Teenage Dream

MINIs are an aspirational car for many - we’ve published lots of stories about owners who’ve wanted nothing else. Kirsty Atkinson is one of them and now owns this rather special R53 Cooper S.

- Martyn Collins

Kirsty remembers wanting an Electric Blue R53 MINI Cooper S since she was 10 years old. As she got older, she became more interested in cars and modifying them and by 17, she’d gone as far as making a list of modifications for the way she wanted her MINI to look!

However, like all of us she first needed to pass her test. Within months she had her licence, but she didn't have enough money to buy a Cooper S – yet.

Her MINI-modding dreams were put on hold for a while so she could build up her no-claims bonus a bit, but at long last she bit the bullet and bought this Dark Silver Cooper S from a dealer in Wembley. “I was so excited on the test drive and I absolutely loved the car. It was the first one I viewed and I took it home that night,” Kirsty smiles. The smile on her dad’s face as he drove it home was enough to confirm that she’d bought the right car! “I hadn’t even told my boyfriend that I was viewing a car that day, so that was a great feeling!”

That was over two years ago. Kirsty is still only 21, but her MINI has changed a lot in that time and she’s the first to admit it doesn’t feel that long! So how long did it stay standard? It turns out that she bought the XXR wheels and TA Technix coilovers before the car and the coilovers were the first to go on, within a matter of days. So it didn’t stay standard for long at all!