The Mini Coupe, close to becoming a reality

Entertainment - Motorsport

Thursday, 10 February 2011 13:30

In the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, Mini surprised all and sundry with the Mini Coupe Concept , a concept car that left no one indifferent. It was a two-seater coupe version of the popular utility that shortly thereafter receive the green light to move to mass production . Whereas the first units should arrive in dealerships back in the autumn, the first tests are already beginning to make. Proof of this are the photographs that today brings Autoblog , in which a unit can be seen wearing the usual camouflage colors of the Bavarian manufacturer.

As shown in the pictures, the differences in the Mini concept car presented in Frankfurt are minimal. The most notable, perhaps, is the inclusion of a small spoiler at the rear retractable, an element that we saw in the concept car. In everything that refers to finishes and engines, is expected to be identical to the 3-door version, with various levels of power for the 1.6 both atmospheric settings as turbo-powered version.

The Mini Coupe pictures, notes the source, is probably more performance based version of the Bavarian utility: the John Cooper Works. The huge front brakes - they just come into the tires - and the red painted calipers front and back would be proof.

However, a question that I could not help me is: Do we need this Mini Coupe? What sense does a two-seater version of the Mini? If a minimum was a convertible version as the Renault Twingo Wind, have their rationale, but is that the case that already has a Mini convertible variant of its popular - and only - model. I honestly just do not see the sense of a version as well. Smart, for instance, was able to offer a coupe version of its fortwo really managed to differentiate the model that was based - and which shared most items.

Here, one has the impression that Mini has gone by fast, picking up a Mini Cooper S and tearing the roof. Probably end up selling like hotcakes, like any self-respecting Mini, but I, personally, I see a lot more sense to a 3-door version of the Cooper S with space for four occupants. A part of me also seems nice - but there ... to taste the colors.

Chances are that even the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show news again have no "official" this new coupe version of the Mini, just two years after its debut as a concept car.