Ask MF: R53, R56, R60 – What Does it Mean?

Sorry, meant to write “misstep”.

@Andrew Zimmerman:

As a current owner of both generations I can tell you that they have their pluses and minuses. To me personally, the gen 1 car feels more connected and has a demeanor that closely resembles the old Issigonis Mini. Design wise, I still prefer the rather exquisite details of the older cars.

The 2 gen cars are different beasts. Different philosophy altogether. The car is more refined, more palatable as a daily driver, with great torque and sensational fuel economy. But the car feels more like a BMW (Nothing wrong with that, but this is a MINI first and foremost). EU pedestrian safety regulations compromised the design somewhat as well as target goals to reduce manufacturing costs. Again, it is a great product, solid as it can be, still a blast to drive. But MINI in the process of making the vehicle more accessible to a non-enthusiast market base they did manage to watered it down a bit too much, IMHO.

BMW understands that the MINI is a very unique product. It is an iconic car with cult like following. Very different from a bread and butter offering like a BMW 3 series or 5 series. The MINI, both, allows you great creativity for “Island solutions” but at the same time the core of the car limits you at the same time. In others words, you can’t make a MINI either too refined or too brutal, etc, etc.

I love both cars. My wife much prefers her Clubman S. The more visceral nature of my ’05 R53 S suits me better. In the end everybody is happy.

I have driven the 2nd gen car and agree that is a superior car in many ways. I simply can’t get over the exterior design on the current car. It is simply an awkward looking car to me. I think the third gen. car will be a real design challenge.

@Andrew Zimmerman:

Andrew, I agree. Unfortunately in internet message boards and blogs criticism levied towards a car may be construed as “Hating” and praise as “Fanboism”. I think one can sort of weed out the extreme comments from the “fair and balanced” ones.

Like I said, I think both generations have their merits and their downfalls. To me the current R56 and R55 S in stock form are a little too quiet and too sterile feeling in comparison to a bone stock R53. I am just too used to the Supercharger whine and the exhaust burble.

The difference is that I won’t turn my back to a R56 owner, or pour oil under their car at car shows. The one sided hate between Mini and MINI was personal. The dislike of the R56 from R51&53ers is of disappointment.

Well, instead of going on about R54, I’d only add that the chassis labelling started off somewhat confused. While they’ve cleaned it up, I actually prefered having one chassis designation per powerplant/chassis combo.

Matt

How about this? A Self imposed gag rule that we all vow not to turn every thread into “My generation mini is better than your generation mini.” I know it’s a tall order, but a guy can hope, can’t he? ;)

Had I not totaled my R53, I would probably have kept it forever…

If I ever total my R53, I will buy another one.

I haven’t seen any mention of the MINI e – does that have a model number?

It still amuses me (unless I am mistaken) that the “R” designation goes back to Rover. Kinda funny considering how far the car has come since Rover was involved.

Although, if I were in a situation where I had to choose one over the other I’d go with first gen every time. They are better looking and more fun to drive.

Seconded.

I haven’t seen any mention of the MINI e – does that have a model number?

The MINI E is an R56 variant.

Well I said this multiple times. I wish I could order a 05/06 R53 body (shell) with an R56 MCS internals. I don’t care for the front of the R56/57.

@ DEVO, I would place an order RIGHT NOW if that’s possible! In the meantime, I’ll hang on to my R50.

Further more, Mini would have officially died when the last classic Rover Mini rolled off the Longbridge assembly plant in October 2000.

I think it would have died much sooner than that, actually. By the time Rover came up with the Multi Point injected classic Mini (1996), BMW already was in control and developing the new Mini. I am pretty much convinced they would not have bothered to keep the brand alive if they were not working on a successor, because the MPi classic Mini was really quite an evolution of the original Mini design (and the changes were required to get it to pass modern legislations). The project must have been quite an investment. Yes, still the same A-series engine, but quite a few structural changes (altered front subframe design, much improved radiotor design that moved from the side to the front of the car, improved side impact protection, etc.). Also, it seems they were readying the brand to move more up-market, with leather upholstery and improved materials (correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Mini’s ever left the factory with leather upholstery before the MPi).

Over here, in Europe, there are classic Mini’s driving around with stickers reading “100% free of BMW parts”. Including MPi Mini’s. That always make me chuckle a bit, because I don’t think those cars would have existed if it weren’t for BMW.

That’s not to say I agree with everything BMW has done. For a number of years, they have effectively ignored the classic Mini world, except for blowing their horn that “Mini” won rallies way back when (ignoring the fact those were actually Morris- and Austin-badged cars :)) and for suing companies for trademark infringement, that have used the name “Mini” in their company names for years (the latter is an important reason why BMW is less than popular with many classic Mini people over here). It seems that’s all slowly taking a turn for the better, lately.

Congrats Steve on your car, fun little toys. There are a lot of pluses and negatives with all the cars, as far as I am concerned perfection doesn’t exist and actually when dealing with perfection its a highly personalized thing. Each of us weighs the cars against our own choices of what is important. For me personally I still love the R53, superchargers are always more fun than turbos to the ear. The prince engines are nice but just lack a really nice sound from the front of the car. Design wise I do like the stouter front end of the R56, however I like the way standing next to the R53 that it feels like a much smaller car than the R56. Too each their own however, as long as you love your R53 or R56 that is all that matters at the end of the day.

Steve.. oddly enough, the current interior is based on rejected designs for the 1st gen interior. Go figure.

The MINI actually started out as the E50 but became the R50 when Rover took over the MINI design from BMW. R standing for Rover Group………all BMW’s have E model numbers. More details on this can be found in the book “New MINI” by Graham Robson (Haynes).