1973 Classic Morris Mini Cooper on 2040-cars

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Mini attempts first-ever backflip in a car

Not too long ago, the idea of doing a backflip seemed almost impossible on two wheels let alone four, but now the stunt is routinely performed using everything from dirtbikes to monster trucks. Now Mini is getting into the game by attempting to perform a backflip with French stuntman Guerlain Chicherit behind the wheel of a highly modified Countryman, which it claims is the first-ever attempt at doing so with a car.
Another unique element of the jump that Mini is claiming is in regards to the ramp. Past automotive backflips, including Rhys Millen's 2009 jump to ring in the New Year, have used special ramps that help rotate the car, but the ramp Chicherit uses is "unassisted" and the backflip is attempted using only "a gas pedal and a prayer" according to a Mini spokesman for the event.
The video posted below is only a teaser showing the car launch up into the air, but while we have to wait until February 10 to see the final result, it sounds like the landing was a success. According to the Chicherit's Facebook page, practice for the stunt took 18 months of work with "lots of crashes."

2013 Mini John Cooper Works

Location, Location, Location
Back in February, Mini invited me to come try out its brand-new Paceman coupe-crossover-hatchback thing in Puerto Rico, and not long after, I spit out a Quick Spin detailing my impressions of the little-big two-door. But here's what I didn't tell you: Mini also let me loose on those fine, curvaceous, tropical roads in its hottest hatch, the John Cooper Works GP. And while that behind-the-wheel gigglefest would have no doubt made for a story laden with positive notes and warm regards, the truth is, I only drove it for 15 minutes, so I couldn't in good conscience offer much of a story to you. (European Editor Matt Davis also got a short stint behind the wheel of the GP late last year.)
So for the sake of due diligence, I buckled down and spent a full eight days with the JCW GP back home in Detroit, just as springtime was starting to stick here in southeast Michigan. But after my time with the Mini, I was wishing that I could have just been left with my GP memories from Puerto Rico, where I was pushing the little hotbox hard around smooth corners and flexing every one of its muscles to eke out the full JCW GP experience in only a short timeframe.

How Mini shacked up with John Cooper

The late Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, Alec Issignonis to his Internet friends, designed a car that was sold as the Morris Mini-Minor, the Austin Seven and later the Austin Mini. Go to the Mini USA website and check out the models, though, and every one of them is called a Cooper of some sort, e.g., Mini Cooper Paceman or Mini Cooper S Roadster. So who is Cooper?
It's probably obvious that it's the same Cooper we get in "John Cooper Works," those JCW Minis that always make up the top of the line. But many probably don't know that that John Cooper, founder of John Cooper Cars, is the same man who accidentally got the motorsports world to switch to rear-engined race cars and the same Formula One constructor who won two titles in 1959 and 1960 and who fielded drivers like Bruce McLaren and Stirling Moss.
On its way to driving the Mini John Cooper Works GP II, XCAR goes back to the beginning to find out when Alec met John, and how the first Mini Cooper came out in 1961, two years after the first Mini. You can watch the story and the car review in the video below.