MINI Undecided on Producing the Rear Wheel Drive Superleggera Roadster

No MINI concept has ever motivated so many thumbs to upward than the Superleggera. However MINI is struggling with approving the car according to Autocar. Given its new strategy of less niche models and more emphasis on core models like the F56 and upcoming Clubman it would seem the Superleggera doesn’t make a lot of sense. However it could serve the company well s a halo car helping to get people excited about the brand and into showrooms. Interestingly BMW has admitted for the first time that the Superleggera rides on a rear wheel drive platform. While we knew the concept was powered by an electric engine, that fact that this has once again been reiterated could be a sign that MINI is serious making the Roadster electric if produced.
The idea behind the Superleggera according to Autocar was to see ‘“how the public would react to a Mini stretched in a way that it had never been stretched before”, said board member Peter Schwarzenbauer, “and react to design cues that were back to basics, reduced to the max. We got an extremely positive reaction to it, although some hardcore Mini fans said ‘no, that’s not a Mini’.”
Schwarzenbauer went on to say that its rear-drive layout “is a natural,” and the “simpler interior and electric drivetrain are where the brand is going direction-wise.” All well and good but when asked about the idea of putting the roadster into production, “we are not sure yet – the volume is low, and how many open cars do you need in a range?”
Is this just a reaction to the vaguely production looking patent images we saw last week? Is MINI trying to play down the likelihood of building the car to quell the rumors and keep rivals and the public guessing? Time will tell.
Source: Autocar
33 Comments
<p>Please build this MINI. An electric drive-train is great but also offer it with the current engine range. The main reason the current coupe and roadster do not sell that well is because there is a premium price with not enough to differentiate it from the rest of the lineup. This would be a vastly different car and would warrant the premium price. I think it could cater to those who would like a nicer and faster miata.</p>
<p>I remember seeing a small model of a Healey-esque roadster concept at DesignWorks years ago, and thought how great that would be. Branding a RWD roadster as a MINI doesn’t make sense from a historical/purist standpoint, but makes far more sense from a brand equity standpoint.</p>
<p>that’s a production build-able drawing.</p>
<p>BMW lured me away from MINI with its 228i. MINI would lure me back, after 2017, with an electric Superleggera. That or the upcoming smaller Tesla are my only options.</p>
<p>If nothing else, this is a valuable lesson for the MINI design team: “We got an extremely positive reaction to [design cues that were back to basics, reduced to the max]”</p>
<p>Does BMW have a RWD platform which could be shared to make this car a reality?</p>
<p>Agreed. That news is just as important as whether they’ll build the Superleggera or not.</p>
<p>No kidding! We need SOMETHING to teach the designers that longitudinal “Power Bulges” on the hood have no place on a car with a tranverse i4 engine. (Just one example of confused design philosophy) If nothing comes of this other than getting rid of the overwrought design cues that have little or no function, it’s a win. Even if no one ever gets to buy one of these cars.</p>
<p>“Some hardcore MINI fans said: no, that’s not a MINI” I wonder who they are because I have a hard time remembering anyone criticizing the concept on MotoringFile, on forums or during MTTS. The overall statement reads as a response to the patent images leaked last week.</p>
<p>Have to say that the limited range of electric drive train would make this a complete non-starter for us, and we LOVE everything else we’ve seen of it.</p>
<p>All cars have a limited range. It’s all about rethinking how often you travel outside the range and availability of electricity, preferably fast-chargers which are going up everywhere.</p>
<p>I love that this would be electric. It combines my love of roadsters with cues of the MINI, with my desire to drive a more clean car with fewer moving parts, intake, exhaust, and all that goes with those things that can fail.</p>
<p>If Tesla can build a car that goes 265 miles on a charge so can MINI. I could drive form Boston to New York with a short charging rest stop for lunch no problem with that, and my daily commute of 6 miles and trips to local grocery stores and malls would be no problem at all.</p>
