All Entries Tagged With: "mini by rr"
MINI by Rolls-Royce? Splendid!
- Jim takes exception to others taking exception re: the Rolls-Royce MINI concept
- Scheme hearkens back to older days
- Would make for perfect Black Friday purchase
By Jim Mahoney
THE rumor is circulating again.
Perhaps it began in Oxford or maybe the Black Forest – Rolls-Royce will join John Cooper as a supplier of bespoke options for Mini.
The confused reaction from blogosphere commentators initially indicates that they just don’t understand. The fusion between maximum luxury and minute sport seems too far a conceptual leap for most.
But the Rolls modified MINI isn’t about them. It’s about us and our dream to weave a car in the manner of our choosing.
Today configuring a car is not reviewing lists of options in an attempt create a vehicle that fits a personal definition of our needs, but a slog through packages where we’re forced to buy several options when we’re only interested in one.
Where each check of a box, increases the price and the car gets further and further from the vehicle that we desired.
There are a few manufacturers that allow customization; the Porsche Exclusive program is close to concept of designing your personal car and MINI offers a wide range of choices.
Of course these programs are mostly about choosing colors and materials with the odd hard part; even when configuring a Rolls or a Bentley.
For the concept of a truly bespoke automobile died quietly in the 1950s, killed off first by the move to unit body construction and later by vehicle safety standards.
Once, purchasing a custom auto meant selecting your preferred chassis and powertrain; Rolls, Bentley, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo and having it sent to your coach builder; Park Ward, Mulliner, Zagato, Weinberger, where you worked with the designer to construct what was truly your car.
Today this so rarely happens that it becomes a major automotive event. James Glickenhaus’s commission of Pininfarina, to build the P4/5 atop an Enzo chassis or Henrik Fisker’s modification of Mercedes SLs and BMW 6 Series are examples that recently received coverage.
But a Rolls optioned MINI!
The mind giggles at the thought of sitting with the MINI sales guy and beaming in via teleconference to the Rolls Royce bespoke representative to configure our Cooper S…
Of course it won’t be like that.
At best there will be a range of choices available in many colors. Selections that will be heavy on Connelly leather and Wilton carpets with the odd pieces in wood or machined aluminum.
But surely we’ll know that our Mini was plucked from the line in Oxford, placed on a truck and transported to Goodwood where the finest craftsmen in England will finish our Mini.
No, that won’t happen either.
The parts will likely come to Oxford not our MINI to Goodwood. Or worse, we can pick up the Genuine Rolls-Royce components from Greg the parts guy at the MINI center to be installed by Steve, the certified MINI interior specialists.
Wake up Walter.