Jay Leno test drives a twin-engine MINI Cooper (TWINI). It’s exactly what it sounds like, a Hatch that has a Cooper S engine on the front axle and one on the rear one.
Enjoy!
Jay Leno is no stranger to bizarre cars — this is the man who finds room in his garage for the Blastolene Special, a.k.a. the Tank Car, after all. So you might think it’s odd that he’s devoted an episode of his “Jay Leno’s Garage” web series to a 2002 Mini Cooper. These cars typically aren’t that crazy, even if they’re wearing racing livery and an aggressive body kit.
But this isn’t just any boy-racer Mini: It’s Jacques Andres’ boy-racer Mini, and he’s done a number of special modifications to the little car. See, it’s been converted to a rear-engine, rear-wheel drive model, which already sets it apart from the pack. Except that the front engine, which drives the front wheels, is still there. Each engine does 250 hp for a total of — if our math is correct — around 500 hp.
There’s two of almost everything drivetrain-related, including tachometers, ignition systems (the car can be run with just one if need be) and even front suspensions (one’s repurposed for the rear). Thanks to drive-by-wire components like the throttle, which replace troublesome mechanical linkages, “it’s actually worked out quite easily,” Andres explains.
Yeah. If you say so, dude.
Anyway, Andres built didn’t build his Twini — enough of these have been built since the original Mini debuted for the type of vehicle to have a name — to serve as a curiosity. He built it to run down much more expensive cars on the race track.
Leno gives it a bit of exercise on the road, calling it the “ultimate canyon carver.” Unfortunately, it’s not quite street-legal at the moment, but we’re sure it’s a blast on the track.
