This Mini Cooper Transformed into a Rolling Winamp Skin Represents the Pinnacle of 2004 Customization.

      Alpine

      I have some cherished memories from 2004, along with a few less pleasant ones, as it marked my freshman year in high school. Being the nerd I am, I find myself particularly nostalgic for early-2000s racing games and PC modding. This 2004 Mini Speedster concept from Alpine—the audio equipment brand, not the sporty Renault manufacturer—resonates with me. Just take a look at it! It resembles a Winamp skin on wheels.

      Alpine’s Speedster show car was introduced seven years prior to Mini’s launch of the Roadster, its own two-seat convertible sports car. The Speedster was based on a standard Mini Cooper S, but Alpine transformed it into a showcase for their advanced in-car entertainment technology.

      Interestingly, the Speedster features a central seating position akin to a McLaren F1, with a steering wheel that looks like a distorted Formula 1 wheel, but that’s where the driver-centric design stops. The central seat is surrounded by six GPS head units, and this setup might hold the record for the most awkward manual shifter placement ever, located to the northeast of the wheel with the top of the lever facing the driver. I'm also doubtful about whether that seat is ergonomically designed, as it seems to have come from the Cenobite realm of Hellraiser.

      Alpine

      The seat’s appearance of extreme discomfort isn’t its only unusual feature; it’s also mounted on a track that slides backward along with the entire rear section of the car, seemingly just for the sake of novelty. When fully extended, two enormous subwoofers resembling afterburners are revealed, though this leaves the driver unable to access any of the vehicle’s controls. Curiously, there’s also a GPS head unit installed on the back of the car. Why? Is it for the car behind you so they can keep track of your route too?

      Alpine

      To enhance the Winamp skin aesthetic, the entire vehicle is adorned with a lightning-themed livery over a hue I can only describe as “dollar store sunglasses blue.” According to an old Carsales article, it was reportedly painted by an artist who also contributed to 2 Fast 2 Furious.

      If someone were to encapsulate every aspect of early 2000s design, pour it into a container, and reduce it like a Michelin-star chef, the result would be this Alpine Mini Speedster, for better or worse. It even made a brief appearance in an episode of Entourage, which seems fitting, and took home the Best in Show award at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show. A closer look at the interior reveals Project Gotham Racing 2 running on two of the car’s LCD screens. We truly didn’t realize how fortunate we were back then, did we?

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