As part of our IAA Coverage this year we spoke with a couple of the top men from MINI, about the Clubman, and also about their own work inside MINI, in attempt to find out what makes them and the team at MINI tick.

We started with Bernd Koerber, MINI Clubman Product Manager, and then we had some time to talk with Ulrich Kranz, who is Head of MINI Development.

As head of MINI development, what does your day to job involve?

Working with all the different departments together, so that means also development in general, but in development you have all the several divisions such as body in white, power train, electric, interior and so on and so forth. The other aspect is production so that means all the production triangle in the UK. And the other important aspect is finance, so we have to take care of the complete business case. What we are usually doing in general in the first place is pretty much focusing on production and development, then when approaching series production we have to work with our production partners, working towards the team in Oxford.

What is the most enjoyable aspect of your work?

The most enjoyable thing is when you see the car, when it ready from the styling and design department. Because from a very early phase you are involved with marketing, with design, and when you see your car growing, growing and growing and getting better, optimising it. So when you take the cover off the car and you see it, and there it is, and you can really enjoy it.

The other thing I would say that is at least as important as seeing the car at the design viewing is to be here at the press conference and seeing the smiling faces, seeing people driving the car, and they get out of the car and they say “good car” “good engineering” “good quality”, and this is what we all really enjoy.

The MINI Clubman is the first new variant in the MINI range for many years, since the introduction of the Convertible. How are you feeling a few days before the public first get a chance to see for themselves the new model close up and in person?

It’s always very exciting because we don’t know how the public is going to react, but we have a good feeling because we had a really good experience with the MINI and we feel this is a real MINI, that it drives like a MINI, and that all the ideas that went into the project have turned out to be really good, we thought from our expertise, and we really wanted to send a new signal that this was something new.

That’s why it’s called “the Other MINI”, so we have the two door, we have the Convertible, and we looked into our Mini heritage, which is a huge one, and a very important one because there’s still lots of things in Mini history. So we wanted to make something new, but always connected to the MINI heritage.

What made you feel a “MINI Estate” or “Shooting Brake” model would be the best addition to the MINI range, over for example a Speedster or people carrier type model?

We wanted to have a car that had a little bit more room, a little more functionality. We wanted to get those people who could not buy the two door hatch because of limited space to get into the MINI family. So therefore we wanted to do something special, not something standard, just make it longer and give it more functions. From MINI people expect something unique, something special, something extraordinary and therefore we had to come up with something that offered all that but also had a connection with Mini history. So that was the task for all our guys, including our colleagues from marketing, design and development, to transform a kind of Mini historic Traveller, Countryman, Clubman into 2007, so that was the challenge these guys to manage, but they were all very enthusiastic to do that.

Following the expected update of the MINI Convertible, do you see any space in the MINI range for further expansion, ventures into new markets?

As you can see there is no stopping life for us, so there will always be more. As I have already mentioned the MINI heritage offers lots of possibilities, loads of options what we could do. No, we will not stop, this will go on.

Is it important to you when considering new models to always try and draw a connection to the heritage?

Not all the time, but if you have such a heritage, you should better use it.

What are your hopes for the MINI Clubman, do you expect to see sales on a par with the MINI Convertible, greater sales, or maybe it being more of a niche product?

What we are thinking or what we are planning is that every fourth MINI should be I have to say, should be, a MINI Clubman so more or less as we have for the MINI Convertible.

We expect that sales distribution between the model range would be similar to the hatch, except starting with the Cooper, not the One.

Who do you see as the “typical” person for the MINI Clubman to appeal to?

The is no typical person for the MINI hatch, and there will also be no typical person for the Clubman. There will those who will look at the car and just decide 100% they will get one, but there will also be those who come from a long Mini tradition, or those who always wanted to have a MINI, but the hatch was too small and they want a MINI with a little more practicality.

But our customer base is quite wide, which is very good.

Does that not make it difficult, in terms of marketing, who to pitch the car to?

I wouldn’t say it makes it difficult, but you have to take every aspect into consideration, which means marketing research is key, absolutely.

What do you feel was the greatest challenge in bringing the “Traveller” from the Concept into full production?

We had to transform it into the modern concept, so people could see it was a modern car, and a modern interpretation. Not just a “copy and paste”, make it higher, so we had to really bring it into a styling language that everybody who lives in today could understand immediately. We had to make it something new and modern, and this is easy to say but it was a real challenge for the design department.

Then you have to bring in some really MINI specific features to it, features like the club door, the split door, or if you look at the roof at the “dunes” this is also something our designers developed during the styling period. Also also the silver frame, the contrast frame around the torsion reinforcement, so also there is a functional aspect. So under that there is a torsional tube that makes the body stiffer.

Also that is not a symettrical car, so for the technicians this was a challenge to make sure the car still behaved like a MINI and handled like a MINI should. All these things were challenges.

Which MINI do you personally drive most regularly?

I am driving, all the time, a Cooper S hatch. But now I am waiting for a Clubman, Cooper S.

My Cooper S is oxygen blue, black roof. The interior is all black, and, I like it.

For the Clubman I have to wait, the customers come first, but when I have the Oxygen Blue Cooper S, it’s not that hard to wait!

Do you think MINI has a whole stress their “eco-credentials” strongly enough? (This relates to a recent press release from MINI about awareness of MINIs fuel and money saving features).

You will see at the show what we are doing, we call it “MINImalism”, this will be an umbrella that covers all sort of technical things, which for you I wont have to go into every detail. MINI has a promise, as a small car, small is efficient, small is economical, people expect these things are in a MINI. Maybe now we will surprise people with what we have done with the MINI. We have planned that really for a couple of years ahead of the launch of the new hatch. Because as you can imagine this all quite complicated technology. So for the first time here [at Frankfurt] you can see we call this “MINImalism” and you will certainly here more of this in the future.

What are your personal hopes for the future of the MINI?

First of all that we can continue to have the good products and success that we have enjoyed since we launch the MINI in 2001 with the R50.

At the moment we have a lot of a ideas, our design team have lots of ideas what to do, we are still always looking forward.

We have just started, so there will be more, and these are not only hopes, I am convinced of it.