24 cars blue sky: Another Car Show, Another Mini

It's a new tradition at the storied Mini brand: Each car show gets its own dedicated Mini. Swatch tried it with the Swatch car, but could not pull it off. Now, BMW's Mini is doing it with great success: At the inside, the same movement. At the outside, ever changing designs. Collect all colors!. Of course, Mini won't break tradition at the Detroit Auto Show, and it will bring you: The John Cooper Works Paceman.

BMW says that "the three-door model is the latest offering from the John Cooper Works sub-brand and, with its race-bred powertrain and chassis technology, brings the promise of a high-octane race feeling to the streets of the urban jungle: extreme driving fun meets the extrovert looks of the world's first Sports Activity Coupé in the compact segment." With greater economy of verbiage, the Wall Street Journal claims that it is, "essentialy a two-door version of the Countryman SUV."

But that's not all. To really limit the cars to one per auto show, there will be a John Cooper Works GP, a limited edition with only 2,000 copies.

While looking at the pictures of the Paceman, abundantly supplied by BMW's press department, one has to wonder: What will they do for SEMA?

In case you want to know more about the car, and only if you are mentally steeled for press releases written by admirers of Leo Tolstoy, here is the official communique. Careful, even the "short version" covers two pages.

P.S.: The picture however are ready for Web 3.0 They come with plenty white space, preventing TTAC's in-picture ads from doing visual harm.