>> Well, perhaps a lot of this could be explained by the fact that Frank Stephenson is AMERICAN! As was most of his design team.

Ah. Well, he looks British Were they working in the UK, or over here in the colonies?


Anyhow -- half of my reason for posting this was to ask if people were given this Blarney, ahem, anecdote when they picked up their MINI (or at some other point in the process).

Mark

 

>>Well, perhaps a lot of this could be explained by the fact that Frank Stephenson is AMERICAN! As was most of his design team.

And wasn't the car designed in Studio City, Calif.? Thought I saved the LA Times article about the designers but can't find it. And there are dozens of liquor stores around their office so the Bud story is probably correct.

 

Has anyone painted or put decals on the exhaust tip to make it look like a real soda or beer can? haha that would be so funny to see

 

I know that BMW does have design offices in the LA area, so it's very possible the car was designed there. My boyfriend's an industrial designer, and I've heard many stories, both from his time in school and at his job, invovling situations like this. In fact, people with a good sense of humour, have a tendancy to search these kind of last minute details out, just to make their job more interesting. (I.E. my boyfriend designed a colinder where all the holes were shaped like little interlocking 69's, 'cause he finds that funny, and his bosses just thought it was a beautiful design!)

 

To continue the story, after upper management saw the clay model with the beer can exhaust, Mr. Stephenson's boss called him into his office and berated him for spending time and money having an exhaust tip machined for a clay model....or so the story goes.....