Automotive

The MINI that thinks it’s a Rolls Royce

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MINI INSPIRED BY GOODWOOD is a limited edition MINI underpinned by Rolls Royce materials and craftsmanship
MINI INSPIRED BY GOODWOOD is a limited edition MINI underpinned by Rolls Royce materials and craftsmanship
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The MINI INSPIRED BY GOODWOOD has little to do with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, for which the small pocket of Southern England is best known. Goodwood is also the location of the Rolls-Royce Design division, and now that Germany's BMW owns both British marques, it is using the brand values of Rolls Royce to craft an unmistakably upmarket, limited edition MINI by using Rolls Royce materials and craftsmanship.

We all like to feel special, so we expect the 1000 limited edition run of the Mini Roller to sell out pretty quickly, and you can expect most demand to come from China – it's no coincidence that the car will be launched at Auto Shanghai next week.

As we've covered before, China has emerged rapidly since the major reforms of 1978, and like most other humans who have come from poverty, brand names and image are critically important to the nouveau riche. So great is the Chinese thirst for luxury goods that its current 15% share of the world luxury goods market is predicted to grow at 25% per annum to 44% of the world market within a decade (CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets).

So what has Rolls Royce added to the MINI? The dashboard is finished in Walnut Burr and black nappa leather, the roof lining is Cashmere wool, and the sun visors and foot mats are deep-pile lambs wool borrowed straight from the current Rolls-Royce range. Most of this skin-deep luxury is Rolls' proprietary "cornsilk" color, offset with rich "Piano black" highlights, while the quality of the Diamond Black metallic paint on the exterior is also borrowed from the current Rolls-Royce color chart. The leather which makes up a large part of the interior is also sumptuous RR quality. The list of refinements borrowed from Rolls Royce is long and detailed and includes all the tricks that make people feel satisfied for having paid a king's ransom for their automobile, so owners of the new MINI Roller should be immensely pleased to have sampled bourgeois quality at a proletarian price.

Otherwise, it's a MINI with the same 135 kW turbo 1.6 liter engine as the Cooper S, 17-inch wheels, adaptive headlights, Park Distance Control, and the MINI Visual Boost Radio audio system including a Harman Kardon hi-fi loudspeaker system.

Deliveries of the MINI Roller, which will launch as part of the exclusive MINI Yours product line, are scheduled to start this time next year. No details have yet been given on price.

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5 comments
Chris Knowles
Great stuff. Small car, ultimate luxury. Why not?
MadMaxx
As long as it retains the non-repairable, disposable transmission it is still garbage!
MikeAdams
I agree with MadMaxx... I think the Mini looks great but I keep my vehicles a long time & I cannot see investing top dollar on major component design flaws.
Bill Bennett
let\'s see bad power steering, bad clutch, bad manual trannie, a CVT that is a joke each costing 2 to ten thousand dollars,,, oh yeah I want one,, NOT we have an 02 R53 WARPED head in the shop right now with 70 K miles 1000 bucks US to r i the 2000 buck head that night have to be replaced, horrible car, DO NOT BUY ONE want cute and small? Fiat 500,, Mini is crap expensive and built to stay that way, surprised there have been no class action suits
MarkSA
While this Mini may have the same power plant as the Mini Cooper S, so does the Mini Cooper JCW, and here is the surprising thing about the Goodwood... it has the same updates made to the car as a full bore JCW (understated in typical Rolls Royce fashion)! The brake calipers are straight from the JCW, except painted silver rather than red. The exhaust is the same as in the JCW, except with tastefully rounded tailpipes. The suspension is the same as the JCW. Finally, the power is absolutely astonishing, compared to the Mini Cooper S (and I own both the Cooper S and the Goodwood). When you add the stunning interior and the additional soundproofing, this become simply the best Mini available, BY FAR!! It feels so quiet and classy when driving it that it feels way too refined to be a Mini (only recognizable as such by the superb handling) but when you put your foot down, it goes like a (diamond black painted) bat out of hell! An image added to by the seriously dark tinted black windows. This is the ultimate iron fist in a velvet glove (or iron fist in Rolls Royce hand selected leather, cashmere, polished burr walnut and lambs wool in this case). Watch out JCW owners - this is the ultimate sleeper car... take on this Mini Rolls at your own risk. It is very likely to pull out its cane sword and skewer you! Bravo Mini, for making such an exquisite car!