A Mini Dilemma?
The new MINI gets its top off, all in the best possible taste of course
If you’re in the market for a dollop of British-style motoring nostalgia, but can’t choose between a MINI or a rag-top roadster – now you can have your cake and eat it, too.
In showrooms from next spring you’ll find the new MINI Roadster – an open-topped two-seater, built at Plant Oxford. With all those lovable retro features like the big central speedo and toggle switches, it’s clearly intended to excite the ‘hose were the days’ centres in our brains – ‘a spiritual successor to the traditional British roadsters of old’ says MINI, keen to ensure we’ve not missed the point.
Don’t get the Roadster confused with the four-seater MINI Convertible, which has been around for a while. The Roadster is a true two-seater with just a stowage area behind the driver and passenger seats, and has a very different silhouette from the Convertible – for example, its roofline is more than 20mm lower than the Convertible’s and its A-pillars are more raked for a sleeker, low-slung look.
There will be Cooper, Cooper S, Cooper SD and John Cooper Works variants of the Roadster (such gloriously evocative names!) priced between £18,015 and £24,850, with CO2 between 118 and 169g/km. The John Cooper Works model is suitably mischievous with 208bhp and 0 – 62mph in 6.5 seconds.
The Roadster will be the sixth model in the MINI family. The fifth member was the recently launched MINI Coupé – which is road-tested in the January issue of CSMA Club Magazine, where it’s put through its paces up against the Audi TT.
