26 August 2009 - 09:00
Mini’s minier Mini
We knew Mini was cooking up something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alex Issigonis’ original design, and here it is: the Mini Coupe Concept.
It’s a two-door, lower-roofed take on the John Cooper Works car which, says Mini, could reach the market in a couple of years’ time to take on the Peugeot RCZ and Audi TT.
Near-identical to the JCW below the beltline, the Coupe Concept stands 5cm shorter and features a more steeply raked windscreen and a big roof spoiler.
Mini design director Gert Hildebrand says the design of the floating roof was inspired the sight of his teenage son wearing a baseball cap backwards. Oh dear. ‘Ah, my precocious child! Your attempts to emulate style icon Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit shall be forever immortalised in roof form!’
Despite ourselves, we can actually see where he’s coming from – just take a look at the Coupe Concept in profile. However, we suspect it might have been one of those awful golf visors rather than a baseball cap that provided the inspiration. We don’t know if this makes Herr Hildebrand’s confession better or worse.
The Coupe Concept shares the JCW Mini's 208bhp, 1.6-litre turbo engine. Expected to weigh in around 100kg lighter than the Mini hatch – thanks in part to the removal of the rear seats – that should guarantee lively performance. We’d expect a 0-62mph time of around six seconds flat, and tidy handling thanks to the lower centre of gravity.
We’ll don our yoof headwear in reverse fashion for a full perusal of the Coupe Concept at the Frankfurt show next month. Though BMW says it has not yet decided whether to put the Mini Coupe into production, the Germans insist it is a definite possibility.
Reckon they should build it?
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Come to think, Mini never did do a 'mini' coupe, have they? The closest to one of those so far has been the Smart Roadster. And you don't want one of those. Not when you HAVE to have it with a stupid flappy paddle gearbox that takes a week to change gear. Get rid of the stupid roof, and it'd look great. :)
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i like it,it is kind of supercool cars:D
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, this is an early April Fools joke isn't it!? It has to be one of the worst looking things I have ever seen. Will BMW ever stop trying to get as much money as they can from what is now a very un-cool car? Please BMW, don't ever let this car see the light of day!
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one of the ugliest cars ever... Shame on you BMW you did it again!!
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From the front, it is vaguely tolerable. From the back, it's not. Sorry.
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BMW made a ghastly coupéish car already (the X6, for the uninformed) and now it has come up with another one. Jesus.
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What about no? BMW, stop it. Stop it right now.
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Woh, woh, woh, woh! I am sorry, but it would appear that some fat person has just sat on a mini. The proportions are entirely wrong and will never be a contender in the pretty steaks next to the Pug RCZ or the TT. Please Mini, for the love of god, DO NOT MAKE THIS!
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Oh dear... Mini have just borded the train to insanity....
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Who thought that this was a good idea. Ugly. If its up against that crappy peugeot and the TT like the article says, i'd have a TT any day out of that, the mini or the Pug.
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If it wasn't called a Mini it would be alright. It's plain and simply not a Mini at all. T'is a Bini.
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Baseball Cap? Looks like some hit it with a baseball bat. No one over 5' 10'' is going to fit in it.
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Baseball Cap? Looks like some hit it with a baseball bat. No one over 5' 10'' is going to fit in it.
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Baseball Cap? Looks like some hit it with a baseball bat. No one over 5' 10'' is going to fit in it.
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It looks weird... really weird!! slightly resembles a frog...
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The thing I am left thinking with this is while it's a concept, it really looks like a marketing man's idea. Let's look at the thinking - people love Minis and they love fashionable coupés...so we take our highest performance Mini, we make it look like a sportier, fashionable coupé and take out two seats to make it lighter and faster. It should sell like hot cakes! Yay bonuses for everyone! Will it work? Probably, but it ends up not really looking like a Mini, or a proper 2-door sporty car. It's like that Golf W12 concept in a sense - why, if you're creating a performance car, even a mid-range one, would you have it look like a Mini if there's no practical benefits? Maybe I'm just cynical or don't get it being a product of fashion in some way, but I'd not have it. Looks? For what it is it isn't bad. The roof doesn't look right but then again, the concept itself is flawed to me so, umm, yeah...whatever...
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i hate that thing
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right, who is for bringing Mini, back under british control, because the germans are ruining the Mini, and i rather like that, if it were rear engined and rear wheel drive
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lol that's ugly. it looks like a rolled mini with spoiler and alloy wheels.
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awesome! I want my Top Gear back please!
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ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!! surely the great man deserves something better than this?
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I worry about BMW. First they pull out of F1, then they create this awful doodle. Someone got up in the morning and thought "Shall I put a backward baseball cap on a Mini today, or should I do something else, something new and interesting, utilising the endless resources at my disposal." Probably a good thing Alec Issigonis isn't around to comment.
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I can't decide whether to like this or not. It looks a bit wrong: that smooth roofline stuck to a clunky toy car (let's face it, the Mini looks like a toy car but in a good way). It's as if someone took a Lamborghini top and attached it to a mid-80's Volvo body. Then again, this might work. It seems to grow on me the more I look at the photos... which kind of makes me want to stop looking too much. Either way, if BMW wants this to be taken seriously they shouldn't mention where the inspiration came from.
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I think from a Mini point of view this will take them into overdrive, imagine a coupe mini available... every woman and hairdresser in the universe will want one. From a marketing point of view it is an excellent addition to the range to build on the brand. As a motor.. it isn't exactly an aesthetic masterpiece but I bet it will be a blast round the B-roads!
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Hristo commented on this article
26 August 2009
it looks good well proportioned and if it will handle and go bether than the mini of course,the backwords cap sounds a bit nerdy but whatever there's a lot of girls with rich boyfriends near where i live that would love to buy one
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