The number 50 displayed on the special grille badges of these two new MINIs denotes the marque's 50th birthday, though it could just as easily denote these as the 50th special edition MINI we've seen over the last couple of years. (That doesn't quite work, does it, because they'd be numbers 50 and 51. Oh well, you get the point.)

Anyway, you're looking at the limited production 50th Anniversary MINIs here, named Mayfair and Camden and both featuring a bit of extra kit for a lot of extra cash: they're about £4,500 more than the basic version of the car on which they're based. Happy birthday!

Both are available in Cooper, Cooper S or Cooper D guises and production is limited to one year from August. The 'hot chocolate' one is the Mayfair, which gets 17-inch, 12-spoke white alloys, 'toffee brown metallic' bonnet stripes, spot lamps on the grille, brown leather seats, more brown for the dash, and yet more brown for the gearshift lever and steering wheel. Sensing a theme? You can have one in black too, if brown's not your thing, though in that case you might want to close your eyes once you get in.

Or you could go for the Camden, which is finished in the 'white silver metallic' shown here, though you can also have it in black or blue. A new 17-inch alloy design features, as do silver bonnet stripes, two-tone mirror caps, Xenon headlamps encased in black, and a 'Camden' logo. Open the doors and it's brown... just kidding. It's largely black, with an instrument panel that mimics the mirror caps and black and white leather sports seats. The stitching is black and turquoise green.

You can order one now if you really want to, or you could save yourself a good couple of grand and spend five minutes speccing your own MINI.

Mark Nichol - 27 May 2009