MINI Hits the Olympics with Half-Clubman Rickshaw

While President Bush jets home from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, some of the folks sticking around for tennis, gymnastics and the pervasive sense of being watched are being ferried around town in a special form of transport--a MINI-themed rickshaw.

MINI says the rear end of the Cooper, strapped to a human, "perfectly captures Beijing's dynamic combination of tradition and progress, coupled with a touch of fantasy and individuality - as only MINI can do." We cautiously note its literal connection to a sort of indentured servitude the People's Republic has turned into performance art, too.

The zero-emission hybrid MINI is actually derived from a Clubman, and it's patrolling the hotspots in Beijing during the Games, which run through August 18th. About 2200 MINIs have been sold thus far in China in 2008, giving the little Cooper a bigger presence than ever before.