I recall reading awhile back about the ability to watch your Mini during production. When I inquired on ASK MINI I was told this was a trial that only random owners were given! Are there any future owners that have been given this access? Any current owners that had this? Any comments? Can't wait for my 2nd week of Feb production and then hopefully early March delivery. Thanks to all that been great crutches to all of us first timers:smile:

 

We were lucky enough to be one of the few selected to have a production video done for our November 2005 built MINI. The video was very cool and I was really hoping that MINI USA was going to make it available to everyone starting in the first of the new year.

Our second 2005 MINI (it's actually our third 2005 MINI since the first one was a lemon and so we no longer have it) has just finished production (on 01/09/05) and is now awaiting transport to the States. However, there's no production video available for it in the Owner's Lounge at this time (and I don't know if there ever will be). It's kind of a bummer as I'd love to have a production video for this car as well. Hopefully MINI USA will make the feature a reality some time soon so that everyone who's ordering a new MINI can enjoy it as much as we have.

BTW, there wasn't any notification given by MINI about the video being available. Basically, what happened was that I logged onto the Owner's Lounge one day and a popup appeared asking me if I'd like to see videos of my MINI being built in Oxford. When I clicked on the link it took me to a different popup that showed the video, etc. I don't have the actual video on display anywhere, but I did create a thread over on mini2.com that has snap shots taken of the entire thing. You can view it here if you'd like:

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showpost....45&postcount=9

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, there's a video available on MINI's web site that shows MINIs being built from the sheet metal all the way up to the final product. It's very cool! You can see it here:

http://www.mini.com/com/en/manufacturing/index.jsp

Just click on the "Process Camera" link to see the step-by-step production of the MINI in a time-lapse video.

I hope this helps some...

 

You know a similar video technology already exists for triathlons. During the last two Honolulu Marathons participants were able to purchase a customized video/DVD that followed their progress through the race. There were a couple of thousand folks who ordered copy's.

Each runner has a timing chip attached to their shoe that also activates a digital video camera at certain points in the run.

Should work for MINI production especialy since the vehicles aren't moving that fast and only one at a time.

Aloha!

JCW04