MINI2

MINI fans in Sydney strike it lucky in October when the fun-loving brand brings a new attraction to the fast lane in Haymarket.

MINI Strike is a life-size bowling game that shows off the dynamic handling and maneuverability of a MINI in the hands of a professional driver.

Of course MINI knows no medium pace so the bowling will be blown out of all proportion with huge inflatable pins and a wide tarmac lane substituting for the regulation pins and wood deck of the traditional game.

A fleet of MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S hardtops will take the place of a bowling ball.

Sharing the fun is right up MINI‘s alley, so members of the public will be invited in to ride shotgun with professional drivers and guide them through a colour-coded MINI Strike Path with the aim of knocking over as many of the ten giant inflatable pins as possible within tight two minute time span.

The MINI Strike winners will be selected by their ability to successfully clear the course of pins in the shortest possible time.

Everyone who scores a Strike (i.e. clears all pins from the course in the allocated time) will win a MINI Strike prize pack and the fastest Strike time on each of the two days will be the overall winner, and receive a set of MINI Mandarina Duck Luggage and the use of a MINI for a weekend.

A display of MINI Hardtop and Cabrio models will allow guests who have enjoyed the MINI Strike experience to explore MINI fun further. They can even take an on-the-spot test drive.

After the event, all participants will receive a follow-up email including a video clip and photo of their MINI Strike experience.

MINI Strike follows in the wheel tracks of the very successful MINI Chase activity, held in King Street Wharf last year, and reinforces MINISs commitment to providing a larger-than-life, truly interactive brand experience.

The fact that MINI Strike is open to potential customers as well as all fans of the growing MINI brand underlines MINI’s integrative and unconventional approach to life.

While the MINI Strike Lane will be busy with cars toppling inflated pins, at the periphery, a DJ will keep guests entertained with the latest Sydney sounds, and a bar and MINI Strike viewing area will provide plenty of chill-out space in true MINI style.

MINI Strike takes place from 3.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. on Saturday 13 October and from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. on Sunday 14 October, 2007 at The Ultimo Car Park, corner Quay Street and Ultimo Road, in the heart of bustling Haymarket, close to Central Station.

After last year’s amazing response to MINI Chase, we decided we had to return in 2007 with an even more exciting activity, to show off the all new R56 MINI Cooper and turbocharged MINI Cooper S Hardtops,

said Justin Hocevar, National Manager, MINI.

MINI Strike gives fans the chance to experience a MINI in a novel environment. It also gives us the chance to show off many of MINI’s unique attributes: agile handling, sporty performance and its fun to drive character.

There’s never been anything like this in the heart of Sydney. You could call it Sydney’s lucky strike.

For the duration of one year, Brussels’ Quartier Louise is enlivened by CITYSCAPE, an impressive wooden sculpture by Belgium artist Arne Quinze. The project is a joint operation with car brand MINI , who sponsored the art project. Quinze: ‘MINI has managed to change the face of the city. It’s a vehicle that prompts reactions, since it’s almost impossible not to notice. MINI , to me, is a good example of successful communication.’ Simultaneously with the prelaunch of MINI CLUBMAN and during Design September 2007 (design events running from September 9 to 30), Quinze’s CITYSCAPE will be open to public from September 14 onwards.

The 18 meter-high artwork is built on 12 meter-high wooden stilts. Carrying the same ambiguous traits as her earlier siblings, of which UCHRONIA (a giant wooden sculpture, last year built in Nevada desert) is the most striking example, CITYSCAPE attracts Brussels inhabitants to this outskirts, acting as a magnet. It’s encouraging us to interact, boosting new energy to a somewhat discarded neighbourhood. Floating in the air, it provides a shelter to curious visitors, a place for contemplation and silence.

Arne Quinze: ‘CITYSCAPE resembles a frozen movement; speed caught in time. It is a powerful means of communication, in many ways. If you look at it from a distance, pure movement seems to keep the volatile structure in the air. Sunrays play with the wooden beams; a game of light and shade creates ever-changing patterns.
Its immense size – 40 meter long and 25 meter wide – absorbs you. CITYSCAPE calls for instant reactions, it’s impossible not to feel anything.’

