Automotive

MINI John Cooper Works Countryman Goes Maximum

How many modifiers can a company add to a product? In this case, it seems two, and big ones at that. It’s not just a MINI (the new ones are all caps) it’s a MINI John Cooper Works. It’s not just a MINI John Cooper Works, it’s a MINI John Cooper Works Countryman.

So what gives?

When the new MINI hit the roads, they had a real success on their hands (they, in this case, is actually BMW, since MINI is one of their sub-brands). But like a lot of modern business, making one product great that everybody wanted wasn’t the answer, funny as that seems.

Dynamic Duality

Now, there are two things at play here. The first is fashion. If you have a hit on your hands, it might, in large part, be down to fashion trends. And what can be in fashion can also fall out of fashion very quickly. The people in the accounting department don’t like possibilities like that.

The other factor at play is range expansion. If you can diversify your offerings, say by not just making a 3 seat pickup truck – but by branching out and making crew cabs, and long beds, and step sides, dually configurations, and all combinations that I just mentioned – then you can capture more of the existing market, or, even better, pull in more customers who wouldn’t have thought to buy your product in the first place.

It’s just basic business management 101, and almost goes without having to mention. There is, however, the other edge of this knife: You can seriously torque off your loyal customer base.

Mucking about with variations of pickup trucks is one thing, but what if Chevy started making station wagon Corvettes, and four-door Corvettes, and stuff like that? The mob would be at the outskirts of Bowling Green with their pitchforks and torches before nightfall. And, honestly, I wouldn’t blame them.

This, in a certain way, is what MINI faces.

The distinctive character of the new MINI John Cooper Works Countryman is derived from the brand’s racing roots. The classic Mini clinched its first victory 55 years ago, when the Mini Cooper won the British Touring Car Championship. Photo: MINI USA / BMW of North America, LLC.

Vintage Versus Modern

I know a few devoted MINI people who just loved the things when they first hit. Bought them. Fawned over them. Rallied them (they’re good for that). Modified them into frightening little track beasts . . . then MINI started monkeying with the formula.

There were convertibles, and then that little two-seater thing, and this variant, and that variant and, the subject of today’s piece, The Clubman. This got a bunch of MINI aficionados seriously cheesed off. (Then again, the new MINI got a bunch of die-hard original Mini people (note the spelling difference) seriously cheesed off as well, but that’s a whole other story.) They swore up and down never to darken the doors of a dealership again. But, proof being in the pudding, although MINI lost some customers, they also sold a lot of these Countryman things.

The Countryman is actually not a new thing. Mini, back when they were British-owned, British-built, and about as British as warm beer, actually sold an archaic version of today’s Countryman. The old Countryman was, like the one today, a stretched wheelbase thing, but only had two doors, and, the best feature, wood accents. Most people called them “Woody’s” or ” Woody Countrymen.”

And that’s who they were aimed at. Farmers and the like who had to get a modicum of stuff from their farm or workshop cheaply and efficiently.

Today’s Countryman is aimed at a completely different set of people: urban dwellers who might, possibly, some day, want some sort of an SUV or a cute-ute, but can’t bring themselves to make that leap. The MINI Countryman aims to scratch that itch. And with the available John Cooper Works, that itch is scratched rahter quickly.

The Countryman is a little four door conveyance that sort of looks like a cut-ute, say a Toyota RAV 4, that has been put through a “de-big-u-lator” and shrunk down. It sits tall on the road (relative to other MINIs), and does seem, in its own small way, more practical than the other MINIs out there.

The new MINI John Cooper Works Countryman has a specific version of MINI’s TwinPower Turbo Technology. Made of highly temperature-resistant material, the turbocharger generates a charge-air pressure which is now increased to 2.2 bar, making the engine more efficient when creating power. The engine is mounted transversely. Photo: MINI USA / BMW of North America, LLC.

Performance Figures

The new MINI John Cooper Works Countryman is enthused down the way by a 4-cylinder turbo engine that puts out 228 horsepower and 258 lb-ft. of torque. That is, to use the technical term, a lot, for a relatively small car. Unlike other, okay, traditional MINIs, all that power and torque is delivered unto the pavement (or lack thereof) via a standard all-wheel drive system MINI calls ALL4.

