antastic day with MINI at Bedford Autodrome which included some 'soft' off-roading, pursuit trials, track work and 2 flying laps in a German spec MINI challenge car.

The day was superb from start to finish laid on with MINI's usual creative flair and I will be providing a full write up tomorrow on my thoughts having now driven the Countryman in Cooper Auto, Cooper Diesel and Cooper S All4 guises off road and on track and the results might surprise you.

However, here's a few random taster pics:

Nicely specified Countryman S All4 with aerokit







Sneak peak at new Roadster Concept, video walk around on its way.



Hot R56 MINI Challenge Laps, even in the wet they corner like you wouldn't believe...



Few sneaky shots of the new Coupe Concept, not being launched in the UK until September 2011 sadly.




Nice silver R56 JCW Calipers



Facelift John Cooper Works, MINI have listened to our love of GP style dials :thumbup:






And yes, this is how dirty the rest of the group got their Countryman after two laps of the off-road course, they were all clean before...



And this is how dirty Team MT got it once we told our Palmersport guide that Adam Foster was an MT member and he taught us everything we knew, to which he replied "Traction control off and lets see you drift it with the handbrake and as much gas as she'll take...." two laps later and it ended up like this...



Full review of the entire day including a write up of the Cooper Auto, Cooper Diesel and Cooper S All4 coming shortly. Keep an eye on this thread for more info: http://www.minitorque.com/forum/f649...88/#post228534

 

Bit of thrown together video, we need a dedicated MT film crew!

 

<rant on>Why do people put music on car videos? The cars make their own music! I bet the MINI Challenge car sounded great. <rant off>