For insiders of the BMW tuning scene, this Mini One is nearly an "old buddy". Its owner regularly drives to all the important BMW tuning meetings and tuning trade fairs with the racing-style R50 in the summer season to present the vehicle there, innumerable cups could be won by the proud mini owner at scene events already. This success is not least due to JM Cardesign from Bergheim, the company responsible for turning the mini from a serial car to a motorsport look show car with an impressive range of modifications and detail improvements performed on this small Brit.
Into the front part of the former starter mini, JM Cardesign integrated the characteristic air inlet motor hood of its big compressor brother Cooper S and its side indicator lights, including the red "S". Open the doors and be amazed: with the LSD hinges installed by JM Cardesign, they open upwards. Below, the racing style side sills are located. Above the tail windscreen, there is a carbon tail wing of the series spear tip "John Cooper Works". The three-door car body was also applied with many decals – in the style of the racing brothers form the mini cup.
If you are expecting the motor power of the JCW model or even a cup mini, you will be
disappointed, this is a show vehicle rather than a racing one. The 1.6 litre four-cylinder motor was not changed, and still has an output of 90 HP. With a special exhaust system from the cat, the small motor will, however, – quite successfully – act as if it had at least twice its actual output.
The white-painted CR Kai light metal wheel rims from Work Wheels that JM Cardesign equipped the yellow racer with also seem to come right from the racetrack. Everywhere, the Bergheim tuber combined the 7.5x18-inch racing look one-part wheel rims with Dunlop rubbers in 215/35ZR18. Behind the wheels there are perforated Brembo braking discs that look decorative while also improving the deceleration performance. Perfect road adhesion of the mini, which is very agile even in the serial version, was achieved by JM Cardesign by installing an H&R threaded chassis. Between the two front strut towers, a red Wiechers bar was installed to improve stiffness.
Inside the One, JM Cardesign also used the racing design: two Recaro pole position shell seats were placed in the white Wiechers roll cage, securing passengers with 3.5 inch wide Schroth-4-point belts. Great parts of the dashboard cover were painted in the car's colour to match the car body and decorated with decals. The back seat was removed, and an original mini cup racing tank is placed behind the back of the roll cage – just a decoy, however. In spite of the racing look, the mini was given a basic multimedia system in the form of a Clarion-Head unit with Flip-Monitor and connected reversing camera.
