A Video Tour of the MINI Speedster Concept
Today we’ve got something pretty special; a full tour of MINI’s Speedster concept. It’s our best look yet of the car and all of the angles that make it so unique. However even more interesting is that we finally get a good look at the interior and all the functionality included in the extra gauge to the left of the tach.
<p>What a great looking car – gives a greater appreciation of lines… Love the profile look with the roof up.</p>
<p>Think I’ll be getting the hard top version – really keen to see how it droves.</p>
<p>Will be great fun bombing round in a two seater. My current MCS never has it’s rear seats used so this will be absolutely perfect.</p>
<p>Can’t wait… Do we have a confirmed date for launch?</p>
<p>2012 has been said</p>
<p>Could the not have added some music to this? I want to see the boot and also the function of the top.</p>
<p>This video was released by BMW on the reveal day last week……..</p>
<p>very cool. definately like what they are doing here</p>
<p>Solid general design, of course like 99.9% of all convertibles the top up look is rather less than appealing. The only angle on the car that I can say I really am not sure of is the rear low shot. Just something about it sticks in my mind as being just a little odd.</p>
<p>callouts were a bit offensive. Otherwise well done company product!</p>
<p>I thought the seats were cloth, but they look like they are woven leather. Could this be possible? I would definitely prefer cloth. I love this car though. Great lines. I even like it with the top up.</p>
<p>Once again, I find this the most visually appealing R56 to date… the low ride height and chopped roof has a lot to do with this. The top up looks better in the Speedster than on the regular 4-seat convertible, but then I’m biased as I’ve always preferred 2-seat convertibles.</p>
<p>As for the interior, as we’ve said before, what a difference materials quality makes to the design! The gloss black is what should have been released in 2007… any designer will tell you that a highly stylized design like MINI chose for the centre stack requires good materials quality to execute properly. Nice to see that coming soon.</p>
<p>The guage will of course be dismissed as gimmicky by many but I feel this is the future and it has all sorts of excellent possibilities (remember this is version “beta” since this is a concept car). There is an entire field developing around aggregate environmental indicators / aggregate mechanical feedback systems and it is an exciting one. Nice to see BMW planning ahead here.</p>
<p>I posted previously saying that I really like this Speedster concept, and also love the idea of a two-seater (coupe and convertible) in general. I don’t love everything about the Speedster, such as the rear bumper treatment, but that’s nitpicking.</p>
<p>Overall, I see a reason to create two options for higher-performance MINIs for customers that want a car that is not simply a high-performance version of the R56/57. I could easily see going for a Coupe rather than, say, a GP. Both have no back seat, but the Coupe offers something completely different on many other levels.</p>
<p>As for the Speedster with the top up from the profile view, it reminds me of my father’s Triumph TR4 (also in white). Ragtops have a unique and stylish utilitarian aspect to them that I rather like.</p>
<p>Not sure abot the Z3/Z4’esque spoiler on boot lid, is there a similar one on the coupe?</p>
<p>Looks gorgeous. Heh, did I just say that?</p>
<p>Why on earth does the extra gauge have to be full of gimmicks? Just give me another gauge which allows multiple driver-focused instruments to be displayed like boost, oil and coolant temperatures, etc.</p>
<p>No way is the production model going to be that low. I bet it will be more like the other R56’s and WC50 in terms of “wheel gappage”.
Only thing worse than the gauge graphics would be if it had voice over. I bet that’s only a matter of time.</p>
<p>I can do without the gimmicks on the extra gauge, but otherwise it has a lot of potential. Because it is only a color display screen, it can be used to display anything including ScanGauge data (oil temp, etc) that many people want. We can only hope that MINI offers desirable “apps” for it. If they want to be really bold, they should open the display interface and allow 3rd party developers to create products that use it. They can start a MINI App Store.</p>