Who wonders what will happen to all the used wood in a year from now: CITYSCAPE’s ‘bones and muscles’ will be fully regenerated and recycled.

More at: www.cityscape.be

We didn’t go over the one sided suicide door in our own, exclusive review of the MINI Clubman recently too much as it’s a subject that, pretty much, has been done to death ahead of launch on MINI websites such as MINI2.

But the Irish Independent, who had previously accused BMW of “breathtaking arrogance” over the right hand sided rear door, and the Telegraph were among the first to heavily criticize and question the safety of the Club Door in their reports following the international launch of the new MINI Clubman.

In a report by the Irish Independent they managed to produce a statement from the head of road safety at the AA which, in our opinion, rather limply concluded “You will have to be very careful when you use it”.  Well, yes, you would with any door by a road, wouldn’t you?!

Peter Hall, writing in the Telegraph, devotes most of his report on the rather tiresome debate that was had by many about the virtues (or otherwise) of the Clubman’s asymmetric design.  It’s a debate that no side can win, and wont change anything, but as we did mention in our report and comments on return from Madrid, it was a hot topic of conversation among the British media.

The whole debate over the “wrong sided” suicide door overall though has surprised us by it’s lack of coverage.  Maybe most media outlets decided, as we did, it wasn’t going to reach any sort of conclusion, so maybe wasn’t worth debating at all?  Whatever the reason, we’re sure BMW are pleased with the lack of bad PR received so far from their undeniable design gamble.

The new MINI Clubman will be produced in Oxford enabling the BMW Group plant to reach record production levels in 2007.

Following a £200 million investment by BMW Group between 2005 and 2007 in its MINI production triangle in the UK linking its vehicle assembly plant in Oxford, its pressings plant in Swindon and its engine plant in Hams Hall near Birmingham, production capacity is on target to exceed 200,000 vehicles this year and reach 240,000 vehicles in the medium term.

The Rt Hon Stephen Timms, MP was at BMW Group’s Oxford plant for the start of production of the new MINI Clubman, along with guests from UK industry.

As production levels have risen, 200 new jobs have been created at Oxford and 250 at the Hams Hall engine plant in the past 12 months.

Oliver Zipse, managing director of BMW Group Plant Oxford, said: “The new MINI Clubman is another milestone in the MINI success story. Our 6,800 highly committed associates in the MINI production triangle plants in the UK have so far produced more than one million MINIs since it was launched in 2001. With the launch of the MINI Clubman, the third MINI derivative, we are expecting new production and sales records for MINI which is great news for the UK automotive industry.”

Around 4,000 people across the UK have already registered their interest in the MINI Clubman since the first details were released.

The Oxford plant received more than £100 million to expand production capacity from the previous record level of 200,000 vehicles in 2005, Plant Swindon received £60 million for MINI body pressings and sub-assembly technologies and Hams Hall nearly £30 million to build a new, advanced family of petrol engines specially for MINI and previously sourced from Brazil.

The Rt Hon Stephen Timms, MP, Minister of State for Competitiveness, said: “Today’s launch is a shining example of modern British manufacturing. I am sure the new Clubman will be a great hit. The continuing success of MINI and BMW just goes to show that the UK continues to be a world leader in automotive manufacturing. This is down to our highly-skilled, highly flexible workforce and the excellence of our design engineering base.”

Annual production of engines at Hams Hall will rise to over 350,000 engines this year, largely as a result of the additional MINI engines being produced alongside the existing four-cylinder petrol engines supplied for BMW models.

Sixty percent of MINI parts are now being sourced from UK-based suppliers compared to 40% in previous models.

Launched by BMW Group in 2001, more than 1 million MINIs have so far been produced and sold with 75 per cent of production being exported to more than 70 markets worldwide.

MINI dealers have invested close to £40 million in the last two years in expanding or moving premises, enabling them to present the huge choice of models, options and accessories to customers in the showroom. Demand from UK customers continues to grow year by year with 2007 sales up nearly 14 per cent. Residual values remain amongst the best in the industry.

