Saturday, September 19, 2009

2009 MINI Roadster Concept at Frankfurt Auto Show

2009 MINI Roadster Concept and Coupe Concept, dubbed as the Oxford Twins, have been unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show. Looking at the elegant design and fascinating, sporting driving characteristics, we can’t help hoping that MINI brings these two cars to market.

Under the hood, the two-seater MINI Roadster gets the John Cooper Works edition 1.6-liter twin-scroll turbo engine that generates 211 horsepower and 260 Nm of torque. An extra torque comes from the "overboost" button, then the torque rating increases to 280 Nm. Thanks to the improved weight distribution, the slightly shorter layout and lower weight, the Roadster gets a better handling. Safety is taken in seriously consider. MINI has you covered with a pop-up rollbar that helps keep the car's passengers safe even if things go horribly wrong.

As a MINI being, it’s easy to recognize from the styling. Extensive use of family design cues makes that possible, including the round headlights, short hood and circular interior theme. The Roadster is identical to the standard Cooper from the windshield forward and the door panels. From the windshield back, there are numerous differences, including a more steeply raked windshield, a more rounded rear end, and a short decklid--not to mention the convertible top. Talking about the top, however, the Roadster's soft top won't drop on its own--it's manual-operation only.

The Roadster comes in at 3.71 meters long, 1.68 meters wide, and 1.36 meters high. Meanwhile, the roadster has a cargo capacity of 250 liters, much more than the 150 liters found on the Mazda MX-5 Miata, or the 142 liters in the Honda S2000, also beats out the 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster. The cargo space falls well short of the 283 liters available in the BMW Z4.

Some special MINI features include the "openairometer", which will warm the hearts of Convertible fans, plus the NatureGuard function which informs the driver of the environmental impact of their driving. Not that this green machine isn't concerned with speed either: a "Highspeed Shifter" swaps cogs with ease and the "Gravity" indicator gives a readout on lateral acceleration. The Roadster Concept can even measure the driver's heartbeat--perhaps the gold standard of how exciting a car is to drive.

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