Let’s Motor (part 2)

I took this walk through Car Dealerships on April 4th. Read all about it here. (Attention, it is a very long post.) Jess and Chris and I wanted to meet yesterday to revisit the mini dealership and also take a special look at the new and exciting Leica Cameras in SoHo later in the afternoon. Only Jess showed up, as Chris is busy working on a project. Good for him. There were new minis in the dealership and they were even more exciting than before. The weather was good this time, so the mini in the sun was a bit too hot, while the MiniCooperS had its roof open, which made it quite comfortable and friendly. There are certain details that sometimes only become visible on a second visit. (Or that I forgot to mention last time). The windows in the mini close completely only when the doors are closed. Or they open sly when the door is opened. In order to avoid any stress on the frameless glass in the door windows, BMW designers added this little hidden feature. It also seems to make the shockwave which is the side-effect of closing doors in a car a bit milder. It is maybe a few millimeters or so, and some of the users will never notice what is going on. Whenever the user opens the door. The window opens sly. Is the door closed again, the window slides up into a rubber pocket in the roof, sealing the interior, locking itself into place. A very nice little feature. I really like barely visible little mechanic features like this one.
Another littledetail has purely something to do with the design of the mini. It is about the exhaust pipe. (One on the cooper, two on the S). The story goes, (and I do not quite know where I got it from), that the design team at BMW was about to show the full size model of the car in a preliminary presentation. Everything seemed pretty much designed. Except for the exhaust pipe. It was just this typically shaped piece of pipe. It was late at night, (which makes the story sound true) and one of the designers just had a beer (true?, maybe a soda)... And so she just cut of the top of the can, spray painted it silver and stuck it onto the then exhaust pipe. Just for fun. The designer in Chief liked the look, as did everybody else, and so all minis now have exhausts that look like a bottom of a Beer-can. True story?... I hope it is. I really hope it is. Maybe you know more than me?, maybe you can find out. Call BMW, ask them.