Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

< 3:23:06 PM        >

This news via from MINI PR:

'MINI has expanded its range of roof decals with the addition of five new roof designs. ëCamouflageí, ëzipí, ëstripesí, ëtartaní and ëtigerí take the total number of MINI roof decals available to 25.

All five new roof decals will be displayed for the first time at Motor Show Live at the Birmingham NEC from 25th May - 6th June.'

Trevor Houghton-Berry, General Manager UK said, ìSince MINI was launched in 2001, we have seen MINI owners embrace the opportunity to personalise their cars. There are almost 50,000 ways of specifying a MINI and the introduction of five new roof decals has further expanded that choiceî.

Three MINI facts:

• The most popular roof decal in the UK and the USA is the Union Jack.
• Due to the enormous choice of options and accessories available for MINI only two in every 100,000 MINIs produced at Plant Oxford are likely to be exactly the same. Statistically this means that only two of the 100,000 MINIs registered in the UK will be identical.
• Over 99 per cent of MINI owners have added additional specification to their cars ranging from the fitting of John Cooper Works kits to the addition of bonnet stripes.

There's currently no word on US availability but it's worth noting that there are already several designs that are out in the UK that MINIUSA doesn't offer. With that in mind it may be sometime until the US sees these flags.

comments < 3:22:12 PM        >

MINI Plant at Oxford to Expand?.

Here's some interesting news from the Belfast Telegraph:

The German car maker BMW is close to deciding on a major expansion of its Mini plant in Oxford to cope with booming demand for the iconic car.

Production this year is expected to exceed 180,000, boosted by the launch in July of a convertible version of the car. But output cannot grow much beyond that because the plant's paint shop is already working almost at full capacity.

BMW executives have ambitious plans for further variants of the Mini, ranging from a sports utility model to a five-door Mini traveller or estate. They believe there is no reason why the brand cannot be extended in the same way that the BMW marque itself has grown to encompass a wide variety of models.

Michael Ganal, the BMW board member for sales and marketing, said the group was now "pretty close" to a decision on the expansion of Oxford.

He said:"We believe the Mini family has to grow."

For more information about the current MINI plant you may want to check out this: Detailed Account of the MINI Plant Tour.

[MotoringFile]
comments < 3:21:40 PM        >

OEM Interior Chrome Kit.

Paul over of MINI2 fame has managed to get his hands on a production example of MINI's new "chrome line interior" kit. Apparently it will be sold as an accessory as well as being available from the factory.

Paul gives us a nice overview of all that is included as well as an installation guide for the kit. You can check it out all the bling bling over at MINI2 here.

[MotoringFile]
comments < 3:21:18 PM        >

The Physics of Baseball [Slashdot]
comments < 3:19:19 PM        >

K-Logs:  Microsoft's Bill Gates extolls the benefits of weblogs/RSS to the world's top CEOs.  Huzzah! [John Robb's Weblog]
comments < 3:17:56 PM        >