MINI USA CONGRATULATES MINI COMPETITORS

Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, December 19, 2002... MINI USA this week extended
congratulations via www.MINIUSA.com to all the MINI owners who participated
and/or cleaned up at this year's SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) Tire Rack
Solo II Championship and ProSolo Finale races. The performances were dominant,
as numerous MINIs packed the top of the final standings The top standings are
attached:

2002 SCCA Tire Rack ProSolo National Series Finale (H-Stock)
Men's Top 10 (out of 11 Drivers)

1 Brian Garfield MINI Cooper Red
2 Gerry Terranova Honda Civic Si Red
3 Paul Woolley MINI Cooper Yellow
4 Chris Kline Honda Civic Black
5 Marshall Cone MINI Cooper Red
6 Jeff Jacobs MINI Cooper Red
7 Mark Chiles MINI Cooper Red
8 Isaac Bouchard MINI Cooper Red
9 Scott Sawyer Honda Civic Si Red
10 Robert Seelig Honda Civic Si White


Ladies Class 1 Top 5 (out of 20 Drivers)

1 Yvonne Short MINI Cooper Red
2 Patty Tunnell BMW 330ci Red
3 Eileen Lindberg Ford Mustang Grey
4 Meredith Brown Toyota MR2 Blue
5 Kim Bullis Chevrolet Corvette

2002 SCCA Tire Rack Solo II Autocross National Championship (H-Stock)

Men's Top 10 Places (out of 35):

1st Matthew Murray BMW 318I Black
2nd Michael King MINI Cooper Red
3rd Jack Burns MINI Cooper Silver
4th Mark Chiles MINI Cooper Red
5th Gerry Terranova Honda Civic Si Red
6th Paul Woolley MINI Cooper Yellow
7th Brad Lockhart MINI Cooper Silver
8th Karl Coleman MINI Cooper Indi Blue
9th James Harn MINI Cooper Yellow
10th Keith Brown MINI Cooper Indi Blue


Ladies Top 5 Places (out of 5):

1 Yvonne Short MINI Cooper Red
2 Brenda Ashburn MINI Cooper Red
3 Carrie Sparling Ford Focus ZX3 Blue
4 Linda Duncan Honda Civic Si Tea
5 Michelle Seelig Honda Civic Si White

MINI has many unique features that give its cars exceptional performance and
competitive enjoyment behind the wheel. The top seven features that give MINI
its signature handling are:

MINI's short-but-wide bulldog stance:
Proportionately, it gives the car the widest footprint of any car on the road.
With the wheels spread out as far as possible to the edges of each corner and a
very low center of gravity, the wide stance delivers amazing stability and
control through the bends, giving the car tight go-kart like handling.

Multi-Link Rear Suspension:
The sophisticated multi-link rear suspension, normally found on performance
rear-drive cars, helps to maximize grip and handling. Over bumpy roads and
around sharp corners the rear tires are at their optimum angle to stay in full
contact with the road.

Ultra rigid body:
MINI features an exceptionally rigid body frame with a torsional rigidity
rating of 24,500 Newton meters per degree. This rigid body helps provide a
firm, highly tuned ride with minimum vibrations while stabilizing the vehicle.
This allows the suspension to handle the job it was designed to do instead of
compensating for body flex.

Sophisticated braking system:
Like many cars, MINI comes with four-channel anti-lock brakes - unlike many
cars, MINIs also come with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) and
Cornering Brake Control (CBC). Based on load conditions, EBD helps distribute
the brake force to stabilize the car
from front to back and help prevent nose-dives. The CBC is designed to even
out the braking effect in emergency situations to help keep the car from going
into a skid.

Equal-Length Drive Shafts:
MINI is designed to virtually eliminate torque steer - when the car's steering
pulls to one side during rapid acceleration. This is done through the use of
equal-length drive shafts allowing the power to be equally balanced through
both front wheels.

EHPAS(Electro-Hydraulic Power-Assisted Steering):
Coupled with its wide bulldog stance, MINI's EHPAS system offers truly
impressive steering agility with its two-and-a-half turns, lock-to-lock.
Unlike many other systems the MINI EHPAS draws power only when needed through
an electric servo instead of stealing it from the engine, which efficiently
allows the engine to deliver power where it belongs -- to the road.

Drive-By-Wire (Electronic) Throttle:
MINIs use a computer chip to send an electronic pulse to the engine the moment
the accelerator is pressed for a quick and consistent throttle response. The
result is optimized fuel-air mixture and improved performance. The computer
also ensures throttle response is always optimized for fuel economy, and
reduced emissions.

The full listings and other MINI motorsport news can be viewed at
www.miniusa.com

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America has been present in the United States since 1975. Since
then, the BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales
and financial service organizations for the BMW and MINI brands; a South
Carolina manufacturing operation; DESIGNWORKS/USA, an industrial design firm in
California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations
throughout the country. The BMW Group is represented in the U.S. through
networks of 340 BMW car, 327 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle, 148 BMW Motorcycle
retailers and 70 MINI car dealers. BMW US Holding Corp., the Group's
headquarters for North, Central and South America, is located in Woodcliff
Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet
at http://www.bmwusa.com http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com http://www.miniusa.com

Journalist note: MINI is presented in all-caps and is an independent brand of
the BMW Group. It is incorrect to describe it as the 'BMW MINI'. Information
about the BMW Group and its products is available to journalists on-line at the
BMW Group PressClub at the following address - www.press.bmwgroup.com.

> TIRE RACK PROSOLO NATIONAL SERIES EXPLAINED
http://www.scca.org/amateur/solo2/prosolo/index.html
> FULL PROSOLO FINALE RESULTS (MEN)
http://www.scca.org/amateur/solo2/prosolo/2002/finale/results.html#Stoc
> FULL PROSOLO FINALE RESULTS (LADIES CLASS 1)
http://www.scca.org/amateur/solo2/prosolo/2002/finale/results.html#Othe


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