Dragster is World's Quickest MINI First Time Out at NHRA Sport Compact Finals
October 26, 2005... The MINI USA/FTR made its drag strip debut at the NHRA Sport Compact World Finals at the Pomona Raceway in Pomona, California this past weekend. In its inaugural run the car posted an impressive time of 12.54 seconds for the Quarter Mile with a top speed of 115.79 miles per hour making it the world's quickest MINI in the quarter mile.

MINI USA has collaborated with the extreme California based tuner FIREBALL TIM RACING (FTR) to create a one-of-a-kind record-breaking dragster. The outrageous carbon fiber MINI dragster stood out, drawing a crowd of onlookers as it tore down the strip, laying its 450 twin-charged-horsepower to the ground.

"For its inaugural run, we certainly managed to get a pretty respectable time." said Hubie Fuh, President of FTR. "This is a very promising shake-down run for us as the car shows tremendous potential to make more power and put down quicker times."

"The MINI Dragster exhibited some pretty impressive performance on the strip" said Jeff Stracco, MINI Product Manager. " The world's quickest MINI' is a pretty nice claim to for us to achieve right out of the box - or in this case the gate."

The car will appear at select events through the end of 2005, including SEMA in Las Vegas, November 1 - 4. The MINI USA/FTR dragster will make its next performance run at the IDRC Finals at Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, CA November 12-13.

Fireball Tim
Fireball Tim is famous for his many maniacal movie car designs from films like SON OF THE MASK, JURASSIC PARK and about 50 others. The Fireball Tim brand includes TV programming, toys, clothing, and candy sold in retail outlets nationwide, including Wal-Mart. More information about Fireball Tim and FTR can be found at www.fireballtim.com.