On the 25th July MINI2 attended a Driving Dynamics Workshop, test driving the next generation MINI Cooper S in the Netherlands. This report is a summary of our impressions of the new model and a guide to what we saw at the event.

This car isn’t finished yet. That was made clear to us from the very start of the MINI Driving Dynamics Workshop. The MINIs we were to test drive were not production models, although they were assembled at Oxford, and they would still be disguised, albeit lightly. Our feedback was wanted, and key members of the MINI development team from powertrain, chassis, safety, suspension, testing and overall product development were on hand to both ask and answer questions of the assembled distinguished members of the motoring press. And we were there too, of course.

This part of our series of exclusive reports will focus on the design elements and things that make the “character” of the car. Things we liked, things we didn’t, things we just couldn’t decide on one way or another. It’s also another excuse to try and share more of the hundreds of exclusive images we took for you, to help you gain a better impression of the new car before official details and undisguised photographs are available. And while we have many detailed photographs, and lots of opinions to share, please remember this is not the finished article you are looking at, and many aspects will no doubt be changed and improved for full production.

The exterior of the MINI, although the area of the car which has obviously been snapped by spy photographers most, and probably generated most comment and debate, is really the area of the car which has been least dramatically updated, as MINI put it in their press information, Evolution on the outside, Revolution on the inside. The changes to the exterior are quite minor and while most avid MINI watchers could spot the majority in a second, your average by stander may struggle to notice the difference at a glance.

As we only got up close and personal with the MINI Cooper S Prototypes, that’s all we can really comment on here, but still there’s more than enough to go on for some time. If you’re a true MINI anorak we hope you’ll enjoy this, if not, please forgive us the indulgence!

The MINIs on display and on the track at the Driving Dynamics Workshop were in four colours, however the Yellow car was unwell, so sadly we didn’t get to crawl all over that car. That is a real shame as the yellow was stunning. This is the sort of yellow we’ve personally felt for a long time the MINI has been crying out for. But as we lack many exclusive images of that, we won’t dwell on what we missed, but focus on what we did capture on camera.

The next most striking colour on display was the new Laser Blue. This colour was quite elusive when it came to capturing a true likeness on camera. We arrived at around midday and the blazing sun made for difficult photographic conditions. The Laser Blue is probably best described as somewhere between Hyper Blue and Electric Blue. But we dare to say it’s actually a nicer colour than either of those choices. The colour had real depth and shine and looked fantastic combined with the classic white roof and mirror caps. Even with the roof broken up with the huge sunroof (which now features a tilting rear panel as well as tilt and slide front section), it looked the business.

The final new offering was a shade known as “Sparkling Silver”. It’s not as vibrant, or urgent as the other two new colours on display, and almost looks gold in some lights. But we forgive it that. We keep wanting to call it “champagne silver”, and that’s probably the closest we’ll get to describing it. We’re uncertain if it’s too subtle to be popular, it may be the shrinking violet in the showroom next to some of the new, more energetic shades, but you never know, it may win its admirers in time. Also at the event in abundance was good old Pure Silver.

So what’s new? Let’s start at the front shall we? New grille (obviously), which remains in place when the bonnet opens up. As do the new lights with indicators built in to the main clusters. The bulb is orange, not the housing/glass, so if you’re concerned about that, a new bulb (well, two) will soon sort you out. These cars all had the optional Xenon lights, which are very similar in appearance to the current design. The sidelights are still low down in the bumper, in a housing which is split horizontally and shared with the fog lights (or a plastic blanking plate, if that box isn’t checked at order time).

What you cant see are the chrome rings around the headlights which lift with the bonnet. The lack of a second bulb suggest bi-xenon bulbs will appear in the MINI for the first time, but this was not confirmed. Keeping on the exterior illumination theme, the (still heavily disguised) side repeaters have obviously had a major overhaul, you could see the basic shape and the S logo on the repeaters, but details were again hidden. However, all of these “hidden” details are available in computer generated form thanks to MINIs official technical drawings.

In the photographs above you can also see the new rear view mirror. This was a feature we really liked, the new shape gives a very good view, is more organic in appearance than the current versions and they also match well with the new lines of the car. The waistline is higher than before, especially at the rear, so in turn the rear glass panels are smaller than before. Another knock on effect, explained
Detlev Welters (Head of Project Management) is the enlarging of the black plastic trim. “The designers insisted” he says, “to keep the proportions just right”, in what has to be said was a rather unconvincing manner.

