BMW Should Have Put The M3 V8 In A Mini, But Since They Didn't I'm Glad This One Exists

"It looks like it has always been in there," says Jonny Smith, admiring the fitment of a BMW S65 V8 in the engine compartment of a modern Mini Cooper. Built as a track-day car, this Mini is no longer a mere hot hatch; it's been imbued with the screaming heart of an M3. What's hotter than hot? Does that make it a fire hatch or a Diablo hatch? This 4.0-liter V8 makes 414 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque, which is far more than the Mini had when it left the factory. And to accommodate the unique-for-a-Mini longitudinal engine layout, the car was given a rear-driven axle — no more front-wheel drive here. 

"Would you rather show up to a track day at Snetterton in a GT3 RS, or piss them all off in this?" Chris Harris asks about the Bimmer-Mini. This car uses an old-school big-engine-in-a-little-car formula that has worked for a wide variety of supercars and race cars for a hundred years. There's no way to go wrong with a big engine in a little car, and when the execution is this seamless, the end result is one of the coolest things the world has ever seen. 

Would you believe that the guy who owns this car is literally named Power? That seems like something a little too on-the-nose for even a James Bond villain, but sometimes life is stranger than fiction. This is a custom machine built not only for providing the owner with track day jollies, but he's also the guy behind Powerflex bushings, so it is used as a show-off machine for the business. It's definitely the kind of car that would show up at SEMA, and you would expect it to never actually run, but instead it runs flawlessly on the track during Harris' and Smith's time with it, and it's well-assembled enough to have debuted at the prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed.

From the outside, the vehicle known as Vini looks more or less like a mildly modified Mini Cooper might. The fenders have been widened slightly, it wears a John Cooper Works GP wing and front bumper, and there's a nice set of bronze Braid wheels. Most people, probably including law enforcement, wouldn't give this car a second look. 

Obviously, once you look a little closer, you'll see that the car's interior is completely stripped and fitted with a beautiful roll-cage structure. Oh, and the dash has been re-crafted in carbon fiber, and all of the motorsport-style button panels are a dead giveaway that this car is well beyond its stock configuration. Maybe if you're eagle-eyed, you'll spot that the rear load floor has been raised up to make room for the rear differential. Even with all those clues, I'm not sure I would ever have guessed what's underneath the hood.

There are some really trick components to this build, as the rear-drive conversion included using some Subaru rear subframe and suspension components. It's not a solution I would've thought up, but I guess if the suspension system fits within the width parameters of the car, all you need is a slide rule and some welding supplies to make it work just right. With a big enough hammer, anything will fit, right? 

This car looks like ten pounds of fun shoved in a five pound cat. There's a lot to love about a twitchy short-wheelbase car with a ton of engine under the hood. Is it the fastest way around a race track? Probably not, but it'll blow the doors off a bunch of cars with a lot more power. This is a really exciting piece of engineering, and I hope more people build cars like this. What's stopping you?