[GeoffP]

Checkout today's Auto Express. or website, www.autoexpress.co.uk. for news of the MINI OPEN. The first spyshots show the prototype in the best MINI colour!! To be launched at Geneva 2004 and will be available in all versions including the S. Get your name down TODAY.

( Enjoying my new S ( Primrose )and will order a glovebox this week to stop things getting under my feet!!)


Geoff Poad.

[Jazzy Jase]

I don't like it.

With the top up it looks crappy, with tiny side windows and too much black fabric and the rear-window is too big.

With the top down, it looks OK, but the roof should be completely hidden IMO.

I Like the colour-coded wing mirrors and seats, but whats with the fuel cap? Wheres the aerial for the radio?

Oh well. Better start saving for the Z4!

[funkcity]

Here's the article from the website

MINI Opens For Business
MINI's secret is out in the Open. At last we can bring you pictures of the official factory convertible version of Britain's most desirable small car after our sources managed to smuggle classified images out of a BMW internal presentation.

Stylists came up with a series of computer-aided design (CAD) images and it has been left to British engineers to try and get the finished car as close as possible to their ideal. The bright yellow Cooper you see on these pages is the first finished prototype.

So far, the car has had a busy life. The first task was to gain final approval of the styling from BMW top brass, so the tin-top was crudely removed and a dummy section added above the boot to show how the folded roof will look. As well as the chop, the Open has several other modifications which were being shown for the first time, including a wild new interior. The standard silver finish of the facia has been substituted with paint which matches the exterior's shade, while door and seat trims have also been colour co-ordinated.

With the project rubber-stamped by MINI's German masters, the car was then shipped to the UK, where it was stripped down to have the essential strengthening added to the bodyshell and the roof fitted. Extra metal has been included in the floorpan, door hinge panels and bulkhead to ensure the standard car's acclaimed handling is retained and safety is not compromised. All versions of the MINI, including the Cooper S shown in the CAD image in the magazine, will be available in Open form, and the picture reveals how the production car will have fixed roll hoops behind the rear seats rather than the prototype's central bar.

Another neat feature is the bootlid, which opens downwards as the classic Mini's did. Production versions will even have exaggerated dummy brackets to mimic the external hinges of the old model, and a third brake light will be incorporated over the rear number plate, as on BMW's drop-top 3-Series. Luggage space won't be too greatly affected by the loss of roof either, and the base of the fabric hood frame can be released and lifted up, allowing larger objects to be loaded easily.

Interior room has hardly been compromised by the conversion, as the hood stacks on to the rear shelf rather than folding underneath a flush cover.

Despite the finished appearance of the prototype, we will have to wait until March 2004 to see the car officially when it's set to be unveiled at that year's Geneva Motor Show. Tom Barnard

[funkcity]

And the other pic.

Looks fine to me

[Johnboy]

What a disaster! I thought the MINI was a City car, and we would be getting a tin-top folding roof for security....
Never mind, we'll have to stick with our 2 litre 206CC instead!

[Dom]

I'm not sure if those pictures are real... I tested the rear side windows in photoshop and they look like they'll foul the wheel arches and rear speakers when they are down

Dom

[MCS1]

Dom,

They might get away with it if they rotate the window around the red splodge instead of dropping it....



John

[bigbaddaboom]

Looks ok to me, the main parts are still MINI like, putting a tin top on might push the limits of the already non-existent boot.

[cooper4us]

Hmmmm, I think the "MINI Open" is nice but not exactly my cup of tea. I agree with others that the car looks sharp with the top down but once that ugly canvas is up the overall look and presentation of the car is ruined IMHO. It reminds me of the Geo Metro convertible of 10+ years ago.

I think much of the MINI's design beauty is lost between the translation for a hardtop 3 door hatchback to the convertible. The hardtop "Lid Effect" (And the contrasting color roof) and the seamless flush fitting glass of the current 3 door model, is what makes the car so good looking and appealling in the first place.

I for one are eagerly awaiting for MINI to make available in the US market within a year or two, either a 5 door Cooper or a MINI station wagon (Known in the classic Mini as the "Clubman Estate"). I even prefer the MINI pickup model over the convertible.

To me that roof canvas ruins the look of the car.

But I am glad to see that BMW is serious about exploring the full potential the MINI platform has to offer.

