Mini will return to the World Rally Championship next year with this kitted-up Mini Cooper Countryman S, powered by a 1.6-liter DI fourbanger gently massaged by BMW. Expect regular Mini drivers to begin dressing as Paddy Hopkirk for Halloween.

Minis became famed in the early 1960s for their rally prowess, and Mr. Hopkirk and Henry Liddon won the 1964 Monte Carlo rally at the wheel of a John Cooper-prepped Mini #37, the last team of British drivers to do so. Mini would repeat the feat with different drivers the following few years.

While BMW will put the Mini WRC on track next year, it doesn't plan a full season of rally racing until 2012.