Windscreen is raked 16 degrees more sharply
The rakish-looking Mini concept you see might look like it has blossomed from the fevered imaginations of Europe's more inventive tuning houses - Rinspeed, say, or maybe Sbarro - but this is actually a full-on BMW concept.
It's called the Mini Coupe Concept and, even though it is officially a concept that's been designed for next month's Frankfurt show as a celebration of the Mini brand's half century, it could become a production reality.
Spoiler apes backwards baseball cap, apparently
The low aluminium roof, 136mm lower than the roof of a standard hatch, is the most dramatic styling change, especially since the lower half of the Mini Coupe is almost unchanged.
Underneath, the Concept is a Mini Cooper JCW, meaning a power output of 208bhp and 192lb ft of torque, with 206lb ft available on overboost. A production version could run even more performance-focused mechanicals, but the lightweight roof and much lower centre of gravity mean that the Mini Coupe would be a pretty agile machine even with running gear and suspension identical to the JCW.
Broadspeed GT: one they made earlier...
The idea of a coupe-bodied Mini isn't new - there were plenty of coachbuilders in the 1960s putting slinky bodies onto Mini mechanicals - and the new concept is perhaps most reminiscent of the Broadspeed GT coupe from 1966 (pictured here at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed). BMW is well aware of this heritage, and a production version of the coupe is likely to get a name that reflects this, such as Broadspeed or possibly Downton.
If the Mini Coupe Concept becomes a production reality it could be in Mini showrooms by 2011 - if the project gets the official green light from BMW by the end of 2009.