FRANKFURT, Germany — BMW's "purist" Mini Roadster Concept will be unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show alongside a Mini Coupe Concept, as part of the brand's 50th-anniversary celebration.
The two-seater has a soft top and a family resemblance in front, with a distinctive notchback rear-end design to help distinguish it from the current Mini convertible. Its chrome grille is the same as the one on the Mini Cooper S, but includes body-color bars on the inner section.
The Mini Roadster Concept's fabric roof is "reduced in its dimensions to an absolute minimum" and opens and closes manually to add to the "puristic flair." BMW promises that the roof opening and closing process takes a matter of a few seconds. When open, the roof sits directly behind the seats and does not eat up any luggage capacity, which remains at 8.8 cubic feet whether the top is up or down. The bulkhead that separates passengers from the luggage compartment has a lockable opening to keep items "readily accessible at all times," BMW says.
The concept has a raked, low-slung windscreen, a high "waistline" and a low overall stance. The diminutive concept measures 146.2 inches long, 66.3 inches wide and 53.4 inches tall. The exterior gets a black stripe around the bottom of the body to create a "particularly compact" appearance, BMW says.
The Roadster Concept is likely to get the 1.6-liter turbocharged engine from the Mini Cooper S, which makes 175 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque.
On the safety front, a full-width aluminum roll bar can move up in 150 milliseconds when needed from its position behind the headrests, although it doesn't obstruct rear visibility, and the windscreen frame is reinforced for occupant safety.
The interior of the Roadster Concept gets a three-spoke leather sport steering wheel, wood trim and lounge leather padded seats with piping. Mini's center speedo is located, as its name suggests, in the upper part of the slim center console, and the rev counter is located directly behind the steering wheel next to a multifunction display that does several things, but is most interesting for telling the driver exactly how long he or she has been driving with the top down.
Other Mini quirks included in the Roadster Concept: Nature Guard, which measures the efficiency of driving, a high-speed shifter indicator telling the driver "when and how to use the maximum power of the engine," the Heart Beat that visualizes engine speed using the visual of a human heart, and a gravity indicator that measures lateral and G-forces. Plus Mini's Buddy Radar tells the driver where other Mini drivers in the neighborhood are currently located.
Inside Line says: More Minis to love for those who love them already. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
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