With only one year away from a debut, we knew that we’d be seeing the real F56 test mules around Munich soon. And today they arrived. Auto Express has the first photos (which you can see here) that give us the best look yet at the 3rd generation MINI. While this isn’t camouflage free, the car is now at the stage with the actual unibody exterior and interior hard points are simply being covered up. This is much different than than the heavily disguised prototypes we had seen earlier.

That means we can actually start to get a feel of the overall shape and some details with just a few exceptions. The most notable is the front which MINI has grafted a R56 front clip onto the prototype to hide the Rocketman-like front end design.

With that said, here’s what the photos tell us.

– Five lug wheels
– Slighty more front overhang (Pedestrian impact standards in the EU make wheels and the corners pretty much impossible unless it’s mid-engined)
– Length of front profile derived from R56 nose attached as camflauge.
– Tail-lamps mounted flush with the hatch?
– Oddly side mirrors likely hiding side repeaters?
– Plastic wheel arches already confirmed are definitely here.

Don’t pay attention to the front or rear lights as they have bolt on disguise means to hide the final form and position.

All that said there’s likely more here to take in. So we’ll turn it over to the comments section for further dissection.