The custom MINI Cooper-based "truck" you see here is the work of one man. Yes, just one man -- Paul Ireson -- built this car all by himself over the course of a year. Well, okay... his son Nick helped him with a couple of the carbon fiber pieces, and he did have a guy help a bit with assembling the engines -- but the majority of this car is pure Paul. We're sure that you are all ready to jump on us for a typo -- that extra "s" on "engine". Well, we hate to disappoint you -- that "s" was added on purpose, for the MINI you see here comes powered by two Honda B16A2 engines. One engine sits up front and drives the front wheels while the other sits in the rear and appropriately drives the wheels in the back. Put together, it is estimated that these two Honda engines produce a combined 1,100 horsepower. Not bad for a MINI. So how did Paul get these 1.6-liter 160-horsepower engines to produce over 500 horsepower a piece? Well, to let the engine breathe a bit easier, Paul performed an extensive bit of headwork that included polishing the head and adding angled valves and lightened valve springs. Paul also upped the engines' displacement to 2.0-liters, re-sleeved and decked the block, balanced the rotating mass and crammed in some low compression pistons. Why put low-compression pistons in a high-revving VTEC engine? Why, so the engines can handle extreme amounts of boost, of course. Paul used his custom fabricating skills to create the plumbing that let him mount a T3/T4 hybrid turbo and oversized intercooler on to each Honda block. All of this extra air needs extra fuel, so Paul ditched the stock injectors in favor of some 1,000 cc units. Oh, and just in case Paul needs a little extra kick, a shot of nitrous is just a button push away. We guess that most old-school MINI owners like the car's stock rubber cone suspension, so Paul had to fabricate the F1-style cantilever suspension and air shocks found on this MINI truck. However, once these suspension pieces were in place, Paul could take a break and use off-the-shelf parts for the brakes and wheels. Oversized PowerSlot rotors now sit behind an even bigger set of MOMO wheels. The interior of this MINI truck is even crazier. Everything was ripped out and tossed out so that this MINI's cockpit could truly resemble the interior of a fighter jet. There is only one seat in this MINI, and it is made out of fiberglass and is molded into the body -- which means there is no adjusting this thing for a better driving position. The stock speedometer was also tossed in favor of a new command center based around a couple of Pioneer monitors and few dozen Maximum Performance gauges (ok... 22 gauges to be exact...). Just like the seat, these are all housed in a custom fiberglass enclosure and are molded to the car. But there's more to the car than just a custom fiberglass seat and dash, the "passenger" side door has been welded shut and the "driver's" side door was cut, re-welded and transformed into a gull-wing door. A 15-inch monitor sits on the "roof" side of this door, which makes it a bit heavy. Luckily for the weak-of-upper-body-strength, this door can be automatically opened with just a push of a button. Speaking on unconventional doors, notice the lack of side mirrors on this MINI. Paul wanted the car to look a bit more streamlined, so he replaced the standard 60's-era glass with some 21st-Century cameras. Remember those Pioneer screens we mentioned a couple of paragraphs earlier? They also double as monitors for these cameras, allowing Paul to see whatever he wants when he wants. Nice. As cool as two turbocharged VTEC engines and fighter-jet cockpits are, the most eye-catching thing about this MINI truck is the exterior. As with the rest of the car, it was all done by Paul and Paul alone, meaning that he designed and fabricated the whole aero kit. Not only did Paul make the kit, he's also responsible for adding the multi-hued DuPont Planet Color paint to the car. This MINI has more individual colors on it than Baskin Robbins has ice cream flavors, and we must stress again, Paul applied each one of those colors to the car all by himself. Oh yeah, we must also give ourselves props right now... We immediately picked up on the fact that this MINI truck is using aftermarket Scion xA taillights. According to Paul, we were the third or fourth person to accurately place the taillights on our own. Way to go, us! While we're on the subject of vehicle lights, the headlights on this MINI are mostly stock. They can change color to match the paint, but other than that, they are the same lights that came on the car. In fact, the headlights are the only stock part left on the car. The original body pieces were ditched, the original interior was tossed, the O.E. engine is nowhere to be found... the list goes on and on. So much stuff was done to this MINI, we still find new and cool things each time we see it. This MINI truck is truly an original ride from the ground up -- and it was all built by one person. Sure it may have taken Paul a year to build the thing, but he certainly didn't need an army of workers and a TV crew to build a unique, show-stopping one-of-a-kind ride.
I wonder how much it weighs and how it handles. Of course, even if it's 3400 lbs and handles like crap, it's an amazing car. Especially for 1 guy and his kid.
OK, someone tell me whats wrong with the first picture, when you find it you will know why it cant make 100hp. Matt
i dont see anything in the first picture but in the second pic, what looks like an intercooler doesnt seem to be connected to anything