I want a MINI staion wagon now, please!

[eBrit]

Hmmmm....I'm not sure I'm really convinced by the styling. Even with the hood down the "non flush" folding canvas suggests a pram. And I agree entirely - the black hood "up" tends to destroy the stylish lines. I think a drophead hard top, even at the expense of the rear seats, could be much more appealing. I already have had my name on the list for a while for the cabriolet...but might prefer a second "straight" Cooper S instead. Let's see.

eBrit

[AidenL]

I know I'm in a minority, but I quite like it........ - on saying that, I agree a hardtop solution would be even better looking, and far more practical not to mention vandal resistant !

[Wynn]

While I don't think it looks BAD, I too would rather see a hard top, and no back seat. I think two-seaters are just terribly sexy.

Plus, I guess maybe this is just kind of a personally picky critique, but I don't want a convertible with plastic rear windshield. My Dad's 323 convertible is GREAT fun with the top down, but when it's up, I feel out of control because I cannot see clearly through the rear plastic. The current 3 series has glass now, as does this year's Boxster, the s2000, and even Toyota's otherwise sort of plasticy MR2 Spyder, but it looks to me as if the MINI Open would have to fold across that large back openning, and therefore require plastic. That's disappointing.

I can see how that would be necessary, to preserve the back seat, so I guess my real disappointment is that they made the rear seats a priority. Cover them up. That'd give us a much, much cooler convertible, with glass in the back and maybe even a folding hard top (COOL!), and probably more usable storage as well. Now, THAT would be the coolest car on the road.

As it is, the coolest car on the road is a Cooper or Cooper S. To heck with the Cooper Open.

Wheeee!
wynn

[Johnboy]

From memory, even the Miata Mk.2 has a glass rear-screen.
I too remember that it was easier in the Miata Mk.1 to freeze to death with the scratched plastic rear screen zipped out, than die under the wheels of the 100 ton juggernaut you couldn't quite make out through the haze

Arguably, a tin top with the back seats removed, or a 206CC style "2 crush 2" rear seat would look even more sporty - I know the girlfriend likes the "coupe" styling of the 206CC (the result of a longer trunk/boot to house the folded tin roof) vs. the standard 206.... Not sure if you get this car in the US - Check out the Peugeot UK website to see what they did.

WHY THE BACK SEATS?! Are they expecting family-man to need the 2 rear seats to take the children weekend shopping at the local supermarket?! It must be some WEIRD marketing manouvre to differentiate it from the Z3/Z4.
Back Seats?....Buy a 3 series ragtop!

Perhaps there's some BMW snobbery going on here, because Mercedes re-introduced the concept of a tin-top convertible

I suppose the one saving grace of the ragtop option is that it does preserve more of the orig. shape and I would guess componentry too, albeit with massive blind spot, plastic rear screen, no heated rear window, less security, less roof-up rigidity, more roof-up road rumble (shall I stop yet?!).

A rag top would pitch the car against the Ford Street-Ka due for launch soon too.

[Jazzy Jase]

I don't mind a fabric roof. Just as long as it looks good. But I am sorry to say, the MINI in the pictures doesn't look good.

A Glass rear-screen is a must though.

[Wynn]

Quote:

Originally posted by Johnboy
Back Seats?....Buy a 3 series ragtop!

Exactly! LOL!

And, it sounds like people are in agreement about wanting glass in the back as well. I could live with the soft top if they put glass in there and it looked good.

Though, nothing could be cooler than a two-seater with retracting hard top.

Well... maybe a 200hp 2-seater with red/black leather seats, a limited-slip differential, one big cup holder, a locking glove compartment, and a retractable hard top. I suppose.

[Johnboy]

Wynn.... Scary - we're on the same wavelength!

Didn't Saab recently introduce a folding glass rear screen for their convertible?...

Oh, and you missed out the executive sized electric auto-retracting arm-rest

[lightbody]

I drove many 1000s of miles in my MX-5 (miata), almost all of them with the top up.

It was a mk1 so had a plastic screen, and was entirely original, and was 5 years old.

The plastic screen was fine. Every now and then it needed cleaned/polished/protected with Meguiars products (Superb) and it became crystal clear again.

In fact, MX-5s with the plastic window have lighter roofs so they're easier to fold one handed.