Remaining on the subject of lights, the rear light clusters are nicely designed items. The orange (or optional clear) indicator area, with “MINI Wings” logo, is surrounded by the rear/brake light area. Below this, almost hidden from view is the reverse light. MINI has kept the symmetry of the lights which is a small but nice design feature. Cleverly (?!) hidden under the tape on the rear bumper are the fog lights. The high level brake light is positioned high behind the rear glass screen. The location where the current third brake light resides is now occupied, on the S at least, by a fixing point for the rear spoiler.

All the cars at Zandvoort were fitted with 17″ wheels and run flat tyres, if you click on the thumbnail image above you can see the tyre size details, if that’s your sort of thing. Again cleverly hidden from view is the MINI branded centre caps. Obviously a special design touch the big bosses decided they couldn’t bare to be exposed at this stage in the game? Speaking of the rear spoiler, it’s a little odd. It’s actually less pronounced and curvy than the current S spoiler, but it looks really chunky. The spoilers on the cars at the track all appeared to be of two piece construction, and the visible lines looked a little incomplete. Many of the plastic parts were not the finished article (such as the black plastic trim pieces), we’re hoping the same is true of the spoilers, as the gap was a bit too obvious for our liking. In the spoiler photos below you can also see the two aerial bases on display.

While we’re lingering at the rear of the car, we have to give a mention to the new twin centre exit exhaust system. The system now goes straight down the middle of the car, with a single rear silencer before splitting into two, large tail pipes. The exhaust sounds fantastic, much more throaty and less rasping than the current system, but the looks certainly will take some getting used to. Gone are the Budweiser can inspired curved pipes, replaced with a more conventional style, and the positioning of the pipe and rear axle in relation to the rear bumper trim can make the car appear to be showing off a little too much from behind. Just because you’ve got a larger pipe doesn’t mean we all want to be constantly reminded of it. You can also see below the new, improved PDC sensor positioning.

There’s also weirdness around the c-pillar. The wrap around glass is no more, but the panel you can see will also be changed to a different, shiny ABS plastic construction (similar to that on the exterior a-panels). The bulge is apparently there purely for aerodynamic purposes and has a dramatic effect on airflow. Interesting stuff, and slightly odd in our opinion. Judgment again is being reserved until the finished article is revealed to all. The large boot handle is actually not so disproportionate in the metal as it appears in spy photographs, but it still feels a little oversized. We can only imagine that once the MINI badge and chrome rear cluster surrounds are visible it starts to look more cohesive. The trigger has also changed, it feels more solid than it does on the outgoing model. The rear wash wipe is unchanged.

As the eagle eyed among you no doubt noticed some time ago, the boot and rear end in general bulges and curves more than on the current MINI, this again looks much better in real life than in images, we hope our video features on the R56 will help illustrate this. The chrome fuel filler cap has also been slightly revised, in appearance, but not operation. The chrome waist band remains a strong design element of the exterior. The front section now goes further forward and around the edge of the bonnet trim, due to the changes in that area to comply with pedestrian impact safety standards. Prior to seeing the car we were concerned that this area would now be too busy, one the great things about the MINI is its elegant and very simple design, but in our opinion the design team have pulled a master stroke and it looks very good indeed. Probably less busy than it does now.

Now we’re back at the front of the car we suppose it’s time to mention the pointless hood scoop. Well, we say pointless, it is there to distinguish the S from the rest of the range “at a glance”. But that’s it. To say this was disappointing (if expected) would be an understatement. To say that MINI were shockingly honest in their presentation of this fact would be even more of an understatement. But the tactic worked, and they seemed to gain more respect for admitting it to be purely cosmetic than they lost for the fact itself.

The bonnet surrounding the scoop is much higher and flatter than before, and this results in a much more rounded “bull nose” front end. The headlights are also pushed out further, and are larger. In addition the lower grille is much larger, for improved cooling. The area around the side/fog light area is lightly camouflaged, but as the technical images above reveal, that’s pretty much a case of what you see is what you get. The looks of the honeycomb grille and flatter, more squat front end have certainly split opinions, it’s been compared to both a classic Mini and a trout. We liked it, but you can make your own minds up on the “fishy or fab” debate I’m sure.

