The Mini looked dynamic and an evolution of the original; you could imagine there being a couple of earlier models, design stepping stones leading to the R50, as the new Mini was known internally.

Where did all those years go? The first generation of Mini Cooper (R50/R53) debuted in the United States in 2002. Yet it still seems like a newcomer. Perhaps because it has kept its freshness.

A few months back, I wrote a piece about finding and tuning a first-generation R50 MINI Cooper. A few weeks later, I woke up to a message in my LinkedIn inbox. It was Frank Stephenson reaching out ...

Cooper S Sidewalk Convertible £20,275 34.0 mpg 7.4 s Cooper S Sidewalk Convertible Auto £20,275-- Supercharged R50 MINI Cooper S with 163bhp, coded R53. Together with a six-speed gearbox, gets it from ...

Although BMW’s 2000 sale of Rover prompted a Viking-expunging rewrite of corporate history, development of the R50 Mini was largely ... the wheel-at-each corner stance, the short overhangs ...