Monday 17th January 2011

Cooper SD Diesel Hot Hatch Set For Geneva

New diesel motor to major on power and pace (oh, and economy...)

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Web rumours are gathering pace that Mini will unveil a new high-performance diesel at the Geneva show in March, dubbed the Mini Cooper SD.

Mini appears to be attempting to corner the market in tiny-yet-rapid diesels; it already has the Cooper D, which manages to be frugal enough to combine free road tax and a London congestion charge exemption (thanks to 74.3mpg and 99g/km CO2) with genuine warm-hatch performance (0-62mph in 9.7secs).

And now, although it sounds more like a type of memory card than a car, the Cooper SD will add even more performance to the Mini diesel range, with 141bhp and 225lb ft of torque apparently on the cards (that's 29bhp and 26lb ft up on the existing Cooper D). And though the car will sacrifice around 10mpg in hatch form, we reckon the expected 65mpg isn't too bad.

The new engine, we're told, will eventually be slotted into the hatch, Convertible, Clubman and Countryman, and we should see the first images of the hatchback version - along with some more concrete spec details - sometime in February.

[DaGuv]

Good to see more performance diesels but I would take a new Seat Ibiza FR with the 2.0 tdi common rail with 140bhp. Will be cheaper and will map to around 200bhp. I will find out later in the year!

[DaGuv]

VAG have been doing this for years starting with the fabia vrs!

[DaGuv]

Its not a hatch back, the Mini is in the supermini class. The only competition for this at the moment is the Ibiza 2.0 TDI FR which is also 140bhp, so its spot on.

[DaGuv]

HellDiver said:

140hp diesel is "hot hatch" now? What are you guys smoking?!?

No one has said it is a hot hatch!

[DaGuv]

I assume its a cooper d with a tweaked ecu. Unless they increase the bhp using a larger turbo then I would just buy a cooper d and map it. If it does have a larger turbo,then a map will be quite interesting.

[DaGuv]

bobmcgod said:

DaGuv said:

VAG have been doing this for years starting with the fabia vrs!

Starting with the SEAT Ibiza Cupra diesel really. Same 1.9tdi but throwing out 160bhp.

Fabia VRS/Ibiza sport which became the FR were around before the ibiza cupra tdi.