Before going inside, we’d like to show you under the hood and in the boot too, as well as the rather funky new key. So, above are some photos of the engine bay. The new bonnet apparently once again proved to be an engineering challenge to get to fit consistently accurately. The shut lines around the lights and between the black plastic trim did, by MINIs own admission prove to be a real challenge, but they are confident that it will be easier to maintain accuracy during manufacturing than with the old clam shell design. The new car features a complete modular front end that comes to the factory ready built and prepared to bolt on. A lot of consideration has gone into making the manufacturing process more efficient and more consistent.

You’ll also notice the engine is facing the “wrong way”. This was a “compromise” as a result of the joint venture with the PSA Group. Why a compromise? MINI like it facing the other way, Peugeot prefer it this way. Mass production wins, simple as that. The cars on the test day had no sound dampening material under the bonnet.

The boot capacity has increased by 10 litres, it is now also fully carpeted. The extra capacity is gained by hollowing out the location of the current models cubby holes/storage areas, and also the inside of the boot lid is more sculpted, each area adds around 3 litres. Now we’re starting to show more shiny plastic interior parts, it’s probably an opportune moment to remind everyone that the plastics are not the finished article. What will be changed and to what we don’t know for sure, but don’t panic about the quality of the plastics (so we we’re told)!

Before we have a quick look inside a few of the MINIs, let’s look at the very funky new key. Similar in operation to that of the BMW 1 Series, you place the fob into a docking bay on the dash board. Put your foot on the clutch and press the engine start button on the dash. The car springs to life. Magic.

Pictured above is the key, there is a traditional key hidden inside, if the push button start fails for whatever reason. Pictured below is the key’s favourite place to be, and the key, snug as a bug in a rug. While the MINIs character has certainly evolved, it’s certainly still got bag loads of it.

The feel of the doors is pretty much identical to the 1st generation MINI, the window drops as before and it makes the same reassuring pops on opening, clunks on closing. It feels very solid. The door pockets have been revised extensively, the pockets are shallow and split in half, this is also the case in the rear, where to make more room for the passengers the depth of the side compartments has been reduced by a significant amount. This was an area of concern we hope will be addressed by the “big reveal”, storage space seemed to be down drastically, the little cubby holes and pockets have all suffered in a trade off for more interior room.

The cars at the Driving Dynamics Workshop were almost all the same trim levels. The silver cars all had cloth sports seats, automatic air conditioning, and what appeared to be brilliant silver trim pieces. The speedo ring, which now includes controls for the radio and other functions, is bigger than before. The rev counter is also larger and the speedo reading on the rev counter is twice the size.

The displays and layout in general, despite being hidden behind a lot of ugly foam, seemed very well planned and executed. The only area that looked a little tacky was the centre column, but again we believe this is mostly down to unfinished plastics. One nice touch that features as part of the optional “illumination pack” is the ability (via one of the overhead toggle switches) to change the dash and ambient lighting colours from Orange to Blue, and various colours in between. Very hard to make out in brilliant sunshine, but even then it looked cool.

The blue cars feature leather clad sports seats, and manual air conditioning, and also different colour dash and trim pieces. Efforts to increase interior space have certainly paid off. Spending time in the rear of the MINI still isn’t something you’d opt to do too often, but they’ve made the most of the space available. Soft backing on the seats also gives an impression of more space and added comfort for the rear passengers. The interior layout did certainly impress a lot of people on the day, and we could clearly see why.

The Sparkling Silver MINIs featured another level of trim. Leather seats in a different finish, and chrome accents on the speedo, air vent and speaker rings. These were obviously the more “sophisticated” of the range on offer. The seats looked very plush and comfortable, and chrome accents looked like they should work well with the completed dash cockpit layout.

The displays and controls on the speedo and central column were a little unusual and at first seemed quite unnatural, we were clearly not the only ones to find this as at one stage we were greeted by a dutch talk radio station still nattering away to itself. Fortunately we were one up on the previous occupants and had figured out how to switch the thing off!

Well, due to the level of disguise there’s not much more inside the car we can show you in the photographs, so that, as they say, concludes your tour. We hope you enjoyed it, or at least found it enlightening, and we look forward to discussing it with you in our forums.