Purple Passion

- Jon Cass

It seems crazy to think that BMW’s MINI has been around for over 15 years now – the description New MINI seems far from appropriate these days.

Demonstrating this, while reminding those of an older generation that time is rapidly pressing on, is the fact that Steve Davidson, the lucky owner of this stunning Black Eyed Purple R53 Cooper S, can recall his primary school teacher owning a silver Cooper S when they were fairly new to our streets!

“She was my teacher in Year 6 and I remember vividly loving everything about her car,” remembers 21-year-old Steve. “Once I was old enough, I learned to drive in my neighbour’s Cooper S. I loved how it drove as much as how it looked and I knew then as soon as I could afford it, I’d be buying one.”

However, for insurance reasons, Steve’s first car wasn’t a MINI. Instead, he bought a 2008 Corsa D SXi in bright red. “It stayed fairly standard for a while then I bought some Futura alloys and lowered it as much as possible. I didn’t have a clue about cars in those days!” he laughs. “The Corsa was crashed the first week I had it, the rear bumper was repaired then, three months after modifying, it was crashed into by a delivery driver who, coincidentally was delivering car parts.” The delivery driver reversed into the back of Steve’s car, destroying the rear end with his tow bar and pushing the front end into a wall, causing damage there too!

Again the Corsa was repaired, but just two months later Steve was sitting in traffic and was hit from behind. This time around, the Vauxhall was a complete write off. “I stripped off all the modified parts that were worth selling separately and put the profits towards my next project – which definitely wasn’t going to be a Corsa,” he recalls.