MINI Roadster Spied From All Angles
The chaps over at WorldCarFans.com have a fresh crop of MINI Roadster spy shots. These manage to catch the new soft top from almost every possible angle. The yellow swirlies are so minimal now that we’re wondering whey they’re even bothering at this point. (Full gallery after the break)
You can see the hi-res gallery over at WCF.
<p>They camp out across the street. lol</p>
<p>Not sure I’m digging this one.</p>
<p>I like the concept of a roadster, but I feel that the trunk is too long and the driver sits too close to the middle of the car. I like the coupe concept, but MINI has a tendancy to overproduce convertibles and the roadster may prove to have similar tendancies.</p>
<p>If MINI could alter the design just slightly to mimic a Z3/MINI design and take care not to produce too many, then I would be all in.</p>
<p>Just another MINI fan’s opinion.</p>
<p>It looks really unbalanced with the top up. The greenhouse is too small sitting on the big fat bottom half and it doesn’t look sportier than other MINIs at all. Hopefully people will actually put the tops down on these cars so it won’t matter!</p>
<p>so where is this front and rear new look that MINI said they are slapping on to set the twins apart from the rest of the family?</p>
<p>So far, I like this a lot less than I thought I would.
When I think of Mini/MINI, I think of a hot hatch. I am all for variety, but just can’t get into this, although, I am sure it will be very nice.</p>
<p>@Aurel +1</p>
<p>Is it me or does this one look a bit lower?
@Aurel and Alexandre – I am looking forward to the new treatments front and rear. However, not surprised that MINI has not reveled them as of yet. I would rather have great pictures of it than Starry Night Camo to try and look through.</p>
<p>After seeing the twins show prototypes with JCW kits and 18″ wheels this looks very ho-hum. The 3rd gen Mini can’t come soon enough for me.</p>
<p>@Zyamfier Unless i’m wrong, the car in those pictures is likely the one to go on production so if the “new” rear and front are not shown here I doubt we’ll ever see them…I’m sure Nathaniel or Gabe know the answer.</p>
<p>It’s still a test mule, folks, so don’t expect to see all the final details being revealed just yet. If I were BMW, I would be making sure the new roofs and windshields work in the real world, and keep the new fascias and wheels tucked away until the auto shows. Be patient – this is definitely not what the new R58 and R59 will look like in final form!</p>
<p>Not overwhelmed at this point but I remain optimistic. In order to warrant the high price tag MINI will have to do better. I would have preferred a new Triumph variant, like a modern take on a TR6. It could be sold at MINI dealers while allowing a fresh design without trying to shoehorn the MINI design details into a roadster.</p>
<p>Looks good but I think it will look 1000 X better with a better color and a JCW areo kit.</p>
<p>And better wheels.</p>
<p>Wheel gap looks better than the gas station photos posted a short while ago. I am also interested in the front and rear fascia as it was reported on MF a long time ago that MINI was taking the time to make these look different than the standard cars. I expect this fell off the design map due to budget concerns. Still have hope though as I am not the largest fan of the current designs.</p>
<p>3rd shot on the bottom row reminds me of a Toyota MR2 for some reason. at least the back half does…</p>
<p>I thought we already knew that this car would look best with it’s top down….</p>
<p>I question the length of the rear deck in relation to the size of the top. It definitely seems unbalanced, a trait I’m sure the Coupe will remedy with it’s sloping tailgate.</p>
<p>so what’s all this testing too? isn’t this basically an R56 with a new top? everything should be hunky dory 😉
are we weather testing?</p>
<p>I thought Bridge Spoke wheels were discontinued. Pre-production cars have been lower in the past. When it hits the states the wheel gap will return.</p>
<p>For those concerned about “wheel gap”, and I’m the last one to comfort those with such concerns because I think its the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, but if you are just a little bit astute you’ll notice that the car in the photos is cornering and leaning towards the photographer therefor reducing the space between the tire and the wheel arch is reduced.</p>
<p>Why don’t they ditch the soft top roof and make a pickup version? After all, Red Bull get their cars converted – <a href="http://www.customcrs.com/rbmini.html" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.customcrs.com/rbmini.html</a></p>
<p>I’ve liked this from the beginning and still do. It’s better top down, but I can’t think of a convertible that doesn’t look better open, the Porsche Boxster being the leading example. This new MINI does have an Audi TT-ish appearance, but I’ve liked the TT since it was released, so that’s hardly a bad thing to me.</p>
<p>The roadster isn’t doing it for me, but I think the coupe will look better. On the other hand, the regular convertible looks nice with the top done, and horrible with the top up–I suspect, like most soft tops, the roadster will look much better top down.</p>
<p>“Wheel gap” is definitely improved (for those of us “astute” enough to know what wheel gap acutally is)–the car is actually going straight in several of the pictures, so that drop on the suspension is real IMHO. It’s still accentuated a bit by the oversized plastic trim on the wheel arches (why can’t they get the proportion right on those?!?!), but it looks better.</p>
<p>If that car is a mule with a bunch of miles on it, the suspension will have time to have settled properly, this may be what a broken roadster will sit like. Definitely looks better.</p>
<p>Oops, not a broken roadster, but broken in roadster…Long day at work..</p>