I've got a Cooper S on order too, for about the past 9 months - due in May/June or so I hear. It'll be a toss up between that and the Civic Type R which is hopefully just about to be delivered to see which one gets kept - the Cooper was going to be mainly for my gf, but she's not around anymore (much to my upset) so I have a car surplus... one of them will have to go!

ISTR the bay will definitely fit an empeg, being standard DIN size. I don't think there are any audio<>systems tie-ins on the mini. The radio sits on K-bus as with other BMW head units, but this shouldn't be a problem for an empeg install. You will need to find somewhere decent for the amp thogh.

Hugo