February 17, 2007:

MINI of Peabody R56 unveiling

What a fabulous night! MINI of Peabody really know how to put on a great event

We began the evening with covered R56′s, old friends, and good food!

Later, Paul Taylor (General Sales Manager of MoP) did a welcome speech, and we watched the Fifth Gear R56 review, and both Hammer & Coop trailers before, finally, the covers came off the new MINIs:

In time we were able to get closer to the cars and take some pics (loads in the Gallery); I also had a quick 1/2 mile as a passenger in an MCa, and finally saw Lucky, heavily covered in ducks!

For more pics and opinions …

As everyone else has reported, the R56 has been significantly re-engineered to reduce costs and it does show in some areas – the hood is surely much less expensive, thinner and lighter now it doesn’t have to carry the headlights, and less complex curves …

Most obvious is the gap between hood and wheel arch trim … but it’s very obvious if you look for it, and almost un-noticeable when you don’t! Not so bad after all:

The plastic back of the center stack is really quite ugly and feels cheap:

I’m also quite disappointed in the looks of the MC now … back in 2002 the MC looked better than the MCS in many ways, with the wide “chrome bumpers” as a nod to the classic MINI, and the nicer shape of the hood. But now the R56 MC looks sad in some respects (especially the awful plastic side marker “grille”) … in turn however the styling cues on the R56 MCS really work well; the side marker is much less ugly in “S” guise and the front grille & hood shape looks good instead of sad:

Inside, the bigger speedometer looks pretty good – I like all the extra amber displays!

I can’t decide about the seats yet … they felt more cramped when I sat in them, yet GPMINIs seat felt uncomfortable on the way home!

In summary, the new MCS is nice and I need to stop thinking about it

(if you haven’t seen or read enough yet, head over to the Gallery for more pics & comments)