Cooper S Works and Cooper S values

[535d]

It is well known that these cars have very good residuals at present.
I have seen dealers asking £26,000 for a used one, which admittedly is pretty silly.

I am just wondering two things.

Will values of the existing car fall sharply when the much better 1.6 turbo motor starts getting used, as it by all accounts is way more up to date than the current dated 1.6 supercharged unit?

As an aside, why did they not make it a 1.8 or 2.0, if they were going to the trouble of such a big change with the Mini Cooper S?

[535d]

Cooper S will be 170bhp the report says.

They also said that the current engine is very low-tech, the new engine a lot more modern.

[535d]

You obviously can have too much power going to the front, which causes problems, but would it still be a Mini if you made it rwd?