2010 MINI Cooper

YEAR: 2010
MODEL: MINI Cooper (R56)
VIN: #TZ26048
ENGINE: 1.6L Inline Four-Cylinder
CURB WEIGHT: 2,546 LBS.
TOP SPEED: 112 MPH
PRICE WHEN NEW: $24,450
BUILD DATE: June 30, 2010
NUMBER BUILT: Unknown
COLOR: Custom Stella Art Car livery 
(Originally Pepper White)
OWNERS: Frank Schwartz
LOCATION: Davisburg, Michigan
NICKNAME: N/A

Grass Paddock Motorsports owner and driver, Frank Schwartz, is a native of Germany and currently resides in Michigan.  Growing up in Germany near the famous Schauinsland Bergrennen (Hillclimb), his fixation on sports cars and road racing started at a very early age. Schwartz began his motorsports career in 1980 with autocrossing and moved to hillclimbs in the late 80s.  His first on-track experience was at Driver’s School at Summit Point in West Virginia in 1988 and his first race soon followed at the road course at Rockingham Motor Speedway in North Carolina.  The first win came in his 5th race weekend at Waterford Hills in Michigan in 1991. He now has almost 400 races under his belt with 169 wins, 288 podiums and 40 track records over his career. The custom livery on this B-Spec MINI was inspired by the Frank Stella 1975 BMW CSL Art Car, one of Schwartz’s favorites.

Because the MINI is a different shape than the Stella CSL it became more of an inspiration for this MINI. The livery was created through the hand application of almost one-half mile of traditional automotive pin stripping tape in three different widths. The graphics were started on the passenger door and the car made its debut on July 10th, 2021, at Nelson Ledges Road Course in northeast Ohio while in an unfinished state.

Over the next month the livery was completed in patches at his home in the evenings and at the racetracks in between track sessions.  It took a total of 40-50 man-hours to complete the design.

Frank raced this MINI with the design completed at the 2021 SCCA Runoffs at Indianapolis to a 4th place finish.