With a slightly bigger antenna, the RC car ruse might have been complete, but be warned: we’re dealing with a real, life-sized MINI Cooper S here. Albeit it’s not exactly doing what it was initially designed for. Instead, it’s having way more fun alongside the crazy cool folks from the B is for Build channel on YouTube.
So, just in case anyone is new to the shenanigans going on this channel, let’s just say these guys are totally next level. That’s a quick appraisal based on their previous work, an LS-swapped Lamborghini Huracan that was (extremely) modified for off-roading duties. For this special episode of their vlog, they’re not straying too far away from the dirt-traveling scenario as they entered the Gambler 500 challenge.
This means “you buy a $500 car, have fun modifying it, and then try and drive it 500 miles (805 km) with as much off-road” as possible. Sounds like a neat premise, right? By the way, they have a lot of experience doing this and naturally have big plans for their new ride. It’s a $500 MINI Cooper S they were surprised to find out it runs when they bought it, so all there’s left to do is fit a lot of heavy-duty off-road components to make it a little monster car.
That’s exactly what happens once the presentation is over from the 0:50 mark and after lots of tinkering, fabrication, and modifications it’s ready to accept its new “shoes,” in the form of a complete set of 30-inch Nitto Tire Trail Grapplers. Check out the build progress via a lot of cool time-lapse pieces from the 4:05 mark and so we can jump to the 10:25 mark when the front is complete, and they start fitting the rear ones.
Then, from the 12:37 mark, the 30-inch monster MINI is ready after just a day and a half of hard work. A test drive (which happens off-camera) shows that everything is (probably) in working order, so they start making their way through Lebanon, Oregon. That’s where the Gambler 500 challenge kicks off, and although they’re unlucky with their abandoned race-track quest, there’s always the Gambler Town alternative.
Once there (at the 16:45 mark), the MINI gets going with showcasing its newfound off-road performance on a rallycross track. So, the MINI goes jumping for some plain old dirty fun (quite literally) and even survives the ordeal in one piece... Which is kind of surprising for a MINI, right?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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