MINI Roadster set for launch

Need a MINI that’s a bit like a Cooper Cabrio but not quite so chunky? What about a MINI with just two seats, like the new Coupe, but without the controversial roofline?

Enter the MINI Roadster -- a car that has been predictable in coming, especially as the BMW-owned brand has set about inflating its seemingly simple lineup to include everything up to and including SUVs.

The Roadster is the sixth MINI model and it shares the same 1.6-litre, four-cylinder engines as everything else. A pure front-drive car, it will arrive in Europe with a humble 90kW basic petrol engine as the MINI Cooper Roadster.

Fortunately for the fun lovers, it doesn’t stop there. There’s a MINI Cooper SD Roadster, for those who want extra low-down torque and lower fuel consumption, with 105kW but 305Nm of torque from 1750-2700rpm.

The perkiest engines are reserved for the turbocharged Cooper S version, with 135kW and the John Cooper Works version with 155kW at 6000rpm. Mind you, none of the petrol motors are exactly rich in torque -- the JCW leads the way with 260Nm, while the Cooper S has 240Nm and the naturally-aspirated Cooper has a paltry 160Nm.

All four engines will attach themselves to six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes as does everything else in the MINI lineup, but the big story is the roofless status of the Roadster. And how it logically fits into the lineup…

It’s the first two-seat, open-topped car in MINI’s long, long history and it’s based on the controversial Coupe rather than the stock MINI that plays host to the Cabrio.

This is an important difference with changes to the car’s roll centre, to the steering, to the body design and the sportier look is largely derived by a windscreen angle that’s 13 degrees steeper than the Cabrio. Its dimensions are roughly similar to the Cabrio as well, with the notable exception of being 20mm lower.

There’s an actual boot lid, and it houses a spoiler that pops up at 80km/h then drops back down beneath 60km/h -- kind of gives the game away to any knowledgable police officer you may meet. MINI says the aero device adds another 40kg of downforce at vMax, but that’s hardly relevant to Australians.

The roof gets a full manual opening and closing mechanism and has a far sportier profile than the four-seat convertible. Where the Cabrio is more of a square rigger, the Roadster’s roof has more tumblehome, and is wider at its base than at the top of the roof.

It folds flat behind the seats, with the front section of the roof’s outer skin getting double duty as the roof cover when it’s down. A pair of gas-pressurised springs hold it in place and release it again -- via a button between the stainless steel rollover bars.

It’s all typical MINI in the cabin, with the big pod for the speedo and tacho behind the steering wheel and it uses the same air conditioning and ventilation systems as the cabriolet plus the same navigation and entertainment units and they’re all in exactly the same places, too.

If you don’t need the rear seats, the Roadster has some distinct advantages over the Cabrio. For starters, like the Coupe, it scores the far larger luggage area that also has a 360mm x 200mm hole to reach through from the seats. There is 240 litres of luggage space inside the boot, and that’s also helped by a pair of lidded holes tucked into the boot floor.

That hasn’t come at the expense of body rigidity, though, because it’s based around the Coupe’s stiffer architecture and the main purpose of the load barrier between the seats and the boot is to reinforce the torsional rigidity.

It also has wider side sills, electric power steering and the front end has also been stiffened, which has moved even more of the MINI’s weight over the front axle than before.

That weight addition to the front end hasn’t hurt the economy, though. The base car, highly unlikely to ever cross Australia’s borders, counters its paltry 160Nm of torque with 5.7L/100km combined fuel consumption. The trouble with that is that the turbo-charged, direct-injection Cooper S posts an economy figure just 0.3 litres worse, has another 80Nm and gets to 100km/h a full 2.2 seconds quicker, at 7.0 seconds.

The JCW Roadster is quicker again, naturally, with another 20Nm of torque, which can briefly overboost that to an extra 40Nm, while it hits 100km/h in 6.5 seconds.

The Diesel (sorry, SD) is another unlikely addition to the local lineup, especially at the start of the Roadster’s Australian life. It’s strong enough to get to 100km/h in 8.1 seconds, but still uses only 4.5L/100km.

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