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MINI Coupé Concept

Another first for the Frankfurt show: the MINI Coupé Concept. While we’ll have to wait till September to see the car in the metal, these pictures were released on 26th August – exactly 50 years to the day since the first Mini was presented to the public in 1959.

Strictly a two-seater, the MINI Coupé Concept has a low, sweeping roofline, flowing smoothly from A to C-pillars, with a steeply raked windscreen at the front and a more gentle descent at the rear. The wedge shape, the lightweight aluminium roof and the roof spoiler all emphasise the car’s sporting nature, while under the bonnet sits the 211HP, 1.6-litre twin-scroll turbocharged engine from the current John Cooper Works model.

In the cabin are sports seats with strongly contoured side-supports, plus a three-spoke leather steering wheel with multi-function controls. Two Chronoswiss clocks, one each side of the rev-counter, provide a close link to earlier concept cars by MINI. One is a stopwatch, the other a standard timepiece.

But will they take it to production? No one is making promises, but the answer is probably yes. With a Crossover model in the final stages of development and the marque’s Hatch, Clubman and Convertible already on the roads, MINI is clearly aiming for an increasingly varied model range... and the Coupé is a logical next step.

MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept
MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept MINI Coupé Concept

Text: Charis Whitcombe
Photos: BMW Group


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