Purchases

Sheila and Paul, friends of mine back in England, sent me a DVD called “The Ultimate History of The Mini” (published through Marks & Spencer). I could not find it online, and since it is PAL format it is not useful to most of my American friends – but it is a good DVD with some excellent video of the classic Mini, including loads of Minis and some MINIs on the 2003 London To Brighton Mini run.
I used PowerDVD to capture some screenshots; there are some good sequences of classic Minis being driven around, some shots of heavily modified Minis, and a short sequence on the design of the new MINI, which includes a picture where we see a MINI Convertible concept on-screen:

Update: I found the same DVD, with slightly different cover design, on Amazon.co.uk (in PAL format of course, so not suitable for most American viewers).

I received the first issue of go mini, a new British publication dedicated to the new MINI. It has a number of interesting articles, including modified MINIs, an interview with the famous (in England) Jeremy Clarkson, and a look at some seriously upgraded MINIs produced to promote audio/video products made by Pioneer – these pics are from the article “in the boot is our biggest subwoofer … 5000W … four amps running it! It’s very heavy and we had to uprate the suspension”

Wow!

Until a US-based MINI-specific magazine appears, Go here to order a subscription to this magazine; the price is a reasonable £35 ($50-$60) for one year (six issues).