The Independent American Magazine for all Mini Owners
Issue link: http://mc2.epubxp.com/i/33536
reworked Recaros are not only gorgeus, but extremely comfortable. For instrumentation, special “Anthracite” faced dials were used to give the dash an elegant but no-nonsense look. To give the car a true grand prix feel, the rear seat was not installed. Instead, the company put in sound deadening insulation, a rear seat delete kit that provided a flat cargo area and had lockable storage bins underneath. A cross body strut brace stiffened up the chassis. Taking out the rear seat and replacing the steel OE control arms with aluminum ones contributed to an almost 100lb weight savings over the stock Cooper S. To further enhance the performance image of the GP, MINI spec’d the car with the most powerful first generation supercharged engine and added a John Cooper Works upgrade to boost power up to 214hp with 180ft-lbs of torque, giving the car a top speed of 150 mph. Of course, a special car needs a special paint. The GP was finished in Thunder Blue color with a Pure Silver roof. The air scoops on the hood and in the front apron also come in Pure Silver. Topping off the exterior paint scheme are Chili Red exterior mirror caps and each car’s individual build number (0101 through 2000) is painted on the roof over the driver’s door. Rounding out the special look are run-flat tires mounted on lightweight 18-inch alloy wheels. Once the GPs were fully assembled and tested in Turin, they were shipped back to Oxford for final preparation and distribution around the globe. Units were allocated by market size, with nearly half the production going to the UK and the US. Some 437 GPs stayed in Britain and 415 went to the USA. However, even though the UK got more cars, the honor of getting the first GP off the line (#0101) was given to the US to recognize the importance of the North American market. Germany received 280 GPs, Italy got 222 and Japan received 168. Some countries, such as Malta and Slovenia only got one GP each. No matter where the vehicles were shipped, MINI made sure the delivery to the customer was special. In the US, for example, MINI USA offered advanced delivery of 32 cars at the 2006 Rolex Monterey Historic Races, where Mini was the honored marque. Buyers wishing to participate in the trackside handoff, paid an additional $2,000 over the $31,150 MSRP and got a weekend at the historic races, as well as the Pebble Beach Concours, four nights of hotel accommodations, a reception at the Monterey Aquarium with MINI executives, a special GP dinner and a chance to take their cars on a parade lap of the famous Laguna Seca racetrack. Five years on, the GP is still viewed as a special car by just about every MINI fan, and although they aren’t producing anymore, the original 415 in the US are still around. Some have changed hands once or twice, but the subsequent owners are as tickled with their pre-owned GP as the original owner was to take delivery. It is also interesting to note that while most GPs are still in their OE configuration, a growing number of them have been modified, raced, and/or put to special use, such as GP #0625, currently owned by RMW (see pg 25) or Oscar Revelli’s GP #0823, which was driven around the globe in the MINI GP World Challenge a couple of years ago and is now a racecar in Italy (see the stories on the next two pages to read more about Oscar and another GP owner). >>> 1R URRP IRU SDVVHQJHUV 7KH *3 IHDWXUHV D UHDU VHDW GHOHWH NLW ZLWK ÁDW ORDG ÁRRU XQGHU ÁRRU VWRUDJH DQG D FURVV ERG\ VWLIIHQHU EUDFH $OO *3V H[FHSW WKRVH H[SRUWHG WR WKH 86 PDUNHW ZHUH HTXLSSHG ZLWK VSHFLDOO\ PDGH OHDWKHU IDFHG 5HFDUR VHDWLQJ :LWK KS FRPLQJ RXW RI WKH VXSHUFKDUJHG HQJLQH WKH WRS VSHHG RI WKH *3 LV PSK PDNLQJ LW WKH PRVW SRZHUIXO VW JHQHUDWLRQ 0,1, 7KH &DUERQ; ÀEHU UHDU ZLQJ ZDV GHULYHG IURP WKH 0,1, &KDOOHQJH; GHVLJQ )URP HYHU\ DQJOH WKH 0,1, *3 SUHVHQWV D XQLTXH DSSHDUDQFH Issue 32 MC2 Magazine 31