This, believe it or not, is a £99,000 Mini. That’s a staggering sum of money for any car, let alone one so small.

The David Brown Automotive Mini Remastered ‘Inspired by Monte Carlo’ – just as long in name as in asking price, then – is a reimagining of the iconic Mini, but with neater styling and a modern twist.

It’s built by the same company that brought us the £600,000 Speedback GT. Now based at Silverstone in shiny new headquarters, David Brown Automotive had reckoned on building 50-100 per year, but with the number of people who have shown ‘serious interest’ in the car since its April unveiling now in the thousands, the company is expecting to build many more than that.

The Mini Remastered is more than a modern remix

This Monte Carlo version is the range-topping limited edition model, just 25 of which will be built. It gets more power than the standard car and a unique Rascasse Red and Ice White paint scheme. The cheapest version, incidentally, is the Classic, which starts at around £75,000.

It takes 1400 hours to turn a donor car into a Mini Remastered. The only components that are carried over from the donor are the engine and gearbox, both of which are rebuilt, and the VIN.

Everything else, including the bodyshell, is brand new. The shell itself is stiffened with additional structural bracing and the Mini’s various gutters and seams are reprofiled or removed entirely to clean up the styling. The quality of the fit and finish, as well as the paintwork, is very good indeed. Whether or not that justifies the asking price is another matter.

The cabin, meanwhile, gets high quality leather and a bespoke dashboard with lots of attractive details, such as knurled aluminium knobs for the ventilation controls. There’s also air conditioning and even a Pioneer infotainment system with sat-nav and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto mobile phone compatibility. Additionally, the seats are redesigned to be more comfortable and more supportive, while the boot is now leather-lined. David Brown Automotive has turned the original Mini into a tiny luxury car.

As for standard equipment the Mini Remastered gets halogen headlights, a logo-engraved fuel filler cap, a single exhaust, a leather upholstery, air conditioning, not to mention no cost options that can be added such as branded floor mats, LED illuminated instrument cluster and various 12in alloy wheel options.