Mini Electric Pacesetter
Mini's all-electric PACESETTER has been selected as the new safety car for Formula E racing championship. This is the first-ever MINI to be featured as a safety car. Mini teased its new Mini Electric Pacesetter last week on Twitter when the company tweeted out a shadowy photo dominated by pace car-style lights and the hashtags, #ElectricThrillMaximised.
Based on the regular MINI Cooper SE (or MINI Electric as it’s known in certain markets), the track-only special features plenty of modifications inspired by the John Cooper Works brand. While the front end retains the familiar circular headlights and hexagonal grille of the road-going model, the wheel arches have been widened and the deeper front apron receives additional front splitters.
Squared-off apertures have also been added on below said grille for brake cooling, while a good portion of the face is blanked off to aid in aerodynamics. As is typical of MINI, bonnet stripes stretch from the front over the roof and to the rear end.
Along the sides, carefully placed aero edges and sporty side skirts add to the extremely dynamic figure. These items, along with the sizeable spoiler at the rear, are 3D printed from recycled carbon-fiber and receive a visual flourish thanks to yellow accents. Those 18-inch forged wheels are lifted from the MINI JCW GP but are treated to a bi-color black-neon/orange design.
Moving inside, the stripped-out interior only retains the essentials like the front seats, which come with six-point safety harnesses. For the driver, there’s a digital instrument cluster and carbon-fiber steering wheel, but the center display has been replaced with a carbon-fiber cover to save weight.
Meanwhile, the center console houses the gear selector, handbrake, and controls for the necessary signal lights, all in exposed carbon-fiber, as are the door cards with cloth straps for ingress and egress. Elsewhere, there’s a welded-in roll cage for safety and the interior space is painted white for functional reasons.
Weighing 287-pounds less than the Mini Cooper SE that it’s based on, thanks to a gutted interior that has been replaced by a welded-in roll cage and race certified seats with a six-point seatbelt, the Electric Pacesetter nevertheless looks exactly like a Mini should look like, including circular headlights and a hexagonal radiator grille creating the familiar Mini face.
Expected to see action for the first time in Rome on April 10 at the second event (Race 3) of Formula E’s 2021 season, the Mini Electric Pacesetter will be driven by the official FIA Formula E Safety Car driver Bruno Correia.
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-by Amaan Attar
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