It’s an always on variable slip and torque distribution system.

The suspension, which MINI calls a “sports suspension,” features a Brembo brake system and 18-inch light alloy wheels. The whole lot, engine, suspension, and aerodynamics have been worked over by the fine fellows at John Cooper Works racing enterprises and the results are rather impressive.

60 mph comes up in 6.2 seconds which is both respectably quick and 0.8 seconds faster than the MINI Cooper S Countryman with the ALL4 drivetrain. Top speed? 145 mph. Which probably feels like falling off a cliff in a phone booth, but let’s not dwell on that.

Speaking of John Cooper Works, they’ve tweaked the aerodynamics up front to feature especially large air inlets, fiddled with the insides to give you a model-specific interior with John Cooper Works sports seats, standard LED headlamps, MINI Driving Modes, and Comfort Access. Yeah, I’m not sure about those last two either, but they’re there.

The optional Driving Assistant system includes collision warning with city braking function, camera-based active cruise control, pedestrian warning with initial brake function, high beam assistant, and road sign detection. Other similar features include Park Distance Control with sensors at the front and Parking Assistant with automatic steering for parallel parking maneuvers. Photo: MINI USA / BMW of North America, LLC.

Too Many Treatments?

The MINI marketing types hasten to point out there are “five fully fledged seats, and a significant increase in space, luggage compartment size, and versatility as compared to the predecessor model.” Which is a nice idea, but I still wouldn’t ride in the back seat for a long haul. Shoot, Tyrion Lannister would feel cramped.

Nice try though.

But, say you live in an urban area; Chicago or Seattle or Boston. Say you have two young-ish kids, and occasionally get out of town and onto dirt roads, or go shopping for antiques or something along those lines. You, my friend, are the ideal MINI John Cooper Works Countryman customer.

Personally, I don’t have those needs and the fact this thing has four doors in an anathema to my sensibilities. But that drivetrain . . . or, more precisely that engine.

Ditch the all wheel drive system, make a front drive like Alec Issigonis and Paddy Hopkirk intended, put it into the “normal” MINI body, and lose the back seat, AC, and any other things that add pounds and rob performance. Then that 228 horsepower and 258 lb-ft. of torque from that 4-cylinder turbo engine would be a real sweet deal.

But that’s just me.

The new MINI John Cooper Works Countryman will be shown for the first time in April at the Shanghai Motor Show. Expect them at U.S. dealerships around the same time.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.

MINI John Cooper Works Countryman Gallery

Photos & Source: MINI USA / BMW of North America, LLC.

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Letter From The UK: Frank James’ Gun

At the time of writing this, Automoblog’s esteemed Managing Editor, Carl Anthony, was in the air taking in the latest car shows for our benefit. It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it. He has to travel great distances that we here in the comparatively tiny British Isles cannot comprehend.

As the crow flies, the length of the British mainland is six hundred miles approximately. Americans will drive further for a good burger. Nowhere in the UK is more than seventy miles from an ocean, yet I imagine there are people in the USA who have never experienced the soft sough of a salty sea breeze.

Historic Locations

History runs rapidly away from us down the long corridor of time until it becomes nothing more than a myth or legend; something to be learned from the movies or modern political interpretation, and then eventually forgotten. Here in the UK, we can visit all manner of historic locations in a day yet we envy America’s vast sprawling history, which to us, seems somehow more romantic.

We have never really had a frontier.

This was why, just a few years ago, my wife and I took a drive, deep into the historic English county of Somerset to visit the American Museum in Britain. The American Museum takes you on a journey through the history of the United States, from its early settlers to the 20th century. With its remarkable collection of folk and decorative arts, the Museum shows the diverse and complex nature of American traditions. The only museum of Americana outside the United States, it was founded to bring American history and cultures to the people of Britain and Europe.

It has succeeded. It is a wonderful institution.

The American Museum in Britain opened to the public in 1961 – the achievement of four colleagues: Dr. Dallas Pratt (an American psychiatrist and collector), John Judkyn (a British born antiques dealer, who had become a United States citizen), Nick Bell Knight (a furniture restorer employed at nearby Freshford Manor, Judkyn’s business base in Britain) and Ian McCallum, the Museum’s first Director. Photo: American Museum in Britain.

