DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition review

One look at DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition and the memories come flooding back. Suddenly I’m 16 again and the proud owner of a 1968 Mini Deluxe, beige with red vinyl seats, wide chromies all round, a big-bore muffler, and a Saas wood rim steering wheel. My first car. The Oselli Edition even has driving lights about the same size as the ones I fitted to my Mini to help spot the ’roos on late-night runs across the Hay Plain.

I open the door and fold into the tiny but deceptively roomy cabin. Wha…? The speedo’s been moved and now sits in line with the steering column, rather than at the centre of the dash. Whoa…! Where the speedo was in my car is now a Pioneer touch-screen infotainment system for the audio and sat-nav systems. And what are these? Vents, for the air-conditioning, I’m told. In my Mini air-conditioning meant both front windows rolled down and the two rear side windows popped open, the throbby baritone exhaust booming through the cabin.

If you have ever owned one of the more than five million Minis built between 1959 and 2000, the DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition will play cruel tricks with your memories. Yes, it’s the same size and shape as the innovative Alec Issigonis-designed original, is still powered by the BMC A-series four-banger, an engine whose basic design was drawn more than 70 years ago, and it has the same cheeky character as the little flying bricks that regularly humiliated much bigger cars on racetracks around Australia in the 1960s. But it’s a Mini like no other.

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First, that name. DBA stands for David Brown Automotive, a company founded by Yorkshire entrepreneur David Brown in 2013 to make a luxury sportscar called the Speedback based on Jaguar XKR mechanicals and wrapped in hand-formed aluminium panels that riff on classic Aston Martin DB5 motifs. (For the record, this David Brown, whose other business interests include brewing beer and manufacturing components for heavy machinery, is not related to the David Brown who owned Aston Martin from 1947 to 1972.)

The Mini Remastered is DBA’s second car. Launched in 2017 it is – as its name suggests – a lovingly remade version of the Issigonis Mini, combining original but carefully refurbished 1275cc powertrains with a brand-new bodyshell made by classic car parts manufacturer British Motor Heritage.

Inside is an interior made over with lashings of leather and splashes of polished aluminium and fitted with mod-cons such as power windows, air-conditioning, sat-nav and Bluetooth audio connectivity.

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Oselli Edition? Oselli Engineering is a British classic car sales, service, restoration, and performance engineering shop that traces its roots back to a race car tuning operation founded in 1962 by two BMC engineers who thought an Italian-sounding name was cool.

The Oselli Edition is a limited-build version of the Mini Remastered with a more powerful Oselli-developed version of the venerable A-series engine under the bonnet and a sportier chassis setup. Just 60 will be built, to celebrate (belatedly, due to the pandemic) the 60th anniversary of the launch of the original Mini, each available in either Old English White or Carbon Grey with graphics and stripes – hand-painted, not decals – in Competition Red, Royal Blue, or Heritage Green.

In addition to the upgraded engine, other mechanical changes include a five-speed transmission nestling in the same space within the sump as the original four-speed, a limited-slip differential, AP Racing front disc brakes, and Bilstein shocks.

While the regular Mini Remastered rolls on 12-inch alloy wheels, the Oselli Edition gets 13-inchers. Tyres are Yokohama A539s, 175/50 R13s all round. The 34-litre fuel tank is on the left-hand side of the boot, as in the original Mini, though our test car has the optional 21-litre second tank on the right side as well.

Oselli Edition? Oselli Engineering is a British classic car sales and performance engineering shop that traces its roots back to a race car tuning operation founded in 1962

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The 1275cc A-series Mini engine, with its twin 1.25-inch SU carbies, made 57kW at 5900rpm and 107Nm of torque at 3000rpm when it first appeared in 1964, enough to propel the original Cooper S from 0 to 100km/h in about 11.4 seconds on a good day.

The Osselli-massaged A-series has been bored out to 1450cc, packs a pair of 1.5-inch SUs, and punches out 93kW at 6200rpm and 153Nm of torque at 4500rpm. That’ll get the Oselli Edition to 100km/h in about 7.8 seconds, making this restomod Mini just a second slower than a 2020 Cooper S. It’s physics: The modern Cooper S might have 50 per cent more power, but it weighs 68 per cent more than the 740kg Oselli Edition.

Thumb the starter and the big-bore A-series throbs into life. The Oselli Edition’s interior has a 60s race car vibe, with a deeply dished three-spoke steering wheel and hip-hugging seats. The standard interior seats four; our car has the optional two-seat setup, which means there’s a half roll-cage behind the seats with four-point racing harnesses strung from it.

Driving the ultimate old-school Mini doesn’t mean roughing it, though: The Oselli Edition has the regular Mini Remastered’s power windows, Pioneer infotainment system, and air-conditioning.

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Once underway you quickly learn Oselli’s race-face A-series likes to be kept busy: Spend too long noodling around at less than 2000rpm and it will barf and stutter like all cammy, over-carbed, high-performance engines in the days before fuel injection and engine management computers. But once the little engine clears its throat, the big SUs gurgling as they gulp more air, it spins lustily to 6200rpm, the steering wheel squirming in your hands as the front tyres scrabble for grip. The shifter’s throw is long and the gate wide, but there’s never a problem finding the right gear in a hurry.

Low mass not only helps the Oselli Edition scoot between corners; it helps this manic Mini scoot around them, too. Old Minis, which combined their short wheelbase with relatively high roll stiffness, tended to spin like a top if you lifted suddenly on corner entry.

The Oselli Edition, which rolls much more noticeably than old Minis in the corners, initially feels much more tail-happy but, paradoxically, it also feels more controllable. Its greater rate of roll means you’re more aware of the weight transfer occurring during cornering, so you’re more easily able to modulate the lift-off oversteer to get the little car rotated and tucked into the apex.

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Power understeer is the default cornering mode when you’re going for it in the track, but beware: Once those tyres hook up, the limited-slip diff means the little Mini will go exactly where the front wheels are pointed.

It’s a lively little thing, and great fun on the road, where its small size, high agility and low mass mean you always have much more real estate to play with than drivers in regular cars. Yes, most modern hot hatches have more speed and more grip. But few will deliver the grin-inducing driver engagement the Oselli Edition does at speeds that won’t get you locked up.

The Oselli Edition really is a Mini Remastered, a car that distils the original’s giant-killing spirit. But memories don’t come cheap. DBA’s regular Mini Remastered, at least one of which has already been shipped to Australia, costs about about $140,000. Before tax. The Oselli Edition will lighten your wallet to the tune of at least $180,000.

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DBA Mini Remastered Oselli Edition Specifications