FLORENCE – More than 1,600 Minis from all over the world arrived in the heart of Chianti in Tuscany, taking a journey on the roads but above all through time and emotions. This is how the International Mini Meeting 2023 took place from 25 to 29 May, the 41st international gathering dedicated to the little, big Englishwoman born in 1959 by the engineer Sir Alec Issigonis and then reinvented in 2001 by BMW.
The umpteenth edition of a veritable celebration that since 1978 has brought together lovers, collectors and owners of a car every year in a different European country which in its almost 13 decades of life has gone through eras and fashions becoming an icon without borders in the panorama automotive and always remaining itself in the DNA.
That unmistakable British style that the Oxford best seller has kept unchanged even in the latest generations born under the paternity of BMW where from a single model it has been transformed into a brand with a range that today ranges from sedans to SUVs, passing through convertibles and the sportier variants doped John Cooper Work, in addition to the hybrid and battery models destined to anticipate the brand’s new electric course, capable of recording sales of 68,541 units in the first 3 months of 2023 alone.
The Mini Owners Club organized the International Mini Meeting for Italy, with the support of Mini Italia, choosing the HU Norcenni Girasole campsite in Figline and Incisa Valdarno as the location for the event. There, around 6,000 people gathered for the occasion, giving life to a unique show, destined to enrich the story of a car capable of going beyond the car.
“Mini has a beating heart”, (the Mini has a beating heart): this is what an American couple told us smiling who arrived at the rally from New York, sending by ship a very rare Cooper S MK1 driven, according to them, during some tests by the pilots Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon winners in 1964 with the English “box” at the Monte Carlo Rally.
However, the International Mini Meeting is much more than a show. “It has always been an opportunity to share and disseminate the values of inclusion, solidarity, fun, attention for the planet and for people contained in the brand’s philosophy”, said Federica Manzoni, Head of Mini Italia, specifying the same manager as the Mini was originally born to deal with the fuel shortage caused by the Suez crisis of 1956 and as now it is ready to make the big leap into the era of “green” mobility by offering from 2030 only and exclusively versions, in all body variants, powered by zero-emission engines.
Alongside the latest Mini Cabrio Electric, made in a limited edition of 999 units, the Aceman Concept was in fact exhibited at the rally: the company’s first all-electric crossover, destined to become a reality soon. A taste of the future where the heart of the Mini will continue to beat fast but without polluting under the banner of “Big Love for the People and Big Love for the Planet”.