The 2004 Alpine Mini Cooper An interview with Alpine's car design team, Steve Brown and Mike Vu

Todd Cabell and Erin Blanton — Jan 27, 2004

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CA: What are your plans for the car this year? I know this is the kick-off for it — are you guys going to be showing it around the country?

MV: Hot Import Nights, Spring Break Nationals, MERA. . . .

SB: Yeah, we haven't really set the schedule for it yet, but we want to try to get it all over the country. We've got a lot of magazines already committed to it, and there's going to be a ton of coverage.

MV: This kind of car targets a wider audience now, since it's a European car, it's an import. . .

SB: It's got the retro thing going on, a lot of guys like it.

MV: Hot rodders, you know, Gen Y would love it.

CA: Yeah that's right, you're kind of breaking out a little wider than you did with the Civic, which was more the tuner crowd stable.

MV: Exactly.

SB: Yeah, we wanted to go a little more upscale with this car. That's why the paint scheme's a little bit simpler and a little bit more classy, because we really wanted it to have a little more of a European flair.

CA: So, Mike, I know you mentioned to me earlier that it came down to the last day finishing everything up. Was that kind of nerve-wracking?

MV: No, we were confident. It's always like that, no matter what car you build. I mean if you start getting cocky like two-thirds of the way, like "We're going to finish early," it never happens. It's always down to the wire.

SB: Yeah, there's always, especially with new product — there's a lot of sample product in the car that you have to play with a little bit to get it to work how it's supposed to. When you get this product there's no owner's manual, there's no anything. You've got to really figure out how to make it work and what the problems are. It's just new product. And once all the bugs get worked out, then everything's cool. It takes a little extra time.

CA: Did you have that new touchscreen monitor in there? I haven't checked it out.

SB: Yeah. It's actually in the rear. The concept being you can control the DVD player and all the functionality of it through that rear screen.

CA: Well, it looks fantastic guys. Thanks for catching us up on it.

SB: I'm glad you guys got a chance to see it in all its glory.

And so were we!

Thanks again to Steve Brown and Mike Vu for taking some time out of their hectic CES schedule to discuss the new car with us. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the 2004 Alpine Mini Cooper at Hot Import Nights, Spring Break Nationals, and many other car shows this year — it's worth the price of admission alone!