MINI ANNOUNCES NEW PAT MOSS EDITION, CELEBRATES PIONEERING WOMAN MOTORSPORT COMPETITOR.

• 60 years ago, female British racing driver Pat Moss gave brand its first victory in an international rally.
• New special edition MINI commemorates victory of woman rally team in male dominated motorsports and start of British small car’s extraordinary racing career.
• Special edition premieres on International Women’s Day, market launch in May 2022.

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – March 8, 2022 (6:01 pm ET) – MINI USA today announced the addition of a fifth special edition to already robust special edition lineup – The Pat Moss Edition for model year 2023. In honor of International Women’s day, this special edition celebrates both MINI’s motorsport pedigree, and woman rally competitor, Pat Moss who delivered the brand’s first international rally victory behind the wheel of a classic Mini.

The greatest feats in the MINI brand’s history have been achieved on the rally circuits - and the foundation for all this was laid by an exceptional female driver. In May 1962, the classic Mini was added to the list of winners of an international rally event for the first time. In the international Tulip Rally – from the Dutch municipality of Noordwijk to the French Riviera and back again – Pat Moss achieved the best time over the distance in the classic Mini Cooper.

60 years later, MINI celebrates the talent, courage and passion of this British female racing driver with an exclusive special edition - the Pat Moss Edition.  Globally, this special edition will be limited to just 800 vehicles which will come in the form of a Cooper S Hardtop 2-door, a Cooper S Hardtop 4-door, and a John Cooper Works Hardtop from May 2022.  In the US, the Pat Moss Edition will be available exclusively as a 2023 model year John Cooper Works Hardtop 2-door. 

This special edition not only commemorates the launch of MINI’s extraordinary sporting career, but it also marks a pioneering achievement for women in motorsports. Success in the Netherlands turned the classic Mini, Pat Moss and her co-driver Ann Wisdom into enduring heroines in a discipline otherwise dominated by both significantly larger vehicles, and male driving teams.

The new Pat Moss Edition features unique design elements and stylish details that cites the racing history of the British premium brand as well as the sporting careers of Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom. The Pat Moss Edition also incorporates MINI product innovations such as the Multitone Roof. Specifically, featured as standard is a new color variant of the Multitone Roof, that extends from Chili Red to Melting Silver and to Jet Black.

With the innovative paint finishing process fully integrated in production at the MINI plant in Oxford, this will be the first time a second color variant has been realized. It will be available for customers to order from March 2022. Slight deviations in the color pattern unique to the production process ensure that every MINI with a Multitone Roof has the character of a unique specimen ex works. On the new edition models, the charismatic roof paintwork is combined with the body finishes Pepper White or Midnight Black metallic, and red exterior mirror caps.

A stylized tulip symbolizes the first rally victory: it appears on the C pillars and side scuttles of the edition vehicles along with the inscription “Pat Moss”. The wheel hub covers also feature an exclusive design with a graphic which is based on the outline of the typical Dutch flower and the MINI wordmark.

The key facts of the 1962 Tulip Rally appear below the side scuttles on the front side panels: the route Noordwijk – Monte Carlo – Noordwijk, the distance of 2,500 kilometers, the vehicle, namely a Mini Cooper, and its starting number 104. These are supplemented with the slogan that still applies to MINI to this day: “born to compete”. The tulip motif, the name inscription and the key facts about the first every rally win are also to be found on the screen-printed aluminum door sill trims designed exclusively for the edition model.

Another design element used for the first time in the Pat Moss Edition is the horizontally aligned bonnet stripe in white. The printed combination of three-dimensional numbers and letters – 737 ABL – is the registration number of the classic Mini that won the 1962 Tulip Rally, likewise, recalling the historical model. Meanwhile the original signature that Pat Moss wrote on the bonnet of her car after one of her victories adorns the front apron of the edition model as a graphic imprint.

In the interior of the edition vehicles, the iconic signature on the Piano Black interior surface in the passenger area is another tribute to the revolutionary woman rally driver. The sports leather steering wheel bears the edition emblem in the form of a tulip graphic which appears on the clip of the lower spoke. The abstract depiction of engine pistons moving up and down serves as the motif for a graphic on the interior surface on the driver’s side. With bars of different heights forming the shape of the letters “M” and “W” – standing for “Moss” and “Wisdom” – they symbolize that perfectly coordinated duo that caused a sensation in the rally scene for so many years.

With its unique design elements, the MINI Pat Moss Edition for the US market includes all the standard equipment found in the MINI John Cooper Works Hardtop with Iconic Trim, plus the addition of MINI Parking Assist and Active Cruise Control as standard equipment. The Pat Moss Special Edition will be offered with either a 6-speed manual transmission, or an 8-speed sport automatic transmission at no cost.

The MINI Pat Moss Edition is a tribute to a female racing pioneer, MINI’s rally history and true team spirit. One of the remarkable details of the first rally triumph for the classic Mini is the fact that Ann Wisdom insisted on taking part in the Tulip Rally despite being pregnant at the time: she went on to provide her team-mate Pat Moss with unerring navigation guidance over the 2,500-kilometer route.

Mossie and Wizz – as they were known in the paddock – formed a successful duo for seven years. The two women had the courage to compete in a male-dominated sport – and they brought about fundamental changes, too. The younger sister of Formula 1 driver Stirling Moss, Pat Moss also won the Sestriere Rally in Italy in 1968, achieved a podium finish in numerous other international competitions and was crowned European Ladies’ Rally Champion five times.

Ann Wisdom is considered the first professional woman co-driver in the history of rallying. As successful motorsport competitors in their own right, the two viewed their courageous foray into a male-dominated competition with typical British understatement. “We didn’t see ourselves as pioneers back then,” said Ann Wisdom years later. “We were just entering a rally.” Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom paved the way for an extraordinary career for the classic Mini. In 1964, 1965 and 1967, the British small car secured outright victory in the Monte Carlo Rally. Pat Moss passed away in 2008, and Ann Wisdom passed away in 2015.

Decades later, MINI became the dominant brand in the world’s toughest endurance rally, achieving overall victory in the Dakar Rally four times in a row from 2012 to 2015. Two more overall victories followed in 2020 and 2021.

The MINI Pat Moss Edition will begin arriving at U.S. dealerships in August 2022, with US pricing available closer to market launch.

About MINI in the US

MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC, located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and includes the marketing and sales organizations for the MINI brand. The authorized MINI USA dealer organization is represented by a network of 115 locations comprised of 105 MINI full passenger car sales and service dealers and 10 service exclusive outlets located throughout the US.  MINI USA began selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2002 with the introduction of the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S Hardtops. Since then, the MINI Brand in the U.S. has grown to encompass a model range of five unique vehicles.

Journalist notes: Media information about MINI and its products is available to journalists on-line at www.miniusanews.com.

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