<p>Yes, they do, but most cars don’t require an 8+ hour fillup.</p>
<p>“Rethinking how often you travel outside the range and availability of electricity”</p>
<p>????????? Really? Normally when I buy a car I buy it to suit my needs. I don’t think to myself ‘I like this car, its totally inappropriate but I’ll get it anyway and rearrange my entire lifestyle around it’. Not for a daily driver anyway.</p>
<p>Electric with a range extender engine? Wouldn’t that be fantastic? Kill the Coupe and Roadster. Build this. My fear is that it would be too pricey. The i3 with the range extender is $45K. This would obviously have to be more performance-oriented than that car, but I don’t think many would buy this if it was over $50K. The current Miata starts at about $25K and quickly goes up to $30K. If you could get into one of these for $35K and then go up from there with upgrades and options….I dunno. I just don’t know if the numbers are there. Make it affordable to sell more? Would it really sell as well as the Miata? Make it more exclusive–and possibly even lose money on them? I don’t see that happening.</p>
<p>Build it.</p>
<p>I can’t see it happening on a MINI only platform. Not enough units to make it work. Either it has to have the performance and tech to justify and Alfa 4C type pricing, or it will be a niche vehicle where the price doesn’t justify the purchase unless one just loves the package, and this means too few will sell to make it.</p>
<p>The twins were a design exercise on an existing platform, more of a packaging challenge than a real car design, so the fact that they sell in statistically insignificant numbers isn’t a problem. They were relatively cheap to design, and the marketing splash they made was a bit of a return on the dev dollars that it took to make them.</p>
<p>MINI has a problem here: A car that people say they want, and no real way to bring it to market.</p>
<p>Perhaps sharing with the BMW Z2 platform?</p>
<p>How about this? The Triump TR-9! Make it small and cheap, and sell it as the resurgance of the British Roadster. This way, they can get rid of the “Premium Compact” philosophy that is really a burden on the MINI brand now, and make an entry level roadster that people will want to buy, at a price that they want to buy it at!</p>
<p>Sadly, I think that this idea is just too good to have any chance of success!</p>
<p>That, my friend, is brilliant!</p>
<p>Or perhaps naming it, “Triumph Spitfire 2”.</p>
<p>Rear wheel would SERIOUSLY tempt me!</p>
<p>RWD? Yes.
Electric? No.</p>
<p>If you build it, I will buy it.</p>
<p>I love it, but I wouldn’t even consider one in an electric variant. It’s enough of a pain dealing with maintenance and basic repairs on a conventional engine, electric is just a non-starter for me. As others have said as well, the range limitations of electric cars are also idiotic. I travel a fair amount, so 300 miles followed by an 8 hour rest is NOT an option. I’ve had enough (14 so far) european cars (of different brand & models) to know that they are terribly fragile and picky (unlike American cars which I’ve found will last virtually forever, though with a smorgasbord of electrical bugbears). I don’t need a fragile picky car which I can’t even begin to service properly.</p>
<p>Offer it in electric for those who want it, but PLEASE offer it with a conventional engine too.</p>
<p>“No MINI concept has ever motivated so many thumbs to upward than the Superleggera…” Ummm, Rocketman?
Hyperbole much MF?</p>
<p>Comments don’t lie. This one was more positive.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. LOVE the Superleggera, but the Rocketman would be a more significant MINI if they only have enough resources to commit to one car. IF they build a the next Roadster on the F56 platform and commit to making it look like the Superleggera, than it might have a fighting chance.</p>
<p>Those people who say “that’s not a Mini” are probably quite right, but the truth is that none of the cars are mini any more, and none of them is derived from the principles of the original Mini either. At least this car is interesting – and the styling has moved more towards beauty and away from the current crop of clown cars they make.</p>
<p>While MINI tries to decide what to do with the beautiful Superleggera, it appears that Fiat and Alfa may have already figured it out: <a href="http://blog.caranddriver.com/fiat-abarth-confirmed-for-miata-based-roadster-alfa-to-build-its-own-spider/" rel="nofollow ugc">http://blog.caranddriver.com/fiat-abarth-confirmed-for-miata-based-roadster-alfa-to-build-its-own-spider/</a></p>