You know what the problem with the Mini is?

It’s great and all, but it’s just a bit too large, don’t you think? Just a hair. A wee smidgen. But nevertheless too gargantuan for anyone with taste.

Illustration for article titled You know what the problem with the Mini is?
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Introducing the Lannaud Naudal. Proof that the French have the answer to everything. Even if that answer is often “You’re wrong”. (Although you have to say it with your tongue pressed firmly to the roof of your mouth and with your lips tightly puckered so it sounds like “Urrrrrronngg”. Congratulations, you can now speak French.) Conceived by genious Frenchman Bernard Lannaud as a way to ERADICATE ALL PARKING PROBLEMS, the Naudal takes everything good about a Mini, saws it in half, chops out a good chunk of it, welds it back together, and calls it an improvement. If you disagree, urrrronngg.

Do you sometimes find yourself wishing that your car had mirrors on the rear pillars? Well, this car has (or at one point had) two of them! Is that really necessary, you ask? Darn right it is! Urrrronngg.

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It appears the car underwent a repaint at some point...
It appears the car underwent a repaint at some point...

And as for storage, the Naudal not only features an excellent little hatch in its butt that you can stuff things in, but a very nice roof rack as well. With a roof rack, the sky’s the limit when it comes to packing! Those silly British buses get to be two stories tall without falling over, and this car’s much smaller and lighter than those, so logically it can get much taller than that! What? What do you mean you can’t make it as tall as a bus? Well, not with that attitude you can’t! Urrrronngg!

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Bernard Lannaud drives this car regularly at speeds as high as 90 mph with a suitcase on the roof rack. He believes that since most people drive alone anyways, there is a place for cars like this on modern roads. He is fighting for authorities to treat the car like a motorcycle for parking purposes, and he has tried to propose the idea to several car companies with little success. He has taken to parking the car sideways in French parking spaces, both to demonstrate the shortness of the car and to try and generate parking tickets.

Illustration for article titled You know what the problem with the Mini is?
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He figures he can gain publicity by battling all the courthouses over parking tickets. However, so far, the authorities have found the car too amusing to give it a parking ticket. Oh well.

Urrrronngg.