Coupe, Coopster, Concept or whatever you want to call, we spend a bit more talking about it tonight, along with a few of the other stories from MotoringFile, including more on the diesel MINI possibility coming to the US in the form of the R60.
If you missed our take on the new concept last week, you can find it here or in iTunes. Great insight from Todd and Gabe especially, worth the listen.
Finishing off with Todd at the Balducci Winery, including getting a chance to talk to a guy that drove his MINI from St. Louis to Alaska! Watch for WRR at more events in the future as well, including a very very strong possibility of us going to the Dragon in ’10!
Woofcast 304:
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Another week, another new rumored partner for MINI platform sharing. This week it’s Toyota and the next generation iQ. For those that don’t know, the Toyota iQ is a somewhat revolutionary city car that (through intelligent packaging and engineering) delivers more interior space than a Smart car while being relatively the same size.
First reported on by Insideline and then Autocar the talks are in the earliest stages. However the idea is that MINI could share the platform and some interior components to help develop a new range of MINIs smaller than the current R56 two door hatch.
Over the weekend BMW released the first pictures and technical specifications of it’s latest concept car, the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics Concept. Why are we posting this on MF? Project i is a broad ranging movement within BMW to bring efficiency (without sacrificing performance dynamics) to the entire range of cars sold by MINI and BMW, not just the upcoming iSetta small city car products. This is out first glimpse into some of this next generation technology. There’s no specific news as to how this will effect future generation MINIs but it’s safe to say that either this technology or the spirit behind it will undoubtedly be a part of the MINI brand in the future.
So what does DynamicEfficiency mean? In this case it’s 351bhp and 590lb ft of torque. However as important as the performance figures is the efficiency; the Vision concept gets over 60 mpg.
[pictobrowser motoringfile 72157622179408874]
Official Release: For decades, BMW has made the reduction of emissions and fuel consumption a key part of its product development strategy, just as enhancements to the dynamic ability of each BMW have been a lasting, sustained brand value. BMW’s EfficientDynamics engineering philosophy – the pursuit of an enhanced, athletic driving experience while simultaneously lowering the consumption and emissions of each vehicle – resulted in the most dramatic drop in fleet consumption of any automaker from 1990 through 2005, according to an Environmental Defense study. continued →
However the bad news is that the Crossover originally intended to debut at Frankfurt will be pushed back to a debut in early 2010. Here’s a quote from the Insideline article:
“The Crossover launch has been pushed back,” says a BMW Mini spokesperson, “as we wish to first explore differentiation within future Mini smaller models and get feedback.”
We wouldn’t read too much into this. MINI’s staking a lot on this Crossover and they expect it to provide solid sales and revenue for quite a few years to come. However the timing of the launch is curious. With production ramping up in December of this year, our guess would be that MINI would debut the car at the Detroit Motorshow in early January. However a debut at the much larger Chicago show or even Geneva could still be in the cards. continued →
“New ideas never come from the board offices; they come from the floor of the design studio. BMW does trend analysis a lot and every three months we talk to Mini representatives from all over the world to discuss the needs of our clients. But we were never asked to do a coupe. We’re close followers of blogs and so forth, and we just felt that people would like the idea of a car like this.”
The spirit of the MINI community is what brought this car to the concept stage and what will ultimately bring it to production. But did MINI create what many of us have been asking for? Let’s take a closer look at the concept. continued →
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1st Gen MINI R50: One & MC Hatch R52: All 1st Gen MINI Convt. R53: MCS Hatch 2nd Gen MINI R55: Clubman R56: Hatch R57: Convertible R58: Coupe R59: Roadster R60: MINI Crossover R61: MINI Crossover Coupe 3rd Gen MINI F54: Clubman F55: Five Door Hatch F56: Hatch F57: Convertible F60: MINI Crossover F58: Traveller
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Sections: Podcast Aug 31st, 2009 4 Comments 