Porsche Power

We visited the Museum for two reasons. One was that, at the time, I was the proud owner of a red Porsche Cayman and I wanted to stretch that 2.7 liter “flat-six” to the limit on what I knew would be some testing, winding country roads. My wife, Beverley, said nothing but she did that raised eyebrows thing that ladies are wont to do when presented with the mystery that is man.

For once the weather was benign. The sun was out and the highways were dry, and we encountered a strange and rather wonderful automotive experience. We were on a blissfully empty dual carriageway. The road unfurled before us as my foot slowly pushed the pedal to the sumptuous German carpet.

The engine roared right behind our heads reminding us of the power of Porsche. Suddenly, at a certain speed, everything went strangely serene. The car had found its sweet spot, that moment when all the mechanical parts come together in perfect harmony. It was as if we were floating above the blacktop on a magic carpet ride.

Unfortunately, the maximum speed limit in the UK is just 70 mph. The sweet spot on my Cayman was 105 mph. You can see my problem. Reluctantly, I lifted and we continued to the American Museum untroubled by the cops.

Photo: DriveWrite Automotive.

Frank James’ Gun

In addition to the remarkable permanent exhibits on show, the Museum was, at the time, hosting a traveling exhibition entitled Gangsters and Gunslingers in a newly opened facility. This was the purpose of our visit.

Well, it was fascinating. The rooms in the new building were beautifully laid out with all manner of artifacts that, most importantly, were a genuine part of history and not just some made-up movie romantic notion.

History came flooding back down that corridor of time and confronted us directly.

I cannot account for why one exhibit took a hold of me specifically. It was, allegedly (and I don’t see why this august institution should invent this story), a revolver dropped from the hand of outlaw Frank James as he ran from the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, after the aborted raid by the James-Younger gang in September of 1876.

Of course, American Western legends take a hold of British boys of all ages, thanks to the magic of moving pictures. We’d seen the film. We know what happens.

This though was the real thing. Frank James may have fired this gun with intent to harm the townsfolk who were fighting back. What I can say though is that I was transfixed, almost in awe of the small, insignificant piece of history placed right before my eyes.

Northfield’s First National Bank as it would have looked during the time of the robbery in 1876. Photo: Northfield Historical Society.

American History Made Real

I won’t labor the point. The American Museum in Britain has many fine and interesting historical items, including a series of rooms dedicated to home furnishings over the centuries which is much more interesting than it sounds.

There is, however, one room I found oddly unsettling. It was filled with decorative arts and it was in this room I felt history pressing on me more than ever before. There were many things that would likely be unacceptable to modern sensibilities today, including a small naive painting – that could just be imagined on a cabin wall – of a settler pointing a long rifle at a Native American. There was another showing military workings at a Civil War battle.

Some exhibits were strange to the point of wondering how folk ever found this artwork attractive. They didn’t get this stuff out of the Sears catalog. The room felt constricting and I was glad to leave it. Maybe it’s just me? On the journey back, I relished the open, modern road and the drive home.

Photo: Porsche Cars North America, Inc.

More Porsche Power

Just a few days before writing this back in the here and now, I was once again driving a Porsche Cayman, this time the very latest 718 model. The engine is still mid-mounted but has been reduced to a turbo-charged 2.0 liter four-cylinder. Despite this, it is faster, more economical, and so much better to drive than my earlier Cayman, long gone and forever disappearing up that historical automotive road.

The new model is, without question, a masterpiece. The Porsche people almost had to wrestle me to the ground to get the keys. Even Beverley, who looks at me in a kind of wonder when I wax all lyrical and poetic about a car, had to admit it was superb.

Teasingly, I am not saying more at this time. No, sorry, I am resolved. We will feature a full review of that glorious 718 soon, long before the memory of that auspicious week fades into history.

Geoff Maxted is a motoring writer, photographer, and author of our Letter From The UK series. Follow his work on Twitter: @DriveWrite

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2018 Ford Mustang: More Tech, More Performance, More Everything

Yay, the new(ish) 2018 Ford Mustang is here! It’s not all new, more like a timely refresh and updates here and there that will improve on things. Ah, but what the Lords of Dearborn giveth, they also taketh away.

