MINI Roadster to go on sale in spring

Final details about MINI’s latest model are out. And for a more intoxicating mix of British nostalgia you’d have to imagine Morecambe and Wise flying a Harrier Jump Jet up Carnaby Street wearing bowler hats and Union Jack waistcoats.

MINI’s Roadster is the sixth model in the line-up, and the first soft-top two-seater. It brings all the familiar MINI design themes with a new British sportscar twist. It’s a three-box design, with a 240-litre load compartment behind the two front seats instead of the (somewhat restricted) rear seats in the MINI Convertible. The roadster idiom is completed by a pair of polished, stainless steel roll-over bars behind the driver and passenger, heavily raked A-pillars and a stance more than 20mm lower than the MINI Convertible’s.

The British character is more than skin deep. The Roadster will be produced alongside the MINI, MINI Clubman, MINI Convertible and MINI Coupé in the UK – the new model gives a new boost to the assembly plant on the outskirts of Oxford, the press shop in Swindon and the Hams Hall engine factory. MINI already ranks as the country’s third largest car maker, and the BMW Group is investing some £500 million in its British manufacturing facilities up to 2014.

The Roadster will be available with a choice of four petrol and diesel engines from launch. The range comprises the Cooper Roadster (120bhp), Cooper SD Roadster (141bhp), Cooper S Roadster (181bhp), and John Cooper Works Roadster (208bhp); CO2 emissions respectively are 133, 118, 139 and 169g/km.

Prices start at £18,015.