Bahía de Puerca - Puerto Rico, USA
Finnmark - Troms, Norway
South Beach - California, USA
Nyhavn - Copenhagen, Denmark
Vestland, Norway
Lofoten - Nordlan, Norway
Sogn og Fjordane, Norway
Royal Danish Playhouse - Copenhagen, Denmark
Tromsø - Troms, Norway
Lofoten - Nordland - Norway
I hope you have been enjoying my video game car photography posts, I know that I have. I really enjoy spending my free time creating custom liveries and then taking stunning photographs in Gran Turismo 7's Scapes photo mode.
I've mostly been showing off expensive supercars, but for this latest one, I decided to go for something smaller and cheaper. Sure the power is far less than what my other cars have, but it also weighs a hell of a lot less, so it can still scoot.
I'm of course talking about my MINI Cooper S '05.
Water was the inspiration behind this design. I went with a mixture of the ocean, drinking water, and a number of other water-type things. This car turned out pretty awesome and it drives quite well too.
First, a bit of backstory about the MINI Cooper S...
In the latter half of the 1990s, famed sports car manufacturer BMW purchased the branding and manufacturing rights to the MINI brand and resurrected the MINI Cooper in 2001.
This new MINI was a bit larger than the classic model of yesteryear, measuring 143.9 inches, 66.5 inches, and 57.3 inches, in overall length, width, and height, respectively. But BMW kept the car's spirit intact, thanks to quirky styling cues that were reminiscent of the original 1959 model. These included a "cute" face, highlighted by large round headlights and a square front grille, and a boxy silhouette.
The performance-oriented version in the new MINI lineup was the Cooper S. The power plant in the standard MINI was the "Pentagon," a 1.6-liter SOHC inline-4 developed in cooperation between BMW and Chrysler, while the Cooper S got an inter-cooled supercharger bolted onto its power plant -the large air intake on the model's hood being a dead giveaway of forced induction.
The supercharger accounted for an additional 53.3 HP and 52.5 ft-Ib of torque over the stock engine, for a grand total of 167.7 HP and 162.4 ft-Ib. It came mated to a slick-shifting 6-speed manual gearbox. This made the Cooper S one of the most fun-to-drive FF (Front drive, Front engine) compact cars in the marketplace.
It was a testament to the German company that effectively instilled the car's British heritage into the new MINI Cooper.
Specs after mods:
271 hp
225 ft-lb torque
2132 lbs
The power was boosted from the original numbers by quite a bit, but this thing still isn't a monster by any means. That doesn't mean it isn't fun to drive, being lightweight has many advantages on the track.
I first heard of the MINI Cooper thanks to the 2003's film The Italian Job starring Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, and my favorite action actor Jason Statham. In this movie, after being betrayed and left for dead in Italy, Charlie Croker (Wahlberg) and his team plan an elaborate gold heist against their former ally. During the heist, they all drive MINI Coopers to escape.
As a kid, I thought this was so cool and it made me think highly of the MINI Cooper. Seeing as the film was set in Italy, you may think the MINI is Italian. When in fact they are manufactured in Great Britain but owned by BMW out of Germany. Let's just say they are European.
For the design, I combined many different water brands with a dolphin and ocean camo design.
Brands such as:
Aquasana
Fiji Water
Berkey Filters
Sea Breeze
Vitamin Water
Crystal Geyser
- a few more
I'm really happy with how this one turned out, but that is to be expected with the color choice and theme of water. As you can tell by my Daltono logo, I am a big fan of water and waves.
I don't think I'll be driving this car a ton, but I will occasionally I'm sure. It was fun to start and finish this build, but now it is on to bigger and better things.
Stay tuned for my next GT7 custom livery and Scapes photos. Thanks for stopping by to see my MINI Cooper S.