When it comes to icons of British culture, the Mini and rock are definitely in the top ten, as are Marshall amps when it comes to music. Taking this ranking for granted, the Mini Remastered Marshall Edition could be the most British car ever. Too bad they will only make sixty and it will cost about
100,000 pounds. If the price seems exaggerated to you, know that this is not a normal Mini but a car built by hand in 1,000 hours of work by David Brown Automotive who also almost completely redesigned it. These operations are what in technical jargon are defined as restomod, or modernize a historic car from a technical point of view, without changing its aesthetics, except in the details.
David Brown’s Mini Remastered has been on the market for almost five years and this Marshall Edition arrives precisely for the 60th anniversary of the English company. On a technical level, therefore, it does not present any particular novelties.
Compared to a “historic” Mini, it has a 50% stiffer body, some aluminum components, wider wheel arches and tires, LED headlights and a whole host of updates. Even the engine, although starting from the aspirated 1.3 of the 1990s, has been revised up to delivering 83 HP and is also equipped with start / stop; the total mass does not exceed one ton and so it takes 8.9 seconds to go from 0 to
100 km / h, while the maximum speed is 145 km / h. But the real pearls of this Mini Remastered dedicated to Marshall are others, starting from the aesthetics, where the dominant theme is the contrast between black and gold.
A contrast that is found both outside and inside, where there is a profusion of high quality leather, wood and aluminum not normally found on any old Mini, in the same way as the Pioneer’s infotainment system compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Even the seats look like those of a luxury car and the embroidered Marshall logos leave no doubt, as well as the personalized pedals engraved with the words “skip”, “pause” and “play”. But the real uniqueness of this little English girl is in the audio sector. Not so much the stereo system, which in any case is amplified with 8 speakers, and not even the induction charging plate for the headphones or the portable Bluetooth speaker inserted in the trunk. No, the real gem is the Marshall DSL1 Combo Amp (powered independently from the car) which sits in the luggage compartment and slides out onto a rail to let its full power feel. Rock ‘n’
roll!