Mini trades quite a bit with its heritage, especially when it comes to racing. But one aspect of its motorsport history was hard to play: Dakar off-road racing. That’s understandable, given the disparity between Mini’s road cars and the Mini-branded trucks built by X-Raid that race. X-Raid seems to have figured out how to bridge that gap with his own set of upgrades for the Mini Countryman.
X-Raid’s lead example for its off-road upgrades is a Mini Cooper S Countryman All4, although we’d expect the various parts to fit just as easily on other Countryman variants, such as the 134 horsepower Cooper Countryman. The S makes more sense for a racing company which offers off-road-friendly four-wheel drive with its 189-horepower turbocharged four-cylinder and All4. While Mini doesn’t go into details on the suspension and chassis upgrades, we know there is some degree of suspension, as well as 28-inch off-road tires fitted to what look like 17-inch beadlock wheels. These modifications give the Mini Cooper S Countryman Powered by X-Raid (yes, that’s the car’s real full name) an extra 1.6 inches of ground clearance.
As with the parts list, Mini and X-Raid have not given precise pricing or availability for the parts. X-Raid is a German company and we suspect it only plans to sell the parts in Europe, but we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a way to get them shipped to the US. Mini says they are contacting X-Raid directly for more details, and you can find their contact details on their official site, linked here.
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