Mini Celebrates 50th Birthday With Two New Models

By Henny Hemmes,
Senior European Editor
Amsterdam Bureau
The Auto Channel

SILVERSTONE, England, May 25. On the occasion of the upcoming fiftieth birthday of the Mini, the BMW-division had a huge celebration last weekend at the Silverstone race track in England.

The celebrations took off with the introduction of the new models, the Mini 50 Mayfair and the Mini 50 Camden.

Both models are named after boroughs of London. Mayfair is known for its exclusive houses and Camden is the trendy neighborhood with antique markets, popular with young successful professionals.

Hence, the Mini 50 Mayfair is dedicated to the classic Mini of 1982, that came as a special Mayfair model, combining excellent comfort with a sophisticated look. The new Mayfair interprets this in a modern way. The body is painted in Hot Chocolate metallic with Toffy metallic stripes, lined with white pinstripes and matched with a white roof. The Mayfair can also be delivered in Pepper White or Midnight Black. The car comes with 17-inch white painted light-alloy wheels. The color scheme of the leather interior matches the outside.

The Camden looks into the future but has a realistic new Harman Kardon hifi system, dubbed Mission Control. “With this,” said Mini’s chief executive Dr. Armbrecht, “ the Camden is the first speaking Mini.” The system can interact with the driver and talk about the weather situation, safety (please put your safety belts on) or instruct to switch on the air conditioning, or inform about the amount of fuel left in the gas tank.

The production of both versions will be limited to one year and will start on August 26, exactly a year after the presentation of the original Mini.

Furthermore, Mini announced at Silverstone that it will present its first crossover vehicle at the IAA auto show in Frankfurt in September. The number 4 plays a major role, as it is the fourth model, seats four people, has four doors and 4WD and is longer than 4 meters.

The concept car for the crossover was unveiled at the Paris auto show last year. The car will arrive on markets worldwide in 2010.

In Frankfurt, Mini will show some concepts of other ideas that might see production in the near future.