Okay, let’s get the sort-of-bad-news out of the way. That rather nice 3.7-liter V6 that used to sit within the Mustang’s engine bay? That’s gone. A shame really, since it got really good mileage and could put out 300 horsepower. A lot of gearheads, I among them, thought that engine option was pretty much a performance/dollar leader.

Sad to see it go.

The entry level Mustang will now come with the 2.3-liter EcoBoost, a four-cylinder engine that uses Ford’s “transient overboost technology,” exclusively tuned for Mustang. Ford says the 2.3-liter EcoBoost gives a torque increase under wide-open throttle acceleration, so that sounds good.

Interior Treatments & Driver Adjustments

Let’s start with the inside, where we find Ford’s first 12-inch all-digital LCD screen. I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, but a “12-inch LCD screen” falls into the Big Honkin’ Screen category. The all-new instrument cluster is customizable and can be personalized with three separate views: normal, sport, and track. There’s also a new MyMode shtick in the Mustang, with a memory function, for saving favorite drive settings, like suspension and steering preferences.

Also on the “you can tweak it” end of things is the engine note. Drivers can adjust how the car sounds to serve up “an audible experience like never before,” says FoMoCo. There is an optional active valve exhaust system for the Mustang GT that offers “a fully variable soundtrack to match the entire acceleration range.”

I don’t think it’s a very good idea if you have a lead foot. No, I don’t think it will hurt anybody. Unless you have a lead foot.

The 2018 Ford Mustang has a new, hand-stitched wrap with contrast stitching on the center console. Door handles, rings, and bezels are finished in aluminum. Photo: Ford Motor Company.

Safety & Security

Ford says the new Mustang benefits from a vast array of driver-assist technologies. I will leave the truthfulness of the word “benefits” up to you. Personally, I think a lot of this “driver assistance” stuff is unnecessary and does for people what they should be doing anyway (like keeping it between the lines, dummy!). But hey, people seem to want it, manufacturers want to sell it, and, truth be told, I bet their legal departments are insisting on it.

The 2018 Mustang has bells and whistles like Pre-Collision Assist with pedestrian detection, distance alert, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, and Driver Alert System. It all breaks down into this: Pay attention. Pay attention! PAY ATTENTION! PAY ATTENTION YOU BIG DUMMY!

The new Mustang also continues Ford’s use of the pretty impressive SYNC Connect and FordPass system. This is the first time it’s on a Mustang. The FordPass app allows owners to start, lock, unlock, and locate their car on their smartphone. Handy. But all this is just icing on the cake.

2018 Ford Mustang. Photo: Ford Motor Company.

Engine Technology

What 100% (give or take) of Mustang buyers care about is performance. Yes, handling is important to them. And so is braking. But ultimately, it’s what’s under that long hood that really piques their interest. Residing ‘neath the hood is Ford’s evergreen 5.0-liter V8.

But, Ford hastens to point out the mill has been “thoroughly reworked” for more power and higher revs than any Mustang GT before.

All that extra power showed up with the first use of Ford’s new dual-fuel, high-pressure direct injection, low-pressure port fuel injection system on a V8. Without getting too bogged down, what this gets you on the strip, at the track, and on the street is stout low-end torque, high-rpm power, and improved fuel efficiency.

Transmission Performance

All this grunt is delivered to the tarmac via a manual transmission (both for the EcoBoost and the 5.0) that has been upgraded for optimum torque. The V8 transmission has been entirely reworked and now includes a twin-disc clutch and dual-mass flywheel to increase torque capability and deliver more efficient clutch modulation.

So gone are the days of that “klank-crunch-rrrRRRRrrrr” of Mustangs of yore.

If you’re more of an automatic cruising around kind of gearhead, then you’ll be happy to hear that Ford’s new 10-speed automatic transmission is offered with both the EcoBoost and 5.0 engines. The 10-speed has a wide-ratio span and optimized gear spacing, improving responsiveness and performance.

In case you are in doubt about the performance, contrasted to the previous six-speed, the new 10-speed transmission has quicker shift times and significantly lessened friction losses. The electronic control system is entirely new and includes unique tuning for the different drive modes. In case you want to feel like Nico Rosberg, there are steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

According to Ford, the 2018 Mustang is the most advanced Mustang ever. Photo: Ford Motor Company.

