New Mini Cooper Convertible spotted in Munich

The next-generation Mini convertible, hot on the heels of its hardtop sibling, was spotted on a flatbed truck in Munich by spy photographers.The Mini is testing the third-generation of its four-seater Cooper Convertible, by the looks of the images.

Codenamed the F57, the Convertible will ride on the same UKL frontwheel-drive architecture that will underpin the Mini hardtop F-56, also shared by its German cousins, the BMW 1 Series GT and X1.

The Mini will no longer be the ‘small’ car that you knew a few years ago. The design and proportions are well rounded and grown up supermini, something that might not go down well with the lovers of the old compact Mini. Despite the swirly camouflage on the bonnet, rear and sides it is not too difficult to make out that the black prototype we are looking at is the Cooper S, an image of which was teased by the makers ahead of its impending debut at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show this month. We can expect the Convertible to feature almost identical styling to the Hardtop.

The car shares its powertrains with the hardtop hatchback as well. As with the Mini hardtop, it will also be offering electrically adjustable dampers that can be used to optimise sportiness and driving comfort. The top spec will get a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine that develops 189bhp and 300Nm of torque. As a standard engine it will have a turbocharged, three-cylinder petrol unit which will churn out of 134bhp and 230Nm of top torque. The diesel version of the Convertible features a 1.5-litre three-cylinder powertrain that belts out 114bhp and 269Nm of torque.

The engines will be coupled to new manual and automatic transmissions. While the F-56 Mini will debut in a few weeks, the wait for the F-57 will be much longer, probably 2015.

The 2014 Mini Cooper is expected to be launched in India towards the middle of next year and the F-57 will be available here after its launch via the CBU route. 

Image source: WCF