this afternoon junior at long beach mini kindly showed me a 2007 mcs even though i told him up front that i wouldn't be buying a first year car.

i hated 2007 in the online photos. well, in person it looks much, much, better, attractive even. you must see this car in person before deciding on the degree of beauty or ugluness. it's true that the front end is larger and there's a little bubble butt...........but, for lack of a better phrase, it just still has this unmistakable mini funkiness.

i won't post pictures that are duplicates of things already posted.

sparco shmarco, the seats are spectacular. the thigh support, bolstering and lumbar fit are much, much, better than the sport seats on my 2003 mcs. i saw black fabric seats. the fabric doesn't have the nap of the older cloth, is a much tighter weave, and appears to be more durable and stain resistant. here's a picture that doesn't do the cloth justice

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

you can just make out the classy checked pattern in the cloth.

since i want to use a lightweight battery, i was concerned about thermal isolation of the battery in the engine compartment. here's a shot of the battery tucked into a closed well on the back passenger side of the firewall

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

alas, mr. obscure entry go cart track intake designer is still at it. the intake looks as bad as the first gen cars, tucked way off to the side near the driver headlight :

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

and here's the isle of man/old nurburgring intake tube leading all the way to the back of the engine and the turbo intake coming all the way back forward

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821


( what's the lap time of the air on this tract )

the hood scoop is totally blocked, but this whole intake thing just screams out for somebody to remove the plastic and shorten this whole thing.

i still want to lower the hood with my own carbon fiber design to get rid of the eurotrash pedestrian **** gap. i was worried about heat from the turbo, but there isn't any insulation at all under the hood. there is a sheet metal turbo heat shield though:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

i'll post more pictures later.

 

+1

What's under the sheet metal cover of the turbo that's so bad? I assume it just gets really hot and they want to keep us from scorching out little fingers? It's REALLY an ugly cover. Looks like it was hand-hammered to roll the edges. Very rough job.

Say what you will about bling... if that cover has to be there, I'll be forming a mold and making a laying out a one-off carbon fiber replacement piece as soon as my car arrives. I couln't do a hood... but I know I can do this myself.

 

what's that:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bridger/380293150/

 

????? i'll check again, but i thought the hood i saw was completely bare.......

the padding in your picture doesn't look like it lines up with the turbo???? if it doesn't cover the turbo, what's it for?

as further confusion, there's a picture from the european launch that shows much larger insulation.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...=43148&cat=500

 

That is the huge plate that supports the little block-off insert for the hood scoop. Hmmm... why such a big plate to support that little insert? And why does the rear of that plate trail all the way back to the top of the airbox? Very strange...

 

i agree that the turbo heat shield looked of lesser quality than everything else under the hood. here's another shot showing what looked like to me hand worked forming at the inside edge. ( i saw a mig 29 up close once. the louvers for the gun gas extraction looked like the slots were cut by a hacksaw, then twisted up and opened with pliers give me that heat shield to work on, comrade )

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

to add fuel to the hood insulation fire:the one i saw looked like work had been done on the inside of the hood. the paint wasn't pristine; there were some marks on the paint.

as part of thinking how low i could drop the hood, i've been wondering whether that brace all across the front is really structural or just a secondary mount for other stuff. here's a shot of that brace attached at the rear:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

i'm not worked up one way or the other about the interior. the car i saw was all black (including the center stack legs) with a white headliner and nice, interesting checker patterned dash and door trim.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00&ppuser=4821

the only thing i really disliked were the stupid, childish mini logo shaped controls inside the speedo and on the center stack. the large speedo didn't bother me. the interior design overall is....crisper...than the old one. not better or worse, just different. the interior materials were not, as reported, cheaper looking than the first gen cars.

the telescoping steering wheel let me get more comfortable. the 3 spoke steering wheel is just way better for me than my current 2 spoke. withthe 3 spoker, i can put my hands right where i want them and hook my thumbs back around. i'm never comfortable with my 2 spoke wheel.

 

the car i saw today did NOT have that pad. the blocking of the hood scoop hole was by a black plastic fake screen piece that snapped in. it was backed up by a small "u" shaped piece of metal right at the back of the scoop hole inside the hood. there wasn't anything else there.

uh, who cares about this anyway?

 

There was a black pad like that on the S I saw at the Phila Car Show. Pre production?

 

Perhaps all the US complaints about no supercharger whine, the car not "visceral" enough - maybe they kept triming back the insulation, finally took it out completely!?

 

Interesting... MINI factory part, you think?

Oh. Sorry. Never mind.

 

More signs if insulation on the hood:



Somebody posted from a visit to their dealer - can see that pad just at the edge of the photo

 

Ok - case closed. This image shows the MCS has the pad, the MC does not. Simple case of mistaken identity.



thanks to mcdbrendan for the shot

 

nope. the mcs i saw didn't have the pad. the fate of the free world depends on this.....

 

what can I say - I like a good mystery.

 

I went to the Long Beach MINI revealing and here's some pics that I took









enjoy the pics, and maybe you'll even see yourself