Ride & Handling

For those of you that care about more than just going fast (i.e. the smarter apes out there), the suspension has also been considered. There are new shock absorbers for better ride control, for example. A new cross-axis joint in the rear suspension increases lateral stiffness, while advanced stabilizer bars create sharper handling.

MagneRide dampers are a new option in the Mustang Performance Package too.

Design Dynamics

Nothing real new or radical here, just finessing of strokes, nudging of lines a little, a nip here, a tuck there.

The hood and grille have been lowered to produce a leaner look and to refine aerodynamics. The upper and lower front grilles have changed slightly, and the hood vents have a new position. The headlights are all-LED, a first, and fog lamps are available. The rear end also gets in on the party with revised LED tail lamps, a new bumper, fascia, and available performance spoiler. A dual tip exhaust is standard with the EcoBoost plant and the V8 mill Mustang GT gets a standard quad-tip exhaust.

Wheel choices? You get a dozen available alloy wheel designs. And you even get a fresh exterior color choice: Orange Fury.

The 2018 Ford Mustang goes on sale in North America this fall, so get in line, if you haven’t already.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.

2018 Ford Mustang Gallery

Photos & Source: Ford Motor Company

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Infiniti’s Smart Mobility Lab Accepting Applications

The changing face of cars, from the likes of Uber and Lyft, to the possible onslaught of driverless cars from everyone from Tesla to Google and back, has traditional automakers trying to get ahead of the game. It seems like dealing with this is taking up 90% of the carmakers bandwidth these days.

Let’s call it Smart Mobility, for the sake of this discussion.

Infiniti is one such carmaker seeking to stay ahead of the game, and to do so, they are opening a tech center in, of all places, Singapore.

Singapore, is, to put it mildly, an odd place. Once little more than an outpost for British colonialism, it morphed over time into a strange hybrid crossroads-of-the-world and nascent tech giant. A modern city-state with rather, a-hem, arcane ideas about peace and justice. A place where there’s enough high tech everything to look like Spock’s suburb but where chewing gum will get you dragged before the firing squad.

Or, as cyberpunk author William Gibson put it: “Disneyland with the death penalty.”

Challenges & Obstacles

In a lot of tech oriented ways, if you want to break new ground and move things forward, it’s a pretty good environment to do that in. From an automotive perspective, Singapore is a nightmare. And I don’t just mean from a price, taxes, and cost of ownership perspective (although that is daunting enough). Singapore has streets and traffic of an outright disastrous nature. Take Manhattan, combine it with Cairo, and compress it down to the density of a neutron star, and you’re halfway to as crazy as driving a car in Singapore.

Designing any sort of personal mobility, from a pair of sneakers on up to a functioning automobile, to work in that sort of environment seems like madness. Like testing a Formula 1 car in a high school library. Sure, you might get it to run, but what happens when you get it out onto a real race track?

Setting The Scene

Into this crazed scene jumps Infiniti and their tech partner Nest. Nest is a venture capital company not to be confused with the people that make those learning thermostats. They have offices all over the world, seeking to turn large piles of cash into humongous piles of cash. Infiniti needs no introduction to your average gearhead. They’re the up-market brand of Nissan, that also dabbles in higher tech stuff in general from time to time.

So, the thumbnail version goes like this: “Get a tech investing and incubating firm (Nest) together with an automotive and tech firm (Infiniti) and get them to make a better personal transportation system. Sort of.”

The longer answer works like this. Put Infiniti and Nest together, let them put out a cattle call to people who think they have built a better mousetrap, sift through those ideas, then fund, build, and run with those ideas and beat your competitors in the market place. It’s called the “INFINITI LAB, Smart Mobility” and was set up, in the carmakers words, “to give founders the opportunity to achieve validation of their business over the course of eight weeks.”

Founders, in this case, means founders of tech start-ups in need of funding and exposure.

“This program could be transformational for early-stage companies who need commercial validation of their product,” said Lawrence Morgan, Nest CEO. “Start-ups need the opportunity to test their products and theories, and this program is highly focused on giving founders a clear path to POC so they can quickly gain traction and scale.”

