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David Brown's most powerful Mini Remastered has racing in its genes

David Brown Automotive detailed its latest Remastered build, which explores the Mini's vast racing heritage. Created jointly with Oselli, the resto-modded city car gains a more powerful engine, a long list of updates that racers in the 1960s could only dream of, and a handful of styling tweaks that set it apart from an unmodified Mini. Most of David Brown's builds have focused on adding luxury, comfort, and convenience to one of England's best-known cars. With decades of experience in building race cars, Oselli brings a healthy dose of performance. The transformation starts under the hood, where power comes from a twin-carbureted, 1.5-liter four-cylinder tuned to develop 125 horsepower and 113 pound-feet of torque. David Brown quotes a 7.8-second sprint to 62 mph. Context is useful: the original Mini retired in 2000 with a fuel-injected, 1.3-liter version of this engine (called A Series) rated at 62 horsepower and 70 pound-feet of torque. Many examples built in the 1960s and the 1970s got an 848cc four rated at a measly 34 horsepower, and the modern-day Hardtop's entry-level engine is a 1.5-liter turbocharged triple that puts 134 horses under the driver's right foot. Put another way, 125 is a lot of horsepower for an old Mini. Oselli dropped the 1.5-liter engine on top of (and not next to; it's one of the Mini's quirks) a redesigned five-speed manual transmission that spins the front wheels. AP Racing four-piston front brake calipers and aluminum rear drums keep the power in check, while Bilstein struts amplify the go-kart like handling the old Mini is known for. Subtlety isn't part of the Oselli's vocabulary. Its free-flowing exhaust system makes it louder than a standard Mini, and it turns heads with black exterior accents, racing stripes, LED headlights, and a mesh grille with integrated driving lights. 13-inch alloy wheels come standard; they're available in either graphite or gold. Inside, David Brown added sport seats for the front passengers, an Alcantara-upholstered Sabelt steering wheel, and a Pioneer infotainment system with Bluetooth connectivity. Power steering, USB ports, air conditioning (which, oddly, blows through vents that look like they're from a Mercedes-Benz), and power-operated windows are standard.  David Brown will make only 60 numbered units of the Oselli Edition, and deliveries are scheduled to start in early 2022.

Mini Superleggera gets the green light

With the fairly lackluster designs coming out of Mini recently, leave it to a group from outside the company to get things right. The minds behind the Berlinetta Lusso and Disco Volante at Touring Superleggera did just that with the retro-inspired Mini Superleggera Vision Concept from last year's Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance. Now, according to Car in the UK, the droptop has a green light for production from the BMW board and could arrive in showrooms by 2018. The concept stole our hearts with its rounded shape, rear fin and Union-Jack-shaped taillights. Inside, the interior went for extreme minimalism with an aluminum dashboard that positioned just a simple tachometer and thin steering wheel in front of the driver. The production version reportedly rides on the third-gen Mini platform but retains all of the concept's major styling elements. In place of the electric motor, expect the current engine offerings with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder and a 2.0-liter four-cylinder available under the hood. Patent documents might provide an even better hint at what to expect. They also show the design not changing much, other than the lights no longer in the grille, a framed windshield and slightly smaller fin. The Union Jack taillights remain, though. Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW Group member in charge of Mini, asserted the company was testing the waters for production shortly after the Superleggera's debut. At the time, the price was speculated to be around 35,000 euros if the car arrived on the market in Europe. Related Video:

MINI Cooper SE Convertible concept is a one-off EV for sun worshippers

Mini rummaged through its parts bin to create a new concept called Cooper SE Convertible. As its name implies, the electric ragtop was built by dropping the Cooper SE hatchback's battery-powered drivetrain into the body of a gasoline-powered Cooper S Convertible. Visually, the Cooper SE Convertible stands out from its gasoline-powered sibling by adopting some of the Cooper SE's defining styling cues. It wears a plastic panel instead of a grille, an array of powertrain-specific emblems, yellow accents, and 17-inch Power Spoke wheels. Mini also added a handful of "THIS TOY IS ELECTRIC" decals, and it kept the power-operated soft top that opens or closes in 18 seconds. Power comes from the Cooper SE's electric drivetrain, which consists of an electric motor that draws electricity from a 28.9-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack to zap the front wheels with 181 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque. The hatchback's maximum driving range checks in at about 110 miles, which is hardly a stellar number, and we don't know what effect chopping off the top has on that figure. Mini stresses that the Cooper SE Convertible is not a production model. We're not surprised: the current-generation Hardtop is at the end of its life cycle and its successor should make its debut in the not-too-distant future. However, the concept suggests (though nothing is official yet) that the next-generation Convertible will be offered with an electric powertrain. And while drop-top sales are dropping around the world, but Mini said in 2021 that it won't leave the segment. The next Mini Convertible is tentatively scheduled to make its debut in 2025. Related Video This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.