The Flying Panda

The car, lovingly nicknamed the “Flying Panda” because of its colour scheme started life as a standard MINI Cooper road car.

In order to race, the Mini Challenge championship regulations have minimum safety modification requirements such as a roll cage, race seat and harness.

Performance is enhanced by allowing free choice of exhaust after the catalytic converters (to maintain environmental performance) and free choice of one way adjustable suspension (stiffness).

The championship also ensures that the same tyres are used on each car – Dunlop Direzza (cut slicks) and the same fuel is used in each car – normal road going high octane unleaded petrol.

All of this ensures that the championship remains competitive and gives close racing with plenty of overtaking.