Infiniti QX50 Concept. Photo: INFINITI Motor Company Ltd.

Making The Pitch

INFINITI LAB, Smart Mobility will be taking applications until February 12th of this year, with everything finishing up by June 2017. They are moving fast with this, and are trying to give start-ups in mobility and connectivity, with high potentials for success, intensive training and mentoring. By the time this is all through, the winners get to pitch a viable business-use case to senior decision makers and key innovation backers from across the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Or, in a nutshell, you get eight weeks to go from the idea stage to the ready for production stage, and hopefully, make heaps of money for Infiniti, Nest, and yourself.

“This program is a key part of Infiniti’s initiative to promote entrepreneurial spirit in the business community,” said Roland Krueger, President of Infiniti Motor Company.

Prime Real Estate

This also starts to show why Singapore is a pretty good choice for this venture.

It is, as navigators have known for centuries, centrally located. Especially if your looking for unique talent (think tech wizards from India, Japan, and China). It is also centrally located with respect to cheap manufacturing centers, like Taiwan, China et al. Also, Singapore has been on a tear to make everything in town connected to everything else in town, so you’d think there’s a lot of native talent to be had as well.

“Automobiles play an important role in future intelligent cities. Technologies of connectivity will enable vehicles to communicate with each other and with city infrastructures,” Krueger said. “This will significantly enhance the driving experience, and Infiniti is committed to leading the development in this area.”

Infiniti isn’t saying much else at this point, but they will announce what the outcome is in June.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars. He means well, even if he has a bias towards lighter, agile cars rather than big engine muscle cars or family sedans.

Photos, Video, & Source: INFINITI Motor Company Ltd.

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Help the Dodge Viper ACR retake its title as the fastest production car around the Nürburgring

Die-hard motorsports and Dodge Viper lovers are seeking to send the last model off into the sunset with a record-setting bang.

What’s going on?

The Dodge Viper is one of America’s most iconic sports cars ever. Currently in its fifth generation, the latest version has been with us since 2013. But sadly, although the latest Viper is also the best one yet, Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles decided to pull the plug. Meaning this will be the last Dodge Viper ever produced.

Now this is sad for a number of reasons. Firstly, the Dodge Viper is Chrysler’s only halo car–the car that interests people in the first place. That’s because the Viper is cool and an American performance icon, much like the Corvette is to Chevrolet.

Secondly, this is the best Dodge Viper ever made. So it’s disappointing to know that despite this, nobody’s buying them. And lastly, nobody likes the death of an icon.

So if you thought the saga of the Viper was to end with a slow drift into the sunset and a sad violin playing in the background, not all hope is lost. Thanks to die-hard Viper enthusiast and FM radio magnet Russ Oasis in Miami, FL, a collective group is seeking to send the last Viper off into the sunset with a big, winning bang.

What’s this big, winning bang attempt?

According to Oasis’ GoFundMe page, the goal is to have the last Dodge Viper ACR tackle the infamous Nürburgring with one task in mind: to retake the coveted as the fastest production car to lap the nearly 13-mile-long Nordschliefe.

In September 2011, the Dodge Viper ACR set this record, posting a time of 7:12:13 at the hands of renounced racer, Dominik “Ring King” Farnbacher. This record remained until several years later when Porsche took the title with the 918.

Now, the plan is to retake that title. And the only way to do this would be to meet the GoFundMe’s campaign goal of around $150,000 to $200,000.

The money raised will cover the cost to ship two Viper ACR Extremes donated by ViperExchange, the US’s proclaimed premiere dealership exclusively for the sale of Dodge Vipers. The funds also goes towards the pay for two drivers, plus any additional support required to complete the attempts.

And should you choose to donate more than $250, your name will be acknowledged and printed on a commemorative poster.

The timeline for a new Dodge Viper’s last stunt at attempting a ‘Ring record is set for APril 2017.

If the goal is not met during the GoFundMe, all donations will be refunded.

Check out the campaign, HERE.

– By: Chris Chin

The post Help the Dodge Viper ACR retake its title as the fastest production car around the Nürburgring appeared first on egmCarTech.

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