Moderator, please remove my first effort.

Ian

Alright then, here we go:

As she arrived:



For those of you that haven't seen the Anthracite dash....



After the CooperFlags Union Jack install by Guchi Graaphics in Ontario, CA - really nice install job by the way:



And another:



Now, both of them together for size comparison:

 

Nice pics, she is a beauty. I can't wait to get mine. What kind of seat covers are those?

Butch

 

Those are space cloth seats. I dithered over that coice for ages, but after having had leather in my last 5 cars I find I don't miss it at all. The cloth is very solid, great feel and excellent on those sweaty SoCal days.

 

Very, very nice maddog!!!! Daily driver?

 

Yep, my daily driver. Traded in a 2002 BMW 330CiC for the Mini experience. So far very positive. Only downside to the Mini is the harsh ride on the freeways. There are a bunch of crappy concrete surfaced freeways here, and it seems that the combination of the Mini's stiff supension, the runflat sidewalls and the shortwheelbase adds up to a very choppy ride on this surface. That, however, is a very small price to pay for the outright blast the car is to drive everwhere else. This car is definitely "sneaky quick", it doesn't feel strained at all while demonstrating really lively acceleration (I felt like I had to really punish the BMW to get it to fly, while the Mini just sort of does it). It's also suprising how much juice there is in 5th, 6th, certainly takes the edge of the engine, but then so it should.

Verdict so far is a solid 11 out of 10, would've got a 12 if not for the freeway thing.