Tuesday 15th September 2009

Mini Roadster Revealed

New Mini rag-top joins Coupe in 2011 model line-up

---

Britain's motor industry got a boost this morning, as BMW took the wraps off the pair of racey Mini concepts in Frankfurt that will go into production in Oxford in 2011.

Both the Coupe and Roadster are two-seaters are designed with enthusiastic drivers in mind - the Coupe revealed in pictures earlier this month gets power from the JCW Mini's 1.6-litre turbo engine, so boasts 211hp, while the Roadster gets the less frenetic turbo unit from the Cooper S.

The Roadster looks a little less extreme than the Coupe from a styling perspective, but Mini has made an effort to distinguish it from four seat Cabrio models with extended overhangs at the front and rear. The Roadster has a manually operated fabric roof, and the rear deck conceals a traditional boot that Mini says is uncharacteristically large for the segment. Because the roof folds into a separate area behind the seats, luggage space is undiminished with roof up or down.Roll-over protection is provided by a single aluminium hoop that pops up in moments of crisis.

The two new model launches co-incide with a big push by Mini in the US, where it has announced plans to extend its network by 20 percent to 100 outlets.

 

[g7jhp]

The Roadster certainly looks better than the Coupe IMO

Roadster looks cool, slightly over styled with indicator vent and crome fuel cap.

[Frimley111R]

Needs more bling

[NORTS]

Cost?

[MogulBoy]

I predcict a general moistening of undercrackers amongst the female population of a certain age.

[crofty1984]

Not really a fan of the MINI, but I do like that!

[Tony*T3]

Neat motor. Better than the cabrio version too (and as the rear seats of the cabrio are virtually never used by anyone, makes sense too).

Cant wait till a tuner puts 250bhp into one of these. Should be a hoot.

[GG89]

Really like this. *Starts saving up*

[Assmask]

Scrolled down to see the comments with minor trepidation... being that I quite liked the whole weirdness of the Coupé and thought this looked even better!

I think that looks mint.

[john_p]

This will sell like hot cakes. Looks great.

[Carfiend]

MogulBoy said:

I predcict a general moistening of undercrackers amongst the female population of a certain age.

Sorry, it happens when I walk by it is just a natural reaction for the poor darlings.

[kazino]

That's brilliant, a GP version would be fantastic I'm sure

[dazsmith69]

definately a womans car

[Morningside]

The MINI has never done anything for me, but that is quite nice.

[andyps]

I criticised the Coupe on here and I still don't like the roofline and the colours shown so far. The Roadster, however, I do like a lot, even with the roof up so I guess that really shows where my problem lies with the Coupe.

[Slikk]

It looks a lot better than the coupe(which isnt difficult), but only with the roof down. That soft top is really awkward.I know there are parameters which control certain elememts of a cars styling, but surely anyone with a modicum of taste would agree that the roof is hideous.

Edited by Slikk on Tuesday 15th September 11:32

[Dan-Gold]

Quite shocked by all the positive feedback, I frankly think they both look vial and just don't see the point in shaving the top off a car to give it 2 seats and a different roofline and the roadsters just a mini cabrio with a bit of plastics over the backseats and a new roof... why?!

[Staffy1984]

It says that the roof on the Cabrio is manually operated???

My missus would love one of these but not if she physically has to put the roof up and down, in fact I don't know any women that would want to do that.....they better put a motor and a little button inside the car otherwise these are gonna flop IMO. this isn't the 80's, cabrio roofs should be completely electric shouldn't they???

Or have I read this wrong?

[adamharrisuk]

The coupe looks a little strange, but the Roadster looks very nice! No doubt they will be a success.

[dwilkie]

I'm with you Dan-Gold - they're both utterly vile and I hope they die hideously.

[illmonkey]

Dan-Gold said:

Quite shocked by all the positive feedback, I frankly think they both look vial and just don't see the point in shaving the top off a car to give it 2 seats and a different roofline and the roadsters just a mini cabrio with a bit of plastics over the backseats and a new roof... why?!

Oh for the love of God.

This is what most manufactures do these days.

A 1 series saloon is just a squashed 3 series coupe. The A5 is just a 2 door A4.

These companies are in business to get as many sales as possible, so expand their fleet to appear to more people. This is a MINI convertible with a big boot. I wonder how many people would love a MINI convertible, but its boot is just too small.