Iconic Movie Cars – The Italian Job – 2003 Mini Cooper

Welcome back everyone to another installment of Iconic Movie cars! Sorry for the bit of the hiatus but we have been quite busy. This week’s movie is The Italian Job (2003) and the 2003 Mini Cooper that was moded to steal quite a bit of gold, actually 3 Mini Coopers were moded in the movie.

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The movie was about a team of thieves 112_0806_09z+movie_cars+mini_cooper_the_italian_job[1]who plan to steal gold from a former associate who double-crossed them. Most of the film was shot on location in Venice and Los Angeles.

The plot involves your normal betrayal in a movie and the usual “I’m going to get you back” type of story-line. Steve double crosses the group after a gold heist and leaves them for dead. A year later Charlie finds out that Steve is living in L.A. and starts to plot on how to get the money back. The gang devises a plan to get 3 small cars to drive through his house in order to quickly steal the gold. Those cars were the 3 2003 Mini Coopers that were updated with mods to make them quicker and to make them carry the amount of weight that the gold will add to the trunk of the car. With the driving through the house plan falling through, they end up blowing a hole in a busy L.A. street in order to steal the gold from an armored truck and drive the Mini’s through the L.A. subway system.

In 2001 the Mini Cooper was the first model on the new generation of Mini. It was available in a Cooper and Cooper S model. 2003_mini_cooper-1It sported a 1.6L engine that had an option for a supercharger and the S after the cooper is what signified that. The Cooper heritage was further emphasized with the John Cooper Works (JCW) range of tuning options that are available with the Mini. Mini also created a one-off racing model of the Mini Cooper S named the Mini Cooper S Works. This car had many extra features that would help to improve performance, such as a racing exhaust and high performance air filter as well as an upgraded suspension. The car also had one-of-a-kind 17 inch racing wheels.

I have never driven a Mini Cooper before but I know a few people that have own them. One of them being a taller than average person and he would surprise me when he would tell me he had so much room to fit in his car, granted no one would be sitting behind him but he was able to fit in it and be comfortable. These cars do look like a ton of fun to drive and they seem like little go karts zipping around. In the movie they made this car even more desirable by putting Charlize Theron behind the wheel and of course all the upgrades they did to the car and the locations where they were driving it.

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