The Nürburgring 24 hour race has quickly been cast aside and manufacturers have already returned to the Ring to thrash their latest test mules around the famous track. Here, Car magazine brings some great pics of the third-gen MINI Cooper S (F56).
They say the new Cooper S, and even the JCW model, will be powered by a hi-po three cylinder turbocharged engine. Apart from that the recipe probably won’t stray too far from what we’ve seen in the previous R53 and R56 models.
For the first time MINI will platform share with BMW, with the latter using the modular F-platform for its own front-wheel drive plans. Also for the first time we can expect to see a five-door variant of the regular MINI hardtop. That is, in addition to the upsized Countryman.
This is all well and good, but we reckon BMW is flogging its MINI horse a bit too much these days. What made the relaunch of the brand great a decade ago was that MINI offered something fun and unique. And it was a bloody good car. Now, with more models than you can poke a stick at, we fear they’re just diluting their own product.
[Source: Car]