I've been told numerous times that my tastes in cars straddle the fringe of fantasy and reality. Associate Editor Mike Magrath insists that my Lotus Elise is not a "real" car and is wholly irrelevant. Jerk. So, for this week's Dream Car Corner, I'm going to spotlight a real car that I'm quite familiar with.
This past weekend, my girlfriend purchased her dream car, a 2007 Mini Cooper S with a manual transmission. OK, in the interest of full disclosure, her real dream car is a Maserati Gran Turismo, but that's way out of her price range. She's been scanning the online classifieds for months looking for a Cooper S that meets with her approval. I gave her the thumbs down on a few candidates that were overworked with aftermarket performance upgrades or were too far from home to justify taking a "look".
We found a few worthy examples at Nick Alexander Mini in Downtown L.A. -- the same dealer we secured our Mini E from. She was looking for an obnoxiously colored Cooper S (her words, not mine), perhaps in yellow, but we couldn't find one. Instead, she settled on a light silver version with a black roof. Silver is a far cry from obnoxious, but the price and mileage were right, so we decided to liven things up with some graphics.
I introduced her to Formula One racing a while back, and she took to it nicely (I doubt I could date someone who couldn't grasp the finer points of the sport). As it happens, she became a fan of McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, and his pewter and red liveried car likely influenced her decision to add some red accents.
But how will we know if these graphics will be to her liking? My answer was simple -- Xbox360. What? Stay with me.
The Forza Motorsports 3 simulator/game includes the ability for players to customize their cars with a wide array of graphics. So, I went about tarting up a Silver Mini Cooper S, the results seen below. Keen observers will note that it's actually a John Cooper Works edition. I picked that model because I didn't want to waste my in-game credits on a "regular" old Cooper S. The end result met with her approval, so she went ahead and ordered some vinyl graphics online.
I'm usually not one for racing stripes and such, but I'm actually quite pleased with the way it turned out. What do you think?
Mark Takahashi, Associate Editor
By carguy622
on August 12, 2010
10:22 AM
Looks good to me. Although I hope you keep the rims that are on the car now. Those are nice.
I can relate to her wanting an "obnoxious" color. I am so sick of boring car colors, and the Mini would have been the perfect car for it, but alas it was not meant to me. I got my car in silver too, not my first, second, or third choice!
By huyracing
on August 12, 2010
10:33 AM
mini is quirky, so its ok.
By dougtheeng
on August 12, 2010
10:41 AM
I loved my MINI, and I miss it dearly. Maintenance was not cheap though. Also, insurance was steep considering the price of the vehicle (I had a justacooper, not an S).
By blueguydotcom
on August 12, 2010
09:05 PM
Sigh...still miss my 2007 Cooper S. Rock solid little car, great mileage (30 MPG), totally reliable, drove it hard all the time and will never regret owning it.
By cruiserhead1
on August 13, 2010
08:50 AM
Looks nice! I would go for gunmetal or flat black wheels to complete the look.
By firstwagon
on August 15, 2010
05:22 PM
The Elise is a real car (as much as any 2 seater can be).
I would be happy to drive one everyday of the week as long as I have something else for family duties.