(February 23, 2011) German luxury carmaker BMW will display a mini version of its Mini car March 1 at the Geneva Motor Show. Dubbed the Rocketman, the two-door hatch is likely to appeal to fans of the original 1950s runabout famous for its cornering.

The Rocketman is as wide and tall as the current Mini but, at 11 feet 3 inches long, it's a foot shorter.

While its stubby silhouette harkens back to the classic Mini, the Rocketman concept is packed with lightweight, high-strength materials. Cutting-edge tech features include a trackball on the steering wheel that allows the driver to scroll through lists of functions.

A 3+1-seater with 3 doors, the Mini Rocketman concept responds to the fundamental requirements of mobile lifestyles in the big cities of the future by pooling the brand’s core values in concentrated form. Ingenious functionality, smile-inducing agility, exceptional efficiency and irresistible design come together into an attractive and groundbreaking, yet typically Mini, subcompact car concept for the premium segment.

Displaying both an awareness of tradition and talent for innovation, the Mini design team developed the vision of a car that takes up impressively little space on the road but boasts an enviably spacious interior.

A carbon spaceframe construction, whose striking surface structure is visible at the front end of the car, around its doors and in the interior, forms the basis for a weight-minimizing construction. Indeed, the Mini Rocketman Concept offers the ideal platform for achieving outstanding efficiency. To this end, it is designed to allow the integration of a drive system which combines further enhanced sprinting ability with average fuel consumption of 94 mpg.