BMW Group Plant Swindon yesterday (17th September) celebrated the start of production of the MINI Clubman, and has announced a significant saving in truck movements as the majority of steel deliveries to the Preymesser GmbH warehouse in Swindon switch from road to rail.

Following a £200 million investment by BMW Group between 2005 and 2007 in its MINI production triangle in the UK, linking its pressings plant in Swindon, its engine plant in Hams Hall near Birmingham and its vehicle assembly plant in Oxford, production capacity is on target to exceed 200,000 vehicles this year and reach 240,000 vehicles in the medium term. 2007 will also see more than 220,000 MINIs delivered to customers worldwide.

Klaus Hauser, managing director of BMW Group Plant Swindon, welcomed the Mayor of Swindon and guests from the Swindon business community, along with the Plant’s MINI Clubman project team.

Klaus Hauser said: “With the launch of the MINI Clubman, the third MINI derivative, we are expecting new production and sales records for MINI this year which is great news for Swindon and the UK automotive industry. The new model is another milestone for the plant and we are confident that it will offer an exciting next chapter in the MINI success story. We look forward to our employees continuing to make a vital contribution to the development of a great British brand – the MINI.”

Plant Swindon is also working with suppliers to reduce its carbon footprint. Following Swindon Borough Council’s decision to approve planning permission for a new steel warehouse in Swindon for Preymesser GmbH, steel is delivered to the plant on a just-in-time basis. Currently all steel coils are delivered to the warehouse by road. From this autumn approximately 116,000 tonnes of steel, representing 80 per cent of Plant Swindon’s total annual steel consumption, will arrive at the warehouse by rail saving 5,300 truck movements each year.

Klaus Hauser was also joined by 10 employees to celebrate their long service awards. In total, they have achieved 325 years service at the plant. Klaus Hauser said: “This is a tremendous achievement and we are delighted they were able to join us. They have seen many changes over the years. The plant, in which they have spent so much of their lives, now looks forward to a robust and positive future.”

The Swindon plant received £60 million for MINI body pressings and sub-assembly technologies, Hams Hall nearly £30 million to build a new, advanced family of petrol engines especially for MINI and the Oxford plant received more than £100 million to expand production capacity from the previous record level of 200,000 vehicles in 2005.

The increase in capacity, flexibility and greater efficiency means Plant Swindon is now responsible for 90 per cent of the pressings and 80 per cent of the body shell sub-assembly work for MINI. The investment has resulted in an extensive modernisation programme with the very latest press and seam technology being used.

Production of the MINI Clubman comes just one year after the launch of the new MINI Hatch. Thanks to the investment in Plant Swindon and the plant’s full integration into the MINI production triangle, the MINI Clubman has been introduced into the existing production facilities.

To meet this challenge, new flexible shift patterns for its workforce of 1,100 associates have been established which complement the patterns across the Oxford and Hams Hall plants. All three plants can respond together to changes in market demand and customer requirements. The MINI production triangle brings the number of associates across the three plants to 6,800.

Launched by BMW Group in 2001, more than one million MINIs have so far been produced and sold with 75 per cent of production being exported to more than 70 markets worldwide.

MINI dealers have invested close to £40 million in the last two years in expanding or moving premises, enabling them to present the huge choice of models, options and accessories to customers in the showroom. Demand from UK customers continues to grow year by year with 2007 sales up nearly 14 per cent. Residual values remain amongst the best in the industry.

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.

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.

Our first interview, below, was held with Bernd Koerber, MINI Clubman Product Manager.

How long have you held your position as MINI Clubman Product Manager, at what stage in the concept or design process did you become involved with the MINI Clubman?

Personally I started working on the MINI Clubman four years ago, two years on the concept, naming and strategy, then about two years ago I became product launch manager.

Initially outlining how the car would work, where it would fit in the MINI product strategy and so on, then moving on to preparing for the launch of the MINI Clubman and the work on the car itself, and guiding the launch team.

What would be your average day in the office, if there is such a thing?

Average in the office can be very frustrating as you are between everyone!

The main targets for a Product Launch Manager is to fight for the market and fight for the customer, always try to look at the car from the point of view of the customer, what the customer might like, how to improve things for the customer.

