Monday 14th August 2006, the new MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S have been officially revealed. We take a look at the details of the new, new MINI.

There’s been so much build up to the new R56, second generation MINI, that a lot of people already hold strong opinions over the latest evolutions of BMW’s hit small car. Clearly the second generation MINI is an evolution in terms of design. Despite early fears that some enthusiasts experienced (prompted largely by heavily clad prototype and test mule “spy shots”), the exterior changes, while quite dramatic when taken in bite size pieces, are overall quite subtle. Many non enthusiasts will probably not even notice the changes between the first and second generation MINI hatch backs, no more than they may pick up on pre and post “facelift” examples of the first generation MINI.

As is the norm with MINI2 news reports, most images below will open a larger version in a new window or tab when clicked. However, not all images can be enlarged as they are zoomed in sections cropped from the full size images provided to us by the good people at MINI.

Looking at the images of the MINI Cooper, the updates are obvious to the trained eye. The new headlights appear larger and are clearly more wrapped around the wing area of the vehicle than before. The grill, with only three slats on the Cooper model, also is updated and reshaped. The lower front area, the “bumper” and lower intake have had more dramatic changes. With the indicators moving to the main headlights, there is now only one pair of lower light units, for the sidelights and optional fogs. While the lower intake is also remoulded and redesigned.

The shut lines and new bonnet configuration means the front plastic mouldings no longer split in line with the bonnet, giving an impression of tighter shut lines and a more “solid” front end.

Contrary to the prototypes we drove a few weeks ago, the new headlight units shown here (Halogen shown here on the Cooper, Xenon on the S) appear to have orange indicator housing. On the prototypes these were clear with an orange bulb, which would be preferable for many would be customers who would like to be able to just pop in a clear indicator bulb to tidy up the front a little.

The side repeaters also appear to have gained considerable bulk as part of their “fin” style redesign. The a-panel is now one piece, due to the new bonnet and scuttle panel area. This lends itself to an overall less busy appearance, but the small area of chrome trim perhaps looks a little lost and untidy now?

Even the wing mirrors have not escaped the updating process, and are much more organic and rounded in their shape than on previous MINI models. The change is subtle, but certainly helps add to the overall freshness of the design.

At the rear of the vehicle, the wrap around glass has gone. The new c-panel cover at the rear sides is designed to improve aerodynamics of the new MINI, as are the news spoilers fitted to both models. The tail lights have increased in size quite dramatically, and now feature a separate chrome surround (as opposed to in the unit on previous models). They are also more curved to accentuate the new, rounder rear end of the new car.

While the rear of the Cooper S features two fog light units either side of the rear bumper grille area, the MINI Cooper has one, very large central fog light moulding. This, along with the larger chrome tailgate handle will not be to everyone’s taste we’re sure. But, like many aspects of the new design (and the MINI GP before it), seeing in “the metal” may well give a different overall impression than viewing images with a critical eye.

Other exterior treatments are more subtle. The black plastic arches and trim are larger than before, an attempt by the design team to keep all things in proportion. The rear “shoulder line” of the car is higher, and the slope from front to rear further exaggerated, a feature common on many cars on the road today to emphasise a sporty pose.

The MINI Cooper S update is probably more apparent at first glance than the changes made to the MINI Cooper. The most striking change is the introduction of a new black honeycomb style grille, similar in style to that previously reserved for the MINIs optional “Aero Kit”. In fact, the overall “fact shape” is probably more similar in proportion to an Aero Kitted first generation MINI Cooper S than a standard model.

Something new for the second generation MINI is the Cooper and S have distinctly different shaped grilles. Previously the only distinction between a standard model S and Cooper was the slats being chrome on the latter, body coloured on the S. Now, as you can see in these images, the S grill has a flatter, wider bottom edge, which helps further set it apart from the other models in the range.

The Cooper S shown here is in Laser Blue, one of the seven new body colours the new MINI will be available in. The colour perhaps is a little darker, or richer in person than it may appear in the images, but it does have a certain amount of “Electric Blue” about it, and is very vibrant indeed.

Apart from the obvious body kit and bonnet scoop, the other distinct features of the exterior design of the Cooper S are the chrome side repeater housings and fuel filler cap. The fact these are chrome on the S is nothing new, but the design of both have been revised for the new model. The side repeaters are quite dramatically different, whereas the change to the fuel filler cap is more subtle.

As already mentioned there are 7 new exterior colours, plus 5 colours already available in the MINI range. The complete list is: Mellow Yellow, Oxygen Blue, Chili Red and Pepper White as the solid colour choices. And in metallic there is British Racing Green, Pure Silver, Astro Black, Sparkling Silver, Lightning Blue, Nightfire Red, Dark Silver and Laser Blue.

It’s been said before, but the interior is where the really dramatic changes take place in terms of the design of the new car. The interior looks all new, and sports some pretty smart updates. The dash board layout is completely revised, a central speedo (”Centre Speedo” in MINI talk) is retained, and in fact enlarged to make room for stereo and optional navigation displays and controls.

Next to the speedo on the retro styled “dash rail” area is the docking location for the ignition key fob and start/stop button. On the other side can be seen what we can only assume to be the glovebox release button.

The centre column has been changed too. Now both manual and automatic air conditioning controls mimic the MINI logo, and the toggle switches have been altered slightly, losing their LED tips, but increasing in size. There is now also an additional bank of toggle switches overhead with interior light and sunroof controls. The integrated CD slot is also in the centre stack, which has been made more narrow overall to increase the footwell area.

Just below and in front of the centre column are the two new, larger cup holders. There’s also three buttons in this location, although we’ve only had first hand experience with one of these on the prototypes we were fortunate enough to test drive, and that was the DSC switch.

Behind (or in front) of theses switches is now a six speed gear change in both the Cooper and Cooper S (previously the Cooper was five speed only), which again is a new item in terms of design. The gearboxes will again be provided by Getrag.

The seats are also improved in both form and function from the out going MINI models. The sports seats offer more support and better comfort. Which, when combined with the rake and reach adjustable steering column, are a very welcome update! In the rear, the seat bench is larger than before, at the expense of the side storage which is much more shallow in both the front and rear of the vehicle.

The steering wheel itself has also been subtly changed, as has the rev counter and on board computer display pod, which is much improved over the first generation version.

That concludes our small photographic guide to the new MINI. More details will be released between now and the cars hitting the dealers in late 2006, the next big event will be the Paris Motorshow, where press and public will be able to get their hands on the finished article at last!