The MINI That Swapped Its Engine for an M3 V8 and Became Rear-Wheel Drive

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is known for revealing builds that sound impossible on paper. VINI is exactly that kind of car. Built by David Power, a MINI enthusiast whose name practically guarantees something extreme, this R56 MINI Cooper ditches its original engine entirely. 0-liter S65 V8 from the E92 M3, a naturally aspirated engine that revs to 8,300 rpm and delivers around 450 horsepower.

It’s one of the last great M engines before BMW switched to turbocharging, and now it lives inside a car roughly a third the M3’s size.

Putting that much power through the MINI’s front wheels wasn’t an option. So Power made VINI rear-wheel drive, using the same seven-speed dual-clutch transmission from the M3 and driveline parts from a Subaru Impreza to send power to the back axle. This wasn’t a weekend project.

Power’s company, Powerflex, spent five years fabricating the car, and the details show it. The suspension is a custom-tuned Bilstein setup, the brakes are four-piston calipers at all four corners, and there’s a programmable Bosch race-spec ABS unit. The exhaust is a one-off, like most of the mechanical components needed to fit a V8 and rear drivetrain into a chassis never designed for either.

Inside, the R56 cabin is mostly gone. The DCT shifter comes straight from the M3. Cobra shell seats with Schroth harnesses replace the stock buckets, and the dashboard and door panels are carbon fiber. The rear seat has been removed to make room for a roll cage and an ATL fuel cell built to motorsport safety standards.

9 kilograms per horsepower, putting it near the front of BMW’s own production car rankings. It’s a reminder that the R56 was always light and tossable underneath the badge, and that the S65 V8 remains a surprisingly transplantable engine, provided you have five years and aren’t afraid to cut up a perfectly good MINI.