The second part is to prepare the launch activities, guide the launch teams, so at the end of the day there is a car, and a launch day all ready for production all in time.

The first week of production for the Clubman I spent in Oxford looking at the building of the car. Which was very interesting, there are many aspects of the car which are tough for the guys in Oxford to produce, which also has to be considered.

It’s really a role between production, design and marketing, and being an ambassador for the markets.

The Club Door, there has of course been a great deal of debate about the door being on the road side for right hand drive markets such as the UK and Australia, the “wrong side” you could argue. Was there any stage during the development you attempted or considered different door configurations, maybe four regular doors, two Club Doors, or even no rear doors at all like the hatch?

No.

When we started, the idea was a three door concept (counting the split doors as one door, because they were always considered to be the solution for the rear).

Then we thought one of the disadvantages of the hatch is that it can be hard to get into the rear, and we thought with the longer wheelbase this may be more of an issue with the Clubman, so we tried to think what would be a MINI typical solution, and we thought a solution that would be very unique would be the Club Door. It was always intended to be on the right hand side. So very early on we confirmed this concept.

Very early on it was considered how to make this door as safe as possible, for example having to open the door in front before you can open the rear, so safety was a big factor.

What for you is the most special feature of the MINI Clubman, if you could single out a single aspect?

For me personally it is actually the split rear door, because we had to have a good link to the forefathers of the MINI Clubman, the Mini Countryman, Traveller and Clubman Estate and that was so hard to fight for. As I found out in the plant, it is very complicated to do that, it is almost hand made.. it is very complicated to build. Also for the strengthening it was very challenging, and again there is the strong link to MINI heritage.

So for me it is the split door.

What was your strongest selling point, when talking to members of the BMW board, to justify turning the Traveller Concept into reality?

From the concept itself there was no fight about it. It was very interesting to see, I cannot imagine another car project in the BMW group that was so smooth. When the idea was first shown to the board as scribbles that was it, it was the concept.

That is why when you see the design sketches there is only really one concept and then it was rolled out. Usually you begin with many design orientations and then you narrow it down, but really it was a decision based on that one concept.

Internally, this car has a lot of fans.

The first car I had for internal purposes was a Hot Chocolate Clubman, and I really struggled to meet the demand for people who wanted to test the car for themselves.

What has been your proudest moment during the development, up to the launch here at Frankfurt of the MINI Clubman?

Proudest moment is always when you have the design freeze, and you present the vehicle to the board. You look into their eyes for their reaction, do they like it, do they not like it?

And the second one is here (Frankfurt launch) actually, people see the car for the first time, and you look into their eyes and you see if they are smiling and you know if they really like it.

To you believe the Clubman will win more customers to MINI, or retain more current customers or may otherwise be looking at perhaps larger vehicles from other manufacturers?

Basically the Clubman was designed and planned to win new customers. But also there are of course MINI customers who have moved on a stage in their lives and maybe they would need a MINI with a little more added practicality, and then there are also those who will always want something new, the latest MINI. So to keep them with the brand is also very important.

So the main focus is always winning more customers to the brand, but I hope we have a good argument for more MINI owners staying.

Did you, during the development or planning process, have an idea of the ‘typical’ MINI Clubman customer?

With MINI overall that’s always extremely hard to do, because you have people from all walks of life. If you start to think about it in terms of socio-demographics, average ages or whatever, it’s very hard to come up with a typical MINI owner. I mean, if you could look into the people’s head and minds, you must find something that is common about them! But from outside, I could not really give you a picture and say that is a typical MINI fan, because it could be a 20 year old student, but we also have so many enthusiastic MINI owners who are over 60 or 70, with a totally different background.

And I think that is actually a strength of the MINI brand, so in relation with our customers we are not in a small niche.

I have a three year old Nephew, and whenever I go to see him he’s always asking me to bring a MINI in a different colour, he really loves it, and then I also have my aunt who is over 60, who is also always very interested in the MINI and its details, although she has no interest in cars whatsoever. And I think you always find you have people who are interested in MINI who have no interest in cars overall.

