By Christopher A. Sawyer
The Virtual Driver

(June 2, 2014) As the former owner of a 2003 Mini Cooper, I am one of the first to say BMW has lost the purity and fun of that car in its rush to add models, and meet changing safety standards.

The clean cheekiness of BMW’s original Mini — penned by American Frank Stephenson, currently McLaren’s chief designer — has been replaced by a heavy-handed pastiche of Mini design cues ladled like cheese on potatoes over a larger platform. And while a fan of the idea, but not the execution, of both the Countryman and Paceman, I find each to be too large, too heavy and too far removed from what a Mini should be.



Now comes the Mini Superleggera Vision, a design concept created for the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2014. It is an Italianate minimalist roadster meant to be more emotional and expressive than anything Mini currently produces.

Remove all mention of the Mini name, and you find a smoothly pretty little two-seater that punches above its weight in terms of style and panache. It’s a beautiful design marred only by BMW’s insistence of peppering the design with British icon “Easter eggs”. The most noticeable of these are the Union Jack taillights. It’s as though the German automaker feels the need to underscore the British roots of the iconic brand at every turn; a move that suggests insecurity as well as a reduction in true British personality with each new model.

There is a positive side to this, and that is the fact that BMW recognizes the need to rethink the Mini design language. More of the same will not work. Something new must be tried while keeping the iconic Mini face and stance. The Superleggera Vision shows that it is possible to adapt these items to a shape that is not traditionally Mini. This is a good thing.

Some commentators, however, would have us believe that the Superleggera Vision is a bridge too far, and signals a continued prostitution of the Mini brand by a roving band of crazed Germans intent on finally winning the battle lost in 1945. This is nonsense.

If anything can damage the brand, it is the coming four-door Mini hatchback, which could be the car that stretches the Mini idea too far, both literally and figuratively. Though buyers may be looking for a car with more room and easier access to the rear seats, is that car necessarily a Mini? And can the brand’s mischievousness survive the attempt to build a more mainstream car? These are important questions that ultimately will determine whether or not Mini, or at least the Mini personality, survives. It’s not putting too fine a point on it to suggest that the car may be a sales success, but could ultimately kill the Mini brand.

As for the Superleggera Vision, I believe it points to the coming replacement for the Mini Coupe and Roadster. Like the new Mini hatchback, that car will share its underpinnings with BMW’s front-drive 2 Series, and redefines Mini’s position in the two-seat sports car class.

It is moving upmarket in look and feel to justify the price BMW charges. The bulldog-like two seater with its baseball cap on backwards is passé. A more refined shape will take its place. Further, it will be joined by a BMW Z2 as one needs the other to make the business case work.

However, it remains to be seen whether the needs of the BMW will overpower those of the Mini, and once again produce a car that owes more to the Bavarian Alps than to the White Cliffs of Dover.

The Virtual Driver