A beautiful Mini Cooper Mk VII, seen in Beijing back in 2013 on the parking lot of my apartment building near Dongzhimen in central Beijing. The good Mini was in a fantastic shape, painted in light blue with black window frames, a lot of chrome, a Hello Kitty sticker on the windshield, and the sporty wide tires with alloys wheels.
Like so many great cars I saw there, this Mini belonged to a neighbor of mine. A somewhat secretive guy who somehow managed to get his hands on many great cars. They usually stayed on the parking lot for a few weeks and then they were gone again. Most of his cars were recent imports but some were bought in period. I believe he worked for a semi-state owned import and export firm, which apparently enabled him to run a little car business on the side.
The interior was customized. By the look of it, the job was done locally in China. It looked brand new and this style is quite common. The color scheme and leather matches the Mini very well. The chromed door handle and window hand crank are interesting.
Power came from a 1.3 liter four-cylinder petrol engine with 62hp and 95nm, mated to a four-speed manual gearbox. Top speed was 148 kilometer per hour and 0-100 was gone in 13 seconds. Not fast, but it went in style.
The Cooper was decorated with Hello Kitty stickers on the windows and on the rear fender, below the Mini Cooper badge. Sadly, the hub caps are missing from the 8-spoke alloy wheels. I suspect they were taken off during transport, and someone forgot to put ‘m back on.
The Cooper badge on the back had various colors. Perhaps this was some sort of special edition. I have tried to find out if and which but without success. If you know more, please let me know in the comments below.
Pics I took a while later. There were some ‘signatures’ on the rear fender. Sadly I didn’t take a closer look. There is a cat-like sticker on the window.
A somewhat mysterious Mini Cooper in China. Great color, great car.