Do you drive a MINI Clubman? What specification do you have?

Of course.

I already ordered one, it will be a Clubman Cooper S, Hot Chocolate, with the Hot Chocolate interior. As I think that’s one more step further with being unique.

This colour has such an interesting development, because before we had the colour on a piece of metal everyone said “Brown?! You’re going to make a brown car?!”, they wanted us to consider another colour. And we thought “hmm, strange”, because this is the exclusive colour and nobody seems to like it! So we decided it would be a good idea to paint one car in Hot Chocolate, and we did, and we showed it at various conferences and meetings, and people liked it. For the first customer orders, Hot Chocolate makes up about 20% of the total volume. Which to me is tremendous.

Maybe it will develop the same as Pepper White, at the time when we did Pepper White everyone said “White?!” and now, last month, it was the third best selling colour across the MINI range.

Amusingly all three MINI product managers drive R56 MINIs in Pepper White, all ordered separately, and now we all have a Hot Chocolate Clubman on order, again all ordered separately.

Final question. What next, what for the future of the MINI Clubman?

I would like to see the MINI and the Clubman developing very gradually.

I think from the past there are a lot of opportunities for what you can do with MINI, in many markets basically people know the MINI as a hatch and for them the Clubman is a major step, as they maybe don’t know the history behind the MINI Clubman so they need time to embrace it.

I think MINI should always be a very exclusive brand in terms of product portfolio, it should not bring out various derivatives and concepts because I think that would not do the brand any good. I would like to see a very gradual and very cautious development of the MINI.

And in terms of what those concepts could be, up to now there are no 100% confirmed concepts yet.

But lots of ideas.

MINI2 will be reporting live, on and off, throughout the 11th September as we fly in and out of the International Motor Show in Frankfurt.

The MINI stand, featuring the public debut of the new MINI Clubman, will not surprisingly be our main focus, we have interviews lined up with Bernd Koeber, MINI Clubman Product Manager and Ulrich Kranz, who is Head of MINI Development.

As well as chatting with the men from MINI, technology permitting, we’ll be uploading photographs from the event and they will appear in the Flash slide show below.

NOT for those on a slow connection!

MINI have released nine new video presentations of the MINI Cooper S Clubman from Madrid, to coincide with the international media launch of the new model.   Rather than do this bit-by-bit we thought, as it’s Friday night here and nobody seems to use their home connections to browse the web if they can avoid it, we’d just put them all up in one big hit.

Enjoy!

Brief exterior tour, Club Door operation:

Rear barn doors in operation:

Design features, front of the MINI Clubman:

Interior, rear storage demonstration:

The engine bay:

Exterior, on a hill side location outside Madrid:

Driving some of the twisties to feature on the test route in Spain:

Driving off in the city:

Stop-Start in operation:

There you go!  Hope your modem didn’t explode and you’re still within your monthly bandwidth limits after our recent Clubman fest!

Remember, it continues next week with reports from the Frankfurt Motor Show, and then soon after from the UK media launch event.

Having driven the MINI for over six years, in all it’s derivatives, it was certainly a refreshing change to get behind the wheel of a MINI that is completely new, something very different. The MINI hatchback was and still is brilliant, considered by many a triumph of style, design and image backed by real substance. Once a car like the MINI is a hit, a Convertible surely has to follow, but where to go from there isn’t such an easy choice to make, especially when your name is MINI, when the car has to be small, and has a reputation for great handling and funky design to uphold.

As we all know, MINI went with the Clubman. Parent company BMW have always said that any and every new variant in the MINI range must serve a purpose, must fulfil a demand or niche that the current range doesn’t, must be something truly different, and whatever your views of the MINI Clubman and it’s rather unique configuration from the b-pillars back, it cannot be argued that it is not different. The questions then must be is this bigger ‘estate’, ’shooting brake’, call-it-what-you-will car still a MINI in spirit, and does it genuinely offer the MINI enthusiast something extra, something different to it’s smaller brother?

