Mini Cooper 2005 News

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.  

They went down that path with a cosmetically enhanced Nissan Pulsar-based Holden Astra in the 1980s that bombed miserably. But today, fuel prices are skyrocketing — and increasingly becoming a critical part of the car-purchase equation.HSV is returning to economy without deserting its traditional V8 heartland. Today you can fire up a HSV-tuned 177kW turbocharged Astra VXR and now the company is looking at bringing in the hot turbocharged 1.6-litre Corsa VXR.Already a hit in the UK, where it went on sale in March, the three-door pocket rocket will mark a continuing evolution in the direction of HSV.Former HSV chairman John Crennan, who retired last year but still wears the brand on his sleeve and remains a part of the company, explains HSV does not necessarily have to replicate a Holden product in its line-up, meaning an Epica HSV is highly unlikely. “The Corsa is one Euro brand we're looking at,” he says.Crennan says there is no specific time frame for the arrival of the Corsa, but if the numbers stack up, it could be here within 18 months.The car would be pitched into Mini Cooper S and Peugeot 207 GT territory with a price tag around $35,000. The Corsa VXR has 143kW on tap at 5850 revs and 230Nm from 1980 revs from a lightweight 1.6-litre four, giving the car sprint time of zero to 100km/h in 6.8 seconds and top speed of more than 220km/h. The VXR's four-pot is mated to a close-ratio six-speed manual. With its performance credentials and bold styling, the mini hatch fits perfectly into HSV's DNA.The mirrors, foglight-surrounds and centre exhaust all have a triangular theme, while the chunky front and rear bumpers, side skirts and 18-inch alloys hint at the performance underneath.Inside there are sculpted Recaro seats, racecar-style, flat-bottomed steering wheel, drilled alloy pedals and piano-black dash trim. Like the Mini Cooper S, it has an overboost facility that increases torque on demand to more than 260Nm under hard acceleration. The power is kept in check with a specially tuned ESP system, up-rated disc brakes, suspension and variably assisted power steering, which alters weight and feel of the wheel depending on the way the car is driven.In Australia, Holden's previous-generation XC Barina was a highly respected Opel-sourced Corsa model. But when the new TK Barina went on sale late in 2005, the company chose to source it from GM-Daewoo in South Korea. While competitively priced, the newest Barina scored poorly in the Australian and European New-Car Assessment Programs. It only managed a two-star crash rating.Meanwhile, the Brits are raving about our HSV Clubsport sedan. In a land beset by high petrol prices and appalling congestion, they can't get enough of the 6.0-litre — badged as a Vauxhall VXR8.HSV's managing director, Scott Grant, is also eyeing other markets. “We're committed to 300 Clubsport R8s a year to the UK for the next three years,” he says, adding that the new long-wheelbase Grange is the next export candidate — possibly to the Middle East and China.

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.

