Mini Coupe Concept - Car News
Celebrating Mini’s 50th birthday, two people at a time.
BY STEVE SILER
August 2009
Fifty years ago, the original Mini was shown to the public for the first time, thus beginning the long history of a little car that continues to strike joy in the hearts of many to this day. To celebrate, Mini has built a chopped, two-seat super-Cooper called the Mini Coupe Concept for the Frankfurt auto show.
From the waist down, the Coupe Concept is basically a Mini John Cooper Works, with a few custom bits such as darkened headlamps, painted wheel inserts, and painted mini-blind (get it?) grille slats. Above the waist, however, this car is crazy different. The trailing edge of the rear window is moved forward several inches, creating what looks like a trunk, although the car remains a hatchback, albeit one with only 8.8 cubic feet of cargo space. For reference, a Mini Cooper hardtop hatchback can hold 5.7 cubes with the rear seats up and 24.0 with the seats folded—of course, you lose the utility of rear seats in this concept. The brightly capped upper body is, uh, rather distinct, with its integrated spoiler, blacked-out B-pillars, and chopped aluminum roof. The windshield, too, is faster than that of the standard Mini, which, come to think of it, is rather on the upright side anyway.
Not surprisingly, the Coupe concept is said to be able to accommodate any of the Mini’s available powertrains, though this one was outfitted with the most sporting of them, the turbocharged 1.6-liter from the aforementioned JCW edition that produces 208 hp and 192 lb-ft of torque (206 lb-ft in “overboost” mode). Ditto the running gear. Mini claims that weight balance is “perfect” in Coupe form, and the lower center of gravity makes for even better handling, which would make us very happy campers indeed.
Mini is calling the Coupe concept “an unusually attractive vision of how the model family may well develop in the future,” and we’d have to agree with the unusual and attractive points. The news that it is “how the family may well develop in the future” (can’t you just hear the British accent in that?) is rather intriguing—the long-rumored Mini Speedster would be pretty easy to create from this concept—and we’ll take it as a promise.
Celebrating Mini’s 50th birthday, two people at a time.
BY STEVE SILER
August 2009
Fifty years ago, the original Mini was shown to the public for the first time, thus beginning the long history of a little car that continues to strike joy in the hearts of many to this day. To celebrate, Mini has built a chopped, two-seat super-Cooper called the Mini Coupe Concept for the Frankfurt auto show.
From the waist down, the Coupe Concept is basically a Mini John Cooper Works, with a few custom bits such as darkened headlamps, painted wheel inserts, and painted mini-blind (get it?) grille slats. Above the waist, however, this car is crazy different. The trailing edge of the rear window is moved forward several inches, creating what looks like a trunk, although the car remains a hatchback, albeit one with only 8.8 cubic feet of cargo space. For reference, a Mini Cooper hardtop hatchback can hold 5.7 cubes with the rear seats up and 24.0 with the seats folded—of course, you lose the utility of rear seats in this concept. The brightly capped upper body is, uh, rather distinct, with its integrated spoiler, blacked-out B-pillars, and chopped aluminum roof. The windshield, too, is faster than that of the standard Mini, which, come to think of it, is rather on the upright side anyway.
Not surprisingly, the Coupe concept is said to be able to accommodate any of the Mini’s available powertrains, though this one was outfitted with the most sporting of them, the turbocharged 1.6-liter from the aforementioned JCW edition that produces 208 hp and 192 lb-ft of torque (206 lb-ft in “overboost” mode). Ditto the running gear. Mini claims that weight balance is “perfect” in Coupe form, and the lower center of gravity makes for even better handling, which would make us very happy campers indeed.
Mini is calling the Coupe concept “an unusually attractive vision of how the model family may well develop in the future,” and we’d have to agree with the unusual and attractive points. The news that it is “how the family may well develop in the future” (can’t you just hear the British accent in that?) is rather intriguing—the long-rumored Mini Speedster would be pretty easy to create from this concept—and we’ll take it as a promise.
