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New Mini to bow on Nov. 18, on Alec Issigonis' birthday

Miniacs, note November 18 on your calendar. That's when the all-new Mini Hardtop will debut. Now, this might not be a great deal of news, after all, we already showed you the car, codenamed F56, a few weeks ago. But this full unveiling should bring with it even more detailed exterior images, a full look at the cabin and if we're lucky, performance numbers.
History buffs will also note that November 18 is the birthday of Sir Alec Issigonis. It was Issigonis that penned the original idea for the Mini on a cocktail napkin, envisioning a car with a transversely mounted engine, the wheels pushed out to all four corners and plenty of cabin space for occupants. That car had a remarkably small footprint and was quite efficient, perfect for tackling the fuel shortages brought on by the Suez Crisis in 1959's Great Britain. An unintended side-effect of its design was that it was also an absolute hoot to drive.
The November 18 debut will take place at Mini's home, Plant Oxford, in the UK. Following that, November 20 will see a near-simultaneous debut at both the Tokyo Motor Show and Los Angeles Auto Show. We'll be on hand to bring you all the details.

Mini's not-so-mini Urbanaut minivan concept comes to life

BMW-owned Mini showcased one way it could branch out into new segments when it unveiled the Vision Urbanaut concept in late 2020. At the time, the design study existed merely in a series of digital renderings. It hasn't been approved for production yet, but it was recently transformed into a real concept car that people can experience. Executives argued the idea of an electric Mini minivan isn't as far-fetched as it might sound. "We have developed an idea of how we can take the Mini attributes — as here, with the focus on the clever use of space — into the future of mobility and interpret them in a typically Mini way," said company boss Bernd Korber. Clever use of space was the original Mini's claim to fame thanks in part to an ingenious drivetrain layout, and the Urbanaut takes it to a new level. Longer than a Countryman and shaped like the box it came in, it offers a lounge-like cabin that can be configured in a variety of different ways depending on the number of passengers it's carrying, and whether someone is driving. Mini created three profiles called Chill, Wanderlust, and Vibe, respectively. Chill lets the passengers relax, work, or sleep with minimal distractions while the Urbanaut drives itself. In this mode, the instruments and switches on the dashboard are hidden out of sight to make users feel like they're in a living room, not in a car. Wanderlust allows passengers to choose whether they want to drive or be driven. Vibe may as well be called Party; it configures the Urbanaut's lights and screens to make users feel like they're in a club. Alternatively, users can configure their own driving profile thanks to a feature named My Moment. While the Urbanaut doesn't look like a traditional Mini, it will (hopefully) smell like one. For the first time, Mini is linking its brand identity to a fragrance. We can't convey a smell over the internet, there's not an app for that yet, but we're told it is refreshing and discreet. It's accompanied by a welcome sound that greets users as they enter the cabin. Mini will present the Urbanaut concept to the public for the first time at the Digital-Life-Design (DLD) Summer Conference opening July 1 in Munich, Germany. What happens next hasn't been revealed yet. While we'd be surprised to see it land in showrooms, something like it could zig-zag across major cities in the coming years. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Jamaican bobsled team pushes a Mini around town to keep Olympic dream alive

PETERBOROUGH, England — The Jamaican bobsleigh team is used to training without snow, but the coronavirus lockdown has seen its male athletes resort to pushing a car around the streets of an English city to stay in shape, with an eye on Olympic qualification. Some residents of Peterborough have offered their help to Shanwayne Stephens and Nimroy Turgott as they push a Mini down the road, before realizing it is part of a new training regime to work around the closure of gyms in England. "We had to come up with our own ways of replicating the sort of pushing we need to do. So that's why we thought: why not go out and push the car?" Stephens, 29, told Reuters. "We do get some funny looks. We've had people run over, thinking the car's broken down, trying to help us bump-start the car. When we tell them we're the Jamaica bobsleigh team, the direction is totally different, and they're very excited." The couple said they had been inspired by the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics men's bobsleigh team, immortalized in the 1993 film "Cool Runnings." But they said they aimed to qualify for the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 and then outperform the 1988 team, who did not officially finish the four-man bob competition after crashing. "Those guys set a legacy, and a movie came out of it. For me personally, I want to surpass that level, and even go beyond that," Turgott, 27, said. Turgott, who normally lives in Jamaica, has been staying with Stephens since January, and the pair had always planned to do summer training in Britain, albeit in gyms rather than on roads. "If you're able to do the same sort of training without the same equipment, then you should be able to achieve more with the right equipment," he said. The pair are focused on qualifying for Beijing 2022. While the woman's team competed for the first time in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the men's team failed to qualify. "The last Olympics, we missed it by one slot. And now we are using that experience as our motivation moving forward," Turgott said.   Weird Car News MINI