zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car
The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car-April 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:16

Image for article titled The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car

British carmaker and fashion designer teamed up again to make a one-off car called the . The name doesn’t refer to anything bawdy, even though it’s immediately where my mind went. It’s about stripping down in an eco-friendly way by paring design and production all the way back to the bare essentials.

The Mini Strip is based on a three-door , which was reduced to it’s chassis and rebuilt with sustainability and reusability in mind. Mini isn’t messing around here, it even stripped the paint!

Image for article titled The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car

The carmaker says that it left bare so that drivers can see how easy it would be dismantle and reuse the material. I think that would jive well with the crowd, too. When Mini and Smith rebuilt the car, they passed on the colored paint finish and and applied transparent paint to protect the chassis from corrosion, and highlight the “unfinished state.” I think that’s a misnomer.

This Mini is finished, but in another sense of the word, both outside and in. The difference is most noticeable inside the car, where the car goes in a completely separate direction than its production siblings. Cork replaces the usual plastic on the dash, and where plastics are still used, they’ve been 3D-printed. Knitted fabric replaces leather in the seats, among a bunch of other eco-friendly replacements.

Image for article titled The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car

The coolest part is what they’ve done with the center console. The Mini Strip gets rid of the busy center stack and instead let’s the driver’s smartphone be the main attraction, according to the carmaker:

There is no classical centre instrument, leaving the driver’s smartphone to take centre stage instead. It is placed where the centre display would normally be, connects automatically to the car and, in so doing, becomes the media control centre. The only physical controls in the interior are located lower down in the centre stack, where the toggle switches for the power windows and the start/stop function can be found.

And they get bonus points from me for putting all the in the center.

Of course, we’ve seen things like this many times. Carmakers love to brag about sustainability practices and their use of recycled materials, but I like this because it doesn’t slap a few “green” bits here and there. It actually reimagines both the interior and exterior of the car.

Image for article titled The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car

Image for article titled The Mini Strip Literally Stripped Everything Out Of A Mini Cooper To Build A Sustainable Car

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
This Top Gear-Style Test Of Three Weird Chinese Almost-Cars Is Absolutely Amazing
This Top Gear-Style Test Of Three Weird Chinese Almost-Cars Is Absolutely Amazing
As you know, very soon I’ll be the owner of a electric car, which is a kind of low-speed mobility vehicle from China that seems to be considered an “old man car” over there. There’s a shocking amount of companies building strange little cars like this, and the show had...
Apr 3, 2026
The 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang Is Coming Back Again With A Carbon Fiber Body
The 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang Is Coming Back Again With A Carbon Fiber Body
Classic Restorations has been turning out officially-licensed Ford and Shelby American continuation cars and restorations for a long time. (They’re .) Now, in collaboration with SpeedKore Performance Group, it’s turning out a carbon fiber-bodied fastback . Classic Restorations’ cars cost a fortune, but I was lucky enough to back...
Apr 3, 2026
Look What's Finally Here And Waiting For Me
Look What's Finally Here And Waiting For Me
Okay, everyone, let’s all just try to stay calm. I mean, I know you can’t but, I had to at least ask you to try. I know calmness is no longer an option because just today I got the notice from the freight warehouse in Wilmington, NC, that my...
Apr 3, 2026
It's Not Looking Good For Hertz [Updated]
It's Not Looking Good For Hertz [Updated]
The rental-car industry is in shock right now after months of zero demand and virtually no business. Talks between and its creditors don’t seem to be going anywhere, leaving the company staring bankruptcy in the face. Hertz late Friday night Late last month, Hertz announced that, in the wake...
Apr 3, 2026
Hertz's Late-Night Bankruptcy Filing Sends Ripples Through The Auto Industry
Hertz's Late-Night Bankruptcy Filing Sends Ripples Through The Auto Industry
After weeks of hardship due to decimated demand, the car rental giant Hertz filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy late Friday night. has been struggling to keep its head above water since the Covid-19 crisis began, and it seems the company has held out for as long as it could....
Apr 3, 2026
So Much For The New York Auto Show In 2020
So Much For The New York Auto Show In 2020
The organizers of the had said in March that instead of April, the show would be moving to August this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now those dates are off, too. Instead, there will be no auto show this year. The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, which...
Apr 3, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved