Mini Cooper LB Performance, Gulf

BMW launched the second-generation Mini hatch, the R56, in November 2006 and built it at Plant Oxford until 2013. Every panel was new: the car grew by about 60 mm, the bonnet was raised for pedestrian protection and the headlamps were now fixed to the front quarter panels. The Cooper used a 1.6-litre Prince four-cylinder shared with PSA Peugeot Citroën. Liberty Walk, founded by Wataru Kato in Nagoya in 1993, started out making body kits for kei cars and became known for cutting back the arches of supercars to fit wide body kits. The company also offers parts for the R56, including a rear wing in fibre-reinforced plastic.

This one wears Gulf colours: pale blue paint with an orange band rising along each flank lettered LB PERFORMANCE, an orange stripe over the bonnet, roof and tailgate, orange mirrors and a Gulf roundel on each rear quarter. Bolt-on arch extensions widen the body, and the car sits low on black mesh-pattern wheels with Toyo Tires lettering on the sidewalls. The doors carry a line of script beside a Japanese flag, DUB and LB-R Fighters Works decals fill the rear side windows, and a rising-sun badge sits on the rear bumper above twin exhausts with turquoise tips. The white leather base has red stitching. IVY builds it at 1:18.