Our first impression, when greeted with a car park full of MINI Clubman waiting outside Madrid airport was that it certainly looks different. It looks big, yet is actually still remarkably compact, it looks almost like a child’s toy, it looks fun, and it definatley looks quirky. When you’re used to spending hours looking at ‘regular’ MINIs, it looks a little odd. As you walk around the vehicle it doesn’t get any more familiar, it’s asymmetric design and unusual black or silver ‘plastic wrap’ around the rear certainly dispel any feelings of monotony. Reaction at the launch event from the assembled British Media, and early question and answer sessions between MINIs development and management teams rather predictably focused around the ‘wrong sided’ and one sided Club Door. To their credit, the MINI team batted away these questions with great aptitude, the main arguments FOR the single Club Door were that it was something different, something extra. For right hand drive, it was argued, the driver is in complete control of access to the rear of the vehicle as he has to get out, open the front door, to let people out. Apparently some of the German media had complained it was on the wrong side, as drivers would have to walk around the vehicle to let their kids out. According to a MINI representative, two ’suicide doors’ was never really on the cards. They did experiment with and consider a more traditional four door MINI, but when that was ruled out for various reasons, the Club Door idea took to the fore.

Anyway, chances are you’re already well on your way to making your mind up on the appearance of the MINI Clubman, but do the Club Door, extended wheel base, larger boot and barn style rear doors really offer up much in the way of genuine practical uses for the MINI? Is it now a small family car? Could it be considered a compact load lugger? Is it all a terrible mess? We feel the answer to all of those is, in reality, ‘No’. Sure the Clubman offers more rear legroom, but not that much more, not enough that you get a good sense of it being any larger from the rear bench anyway. Rear access is improved by the Club Door, but the application is nowhere near as neat or slick as other ‘hidden hinged’ configurations seen on other cars. In fact, many aspect of the new Clubman felt a little ‘clunky’ in operation.

The boot also presented a bit of a mixed bag. While the Clubman clearly offers greatly improved storage, in practice the 100 litre improvement isn’t earth shattering. The balancing act of keeping the car small, but making the luggage room bigger was clearly a difficult one. The soft load cover is a bit of an oddity and felt flimsy in operation, perhaps a little over complicated, and, unusually you might say for a product from the BMW group, a slightly under engineered. Without a manual to hand, we couldn’t figure out the operation of the ‘false floor’ in the boot, which offers up a level load area when the seats are folded forward, as well as ‘hidden’ storage beneath. The rear barn doors though really are a clever and neat touch. Once you open the right handed door a little the pneumatics do the rest, and the left sided door opens all the way at the touch of a button, very slick, and very much more in keeping with MINI’s image and reputation for quirkiness with quality.

The more time we spent with the Clubman, the more we played with the new toys this MINI variant offers up the more we came to enjoy it. Sure it’s no MINI limo, but during our night drive through the crowded city streets of Madrid our carriage coped amiably with it’s three full sized occupants. It was also during this city escapade we really appreciated the simplistic joy of the stop-start system of our Cooper S Clubman. Many have expressed concerns about this system, how it could feel unpredictable and even possibly unsafe. But it isn’t either, it’s brilliant, slick and once you are used to the car cutting and starting its own engine you really don’t bat an eyelid as the smart electronics do their thing.
As much as the night driving was amusing (to a point, you can only bear to be be stuck in so much traffic, late at night on an empty stomach), for us the MINI Cooper S has always been about the joys of the open roads, and as every Clubman on offer was a Cooper S model, it was excellent of Spain to provide, and BMW to find such excellent roads for us to put the car through its paces on.

Our time was spent largely on twisting, undulating hillside. The views, if you could spare a second to take them in, were suitably sublime, but the best thing we discovered was that in terms of the driving experience, it was excellent. You can’t stick **kg extra weight on a car, put an extra door at the back and one side and not expect a change, but while the Clubman driving experience is different from a hatchback MINI, it’s still got the same feeling, the same sure footed assurance in it’s manners that the MINI has. Extra work and development of the body in white stages of MINI manufacturing (when the car is unpainted steel panels being welded together by clever robots) means that both sides of the Clubman have the same rigidity and torsional strength. When driving the car you’re looking for the difference, you almost expect it to feel a little uneven, maybe quirky driving characteristics to match the styling, but the Clubman is spot on.

