In 1989, Rover launched another limited edition Mini to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this little car on earth, the fabulously opulent Mini Thirty. The production of the Mini Thirty is limited to 3,000 units and only available in the United Kingdom. 2,000 units were made in Pearlescent Cherry Red (COG-BLVC843) and 1,000 in Black (PMA-BLVC90). Most of them were made in manual transmission and only 200 units were made in automatic transmission. (more…)
The Mini ERA Turbo was introduced in 1989 as a replacement for the Mini Cooper S. The ERA Turbo is based on a Mini City just like any other limited edition Minis found in MK5. ERA is stands for English Racing Automobiles, true to its name “ERA Turbo”, it received an MG Metro turbocharged fitted to a modified 1275 cc four-cylinder in line OHV engine pumping 94hp at 6130rpm and 118 Nm of torque at 3600rpm. These amounts may be nothing in automobile world today but it was a huge success in the late 80s.
The ERA Turbo was styled by Dennis Adams, the designer of the Marcos sports cars and the Probe concept car. Just like any other Minis before the 80s, the ERA Turbo is a two-door saloon front wheel drive Mini. It was made available in two common exterior colors which are Flame Red (COF – BLVC818) and British Racing Green (HAF – BLVC617). Besides these two colors, consumers are given a chance to custom order the ERA Turbo in three other colors including black, white, and silver. Special things that separate the ERA Turbo from ordinary Minis are the body kit, rear windscreen wiper, and turbo bonnet badge. Other than that, the grille is fitted with ERA badge and the wheels are with ERA emblem. To match with the ERA body kit, the car received a set of 6 x 13 alloy wheels with Goodyear or Dunlop 165/6013 low profile tyres HR rated.
Inside the car, it looks totally different with all the Minis available during that time which are mostly in black. The seats and panels are available in full leather modified Austin Metro seats. Speed meter and rpm gauge are fitted right in front of the steering wheel. In the middle of the dashboard, there are six gauges showing different readings to the drivers including the two temperature gauges, one battery volt reading, two turbo boost meter, and a petrol indicator.
The production of the ERA Turbo is only limited to 99 for the UK market and 337 for the Japanese market. The ERA Turbo in for the Japanese are fitted with air-conditioning where the blowers are mounted on the left of the dashboard. A normal stereo is also available in the center with two speakers fitted to parcel shelf. During the launching, the ERA Turbo was selling at £9,501 (US$15,000 as of 2012).
ENGINE
CLUTCH
GEARBOX
FUEL SYSTEM
BRAKING SYSTEM
DIMENSIONS
Thanks to the design of the car, the light weight body, and the power deliver from the engine, the ERA Turbo is capable of reaching a top speed of 115 mph (185 km/h) which could be scary for a little yet cute car like this. What else could be fun in a Turbo charged car is the achievement of zero to 60 mph. The ERA Turbo reaches 60 mph from a stand still position in just 7.8 seconds. It is also capable of reaching a quarter mile in just 16.6 seconds. What is even amazing is the fuel consumption that appeared to be 34.3 mph for 56 mph and 53.5mpg for an average 75 mph run.
The Mini ERA Turbo is the most successful ‘voiturette’ racing cars of the period. It was beautifully made, reliable, quick, solid, and with high fuel economy. An extra mark is also given to the car because it has all the key characteristics of the Cooper – speed, handling, excitement, and fun. If this car is going reproduced again, we believe there will be uncountable Mini fans waiting in front of the showroom to book the car.
Click on the image to enlarge it
While 2012 has just entered February, there are two exotic car accidents happened in Malaysia. The first one involved a black Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4. From the pictures, we believe the driver lost control with the car and smashed the side of the road with high speed on Gutrie Highway, Subang. The car is believed rollover because the roof dented, windscreen is broken and all wheels fall off car. The car is also believed to have crashed with the guardrail causing the million dollar car looks like a piece of junk. According to witness, the driver is alive.
This is not the recent Lamborghini accident if you followed our previous news regarding a man wrecked a Lamborghini Murcielago after hours he gets the car key.
Another case that happened early in January before Chinese New Year, a Nissan Skyline GTR V-spec were cut into two pieces after the driver is believed to have lost control with the car and hit a pillar with high speed. Both the driver and passenger were died in the accident.
We received an email from Tracy who decided to buy a Proton saga but in dilemma either to pay it with cash or go for a short term loan. Here is her message to us.
“Dear Angelina, I read two articles in Malaysiaminilover, one is regarding tips to buy a Proton Saga and another one is smart or stupid to buy car with cash in Malaysia. Both articles help me a lot but I am still in dilemma. I am about to buy a used Proton Saga with the price tag RM25,000. I enquire several banks and the best loan interest rates I can get is 3.8%. Can you please give me an advice is it wise to buy it with cash or loan it for a year?”
In order to give you a better explanation, let us back up a little bit. Generally, there are only three situations: The loan rates are equal with the ROI (Return On Investment) rates on the cash you have, or the loan rates are higher than the ROI rates, or the ROI rates is higher than loan rates. The ROI rates here means the percentage of what you will earn if you put this money in either bank, stock market, or some other investment funds. Here we made several calculations to show the exact figure by estimating the car value will depreciates to RM22,000 after a year.
If you pay the car with cash
If loan rates = ROI rates
When both of the rates are equal, does it sounds like you are borrowing your own money through the bank? It is not recommended to take a loan in this case because the process to obtain a loan involves many other costs like processing fees, document fees, and stamp duty cost.
If loan rates > ROI rates
If what you going to spend is more than what you can earn, it is not a wise decision too.
If loan rates < ROI rates
Is it really worth to go through all the hassle processes and just save an extra RM50 in a year? The answer is no. However, if there is a higher return rate above 6% it may worth to consider. 6% ROI on RM25,000 is RM1,500 and the earning will be RM500 a year in this case.
Think whether the cash will be needed in near future. If the cash is just small part of what you have, buying a car with cash will be wiser.
Design is limitless whether in clothing, automobile, or many other things in life. There are famous automobile designer who creates well-known cars with extraordinary outlook. Giorgetto Giugiaro is one to be mentioned. He is a famous Italian automobile designer who designed some notable cars including the De Lorean DMC-12, Ferrari 250 GT Bertone, Ford Mustang Giugiaro, Lotus Esprit for James Bond and the 1993 Lexus GS. Luc Donckerwolke who brings the 2001 Lamborghini Diablo VT 6.0, 2002 Lamborghini Murciélago, (more…)