.1 seconds and have a top of 240km/h. 

It has been a long and painfully infuriating search, but I have finally, blessedly found it, it's the world’s most pointless button. It lurks on the roof of the new Mini Cooper S and if it wasn’t designed by a woman, or perhaps a committee of women, I’ll eat a beach towel. Amazingly, I very nearly missed out on finding this simpering switch altogether. I had merely made a mental note to moan endlessly about the fact that the interior lighting was far too bright, and an annoying shade of blue to boot. But then I went on a stupidly long drive to the snow from Sydney, entirely in the dark. By the time I got to Goulburn I was so annoyed at being bathed in the sort of light you normally only find in tanning salons that I decided there had to be adjustment available to me. After playing with all the available and beautifully funky feeling toggles and buttons I found the right one, flicked it and nearly crashed the car. Far from dimming this blithering blue light, the switch merely changed it to a pinky hue I can only describe as “dawn at the beach”. Intrigued, yet revolted, I kept flicking and found that the car’s mood lighting can be changed to vermillion, purple, a Midori green, a yellow-and-brown Austin Powers kind of motif and, thankfully, orange. I say thankfully because at least the orange choice blends in with the rest of the dash lighting, although the combined effect is so bright you feel like you’re driving around in a ’70s kitchen. Of course a little bit of kitsch is to be expected when an idea like the Mini is recooked, as this one was recently, gaining a turbocharged 1.6-litre engine and exterior tweaks so subtle that they’re like the effect of ageing on Elle McPherson’s body. You know they must be there, but they’re not really noticeable, and the overall effect is still so darn pretty. The shame about this shameful mood-lighting switch (surely it would make more sense in a 7 Series, where you can stretch out a bit) is that it taints what is otherwise an excellent, and much-improved, interior. The last Cooper S had a grey plastic finish that looked like it had been set upon by a whole childcare centre full of greasy fingered little fiends. It was supposed to look like brushed aluminium, I think, but it just looked liked rushed ab-libbing by the designers. Our test vehicle was all red leather and funky fake-wood plastic, but it all felt pleasant and of BMW build quality. And the dash just might be the coolest in the whole car world. The centrally mounted speedo has an indicator arrow whizzing around the outside, like one of those old-style weighing scales you used to find outside chemists, leaving space in the middle for a groovy little screen. This screen displays functions that can be selected with a very simple but still slightly iDrive- like controller, or the satellite navigation map. On the steering binnacle in front of you is a rev counter which can, if you like, also display a digital readout of your speed. When the Mini was first launched here, they couldn’t get away with that arrangement, due to ADRs, and we were the only country in the world with the speedo stuck to the steering wheel, but this time they’ve got around it. Looking at your speed on the massive central dial is totally impractical and no one likes having that information displayed where your passenger can see it so clearly anyway, but you put up with it because, as I say, the dash just looks so cool (even in vermillion-bathed light). While the old Cooper S was supercharged, and had a wondrous whine to go with that, the new engine, shared with the PSA Peugeot-Citroen group, is an award-winning turbo unit and offers more lowdown punch and usable torque than before. You get 128kW of power at a joyous 5500rpm and 240Nm of torque from 1600rpm to 5000rpm, which blips up to 260Nm via an overboost function when you really boot it. The result is a lot more fun than 128 kilowatts should be, and a 0 to 100km/h time of 7.1 seconds. The turbo doesn’t sound as good as the engine it replaces, but the performance more than makes up for that. Not many people can engineer fun into a car as cleverly as BMW/Mini and, much like its parent company’s cars, the best thing about the new Cooper is the steering. It really is go-kart like in that it needs so little lock wound on and it responds so pointedly. The great thing about the Mini is that it can make even the boredom of the urban commute fun, the bends on and off the Anzac Bridge every day were a particular joy. The ride isn’t too bad, for a car with such a short wheelbase, until you hit an expansion joint and it feels like you’ve run over a sequoia trunk. Not only do your teeth rattle, your ribs do. In short, and sweet, form, there’s a lot to love about the new Mini Cooper S, even with its stupid interior lighting system. It is, of course, entirely impractical if you’re ever going to carry more than one friend. And it is, undeniably, very expensive for a small car, prices start at $39,900 in standard trim and rise to very nearly $50k. But it’s not meant to be a practical car, it’s meant to be a fun one and on that basis it’s worth every cent.  

You need more than just pictures, and a side-by-side staring match would be best of all, but the 2007 Mini is different from the car that brought the British star back from the dead.This time, BMW - which owns the rights to the Mini name and shape - has made the car bigger, faster and more efficient.And it also has a BMW engine in place of the wheezy DaimlerChrysler four that was fitted to the outgoing car.There will also be a turbocharged motor in the new Cooper S, replacing the previous supercharged engine and continuing the push towards turbos that BMW began with the latest leader in its 3-Series coupe family."Mini hasn't been re-invented, just refined," spokesman for Mini in Australia Alexander Corne says."It proves that Mini has grown up a little bit, but it has not lost any of its cheeky fun. The biggest difference is going to be the new engine and the new interior."We'll be doing two models again. The Cooper and the Cooper S."The car is expected in Australia in the first quarter of 2007, almost exactly five years since the rebirth of the baby boomer.The base motor lifts power from 85kW to 88kW and 150Nm to 160Nm, though the 0-100km/h sprint time is unchanged despite a 10kg weight reduction.But the Cooper S will be one-tenth quicker to 100km/h, at 7.1 seconds, with the BMW turbo-motor good for 128kW and 240Nm against the 125kW and 220Nm on the old car.There is also an overboost feature that lifts it to 260Nm in brief bursts. The Mini will come with six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes, still with front-wheel-drive, with steering wheel buttons for auto change.The package for Australia will still have six airbags, anti-skid brakes and stability control, although the exact specification will not be set until closer to the on-sale date."It will be here next year, around the time of the Melbourne Motor Show. So on sale in March," Corne says."Orders are still very strong for the current car," he says.The plan is already set for the changeover, with Mini pushing hard on the visible changes inside the car and the mechanical overhaul."It's got state-of-the-art engineering in the engines. The Cooper has valvetronic and the S has a turbocharger with direct petrol injection, so it's the same technology as the six-cylinder engine in the BMW 335 Coupe," Corne says."The growth is at the front for improved pedestrian impact safety, and slightly at the rear to balance the proportions. It's pretty minimal, 60mm overall."The interior is new. There is a new dash, new seats, and the effect is more masculine and quite sporty. It retains a central speedo design and toggle switches, which are Mini icons, but everything has been upgraded."Mini has confirmed the base car, but there is no news on a change to the convertible or the introduction of the third model in the lineup, almost certain to be a multi-purpose wagon."There is going to be another model, but it won't be coming for a while. And the Cabrio continues unchanged, with the same body and engines, for the foreseeable future," Corne says.