For the duration of our drives we drove a MINI Cooper S Clubman, they did not feature the sport button, or Sports suspension, but did include DSC and the optional Limited Slip Differential. We threw the Clubman through many a tight twist and turn, incredibly fun roads, and taxing on any car, but the Clubman just ate it all up. There is understeer present at the limits, and it can feel a little squirmy when on the edge, but there’s nothing here you could pin on the car being too long or too rear heavy. The weight distribution seems to lend itself a little to a more balanced feel to the Clubman, the rear doesn’t feel heavy, nothing feels odd.

All is not rosy in the garden though. The rear ‘parcel shelf’ really is a bit of a cock up, and if you thought the rear view in the MINI Convertible could be bad, then the Clubman is little short of shocking. No point making any hand gestures at the car behind you, they ain’t gonna see it. That said, if they’re on a motorbike, or may not see them anyway. Our co-driver commented on finding himself trying to shake of a phantom biker, when actually it was just the join line at the back. But what can you do, if you have barn doors you have to have a join, and where there’s a join, there going to be a lack of glass. The operation of the rear doors, to us at least, justifies this inconvenience, but we didn’t really have to park the thing, if we did, our views may have changed.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Your view on the Clubman overall is probably going to be decided by your attitude. Is the glass half empty, or is it half full? If it’s half empty the Clubman could easily be dismissed as comedy of errors, a freak of a car, a half hearted half baked attempt at a bigger MINI that’s all style and very little real substance. Or, you could take the glass half full approach. The Clubman is still every bit a MINI, when you’re driving around most of the time, until you check the rear view MINI, you’re in a MINI, no different from any other. When you want some fun, you can throw it about and have a good time every bit as much as you can with the hatch, but if you want a little extra space in the rear, an extra door to help people get in and out, and almost double the boot space, then it’s all there for you, and for a relatively small price premium.

The MINI Clubman will, we’re sure, win people over. It will help those lusting after a MINI to justify the purchase to themselves (or their partners) that little bit more easily, it could also appeal to those who thought the 2nd generation was a little too ’same again’ and lacked originality. MINI aims to achieve a new customer rate of around 80% with the Clubman, we’re not sure how realistic that is, this car could be as much about retaining enthusiasts as it will be winning new people over. Clubman production is expected to account for 25% of all MINIs, and the Cooper is expected to lead the way in terms of sales volume. Time will tell if they have got their predictions right, but one thing seems certain, despite it’s detractors, the MINI Clubman will be a hit, and we thing deservedly so.

And what about the future? Nobody was saying very much, we did have a good conversation with Detler Welters, Head of Product Marketing over dinner about the future direction of MINI, and the Clubman in particular, but really very little was revealed. The Cooper Diesel is undergoing continual development, and will have improved sound deadening in the firewall and other areas as a response to feedback from customers complaining it was too noisy while for the Clubman we can expect “roof rails” as an option in 2008, and seeing a panel van concept at motor shows soon is also apparently on the cards. Although the panel van will “definitely not” be something brought into production!

Probing questions were being thrown about concerning the possibility of a 4×4, or “bigger MINI”, “MINI SUV”, but as you can expect at official events very little was given away, and most was dismissed out of hand as simply not happening. The strongest rebuttal came when the rumours of MINI teaming up with Mercedes for the next generation platform were mentioned. And if you’re considering holding out for a Clubman with a matching pair of rear doors, I wouldn’t hold your breath. The platform apparently just isn’t flexible enough to make the required production changes affordable. “Maybe in the next generation” this could be considered, when BMW will rebuild the MINI platform once again from the ground up.

We’ll be the first to admit we were highly sceptical about the MINI Clubman, especially some of the design decisions which MINI brand Vice President Dr Kay Segler describes as “extrovert”, and we have to disagree with Kay when he calls the additional rear leg room “sensational”. But with that all said, for a little extra money you get a little extra MINI, and that surely can only be a good thing. The Clubman has a unique character and style, and many quirks that will both enthuse and annoy people, but we’ve been sold, we think it’s a winner.