"This will be a brand and image shaper for MINI," MINI national manager Shawn Ticehurst says. "We expect it will attract new target groups and grow MINI volumes by greater than 30 per cent to more than 2000for 2005."While not all of the growth will be Cabrio sales – Ticehurst says research shows that when a drop-top model is launched, hard-top versions also enjoy a popularity boost – MINI is expecting to move at least 600 of the new cloth-tops."The small convertible market has enjoyed considerable growth in recent years," Ticehurst says."It started with the Peugeot 206cc and Holden has proven with the Astra convertible that there is a good market for a well-designed small convertible at the right price."The MINI Cabrio will arrive in both the 85kW Cooper and 125kW Cooper S models at $35,900 and $44,900 respectively.A five-speed manual is standard on the Cooper while the Cooper S has the same compact six-speed manual shifter as its hard-top stablemate.A CVT (continuously variable transmission) is a $2200 option on the Cooper while from March a six-speed automatic with a sequential manual mode will be available for the Cooper S for the same premium.Both models come stacked with the same level of specification as the hard-top versions – and the same availability of "personalisation" options that in the most extreme case can lift the cost of a Cooper S to beyond $86,000."MINI owners love to customise their cars to be different," Ticehurst says. "There is a saying in Oxford that you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to see two MINIs exactly the same."The options run from a full John Cooper Works tuning kit – now upgraded to produce a spanking 154kW Cooper S – at $9850 through bonnet stripes, xenon headlights, rain sensor wipers, satellite navigation, automatic airconditioning, a range of 17 and 18-inch light alloy rims, a high-spec Harman Kardon sound system and a wind deflector.Another personalisation option is the choice of three colours – black, green and blue – for the cloth roof to co-ordinate or contrast with the 12 available body colours, two of which – hot orange and cool blue – are exclusive to the Cabrio.The fully automatic folding roof will drop in two stages in 15 seconds either from a button inside the car or from outside using the remote key fob. The "integrated sunroof" function allows a first-stage opening of 400mm at speeds of up to 120km/h.The Cabrio claims a safety rating equivalent to the hard-top with four airbags.Mechanically, the main difference between Cabrio and the hard-top is in the suspension, where the settings have been shifted down a notch towards a softer ride. The Cooper S has the Sport setting – Sports-Plus in the hard-top – while the Cooper Cabrio is fitted with the standard suspension against the Sports in the hard-top model.Structurally the Cabrio has been stiffened through the A-pillar and along the bottom rails of the cabin section, as well as with a cross member under the seats and through the use of the aluminium cross-brace, which doubles as the rear roll-over loop."Since its launch MINI has seen a fairly strong 70:30 male bias in ownership and while that is softening a little recently we believe the Cabrio will bring more women into the showrooms," Ticehurst says."Obviously we don't want this to be seen as a 'chick's car' ... it is a very worthy sports car in its own right, but it is a style of car which could attract more female buyers."FIRST DRIVEIf you like the MINI there is every chance you will love the MINI Cabrio.The drop-top version of the modern brick has all the same go-kart-like driving characteristics of its hard-top stablemate, the same stylish cabin, the same potential for personalisation with an added dash of look-at-me flair ... and a few extra compromises.Melbourne's weather didn't play fair during the launch drive for the Cabrio this week, with fog and rain reducing the opportunity for top-down and adrenalin-up testing.Consequently, a judgment on the level of scuttle shake noted by several overseas reviews will have to wait until a more thorough test drive but it was not obvious with the clever sliding/folding cloth roof in place.What was noticeable was the effect of the softer suspension settings nominated for the Cabrio models.For the hard-top versions MINI Australia had opted for the firm Sports-Plus setting on the Cooper S and the slightly more compliant Sport on the Cooper.That has been wound back a notch further with the Cooper having standard settings and the Cooper S the basic Sport package.While the effect on the Cooper is minimal, the difference in the Cooper S ride is fairly dramatic. The car is more prone to being jiggly over broken surfaces and has a certain nervousness to its ride quality.The Cooper S, coupled to the six-speed Getrag manual, remains a barrel of fun with its 125kW and 220Nm on tap and willing over a good spread of the rev range.Even the extra 100kg of the Cabrio and the softer suspension cannot take away the fun factor.Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the 85kW Cooper with the CVT automatic.Using the "manual" shift mode with six nominated "ratios" does little to improve the experience as the box is more interventionist than US foreign policy.It changes up without being asked and resists changing down even when requested.Steering and handling remain sharp. There is still a slight propensity for push understeer if too aggressive with the wheel input – but it does take quite gross movements to induce it.The rear seating positions have been compromised, presumably squeezed to make room for the workings of the automatic folding roof.The upshot is that rear-seat passengers have been forced to sit at a rather awkward angle by the intrusion into the outsides of theseat space.For a single-layer roof the Cabrio's cloth-top is a benchmark.Wind noise is at a minimum, the fit is drum-tight and there was no noticeable stretch or drumming of the roof on the launch vehicles driven.Operation is a simple one-button affair with no manual catches to release.The first 400mm of the roof travel is a slide rearwards, opening up what MINI calls the "integrated sunroof".While that operation can be done at up to 120km/h the folding and storage of the remainder requires the car to be stationary for about 15 seconds.With the roof down, wind buffeting is not a major issue, at least for the front-seat occupants – an advantage of the (relatively) huge upright windscreen.To aid loading of the boot the rear skirt of the roof can be lifted when the tailgate is dropped, providing a quite large opening for difficult-sized objects.