For many years the Mini brand has brought us a singular appearance that we’ve loved to admire and enjoy on the road. This brand shows up with a variety of ways you can have one of their cars and make use of what feels like a small SUV or a large hatchback that you choose to paint the way you want and equip in a manner that suits you. While the singularity you can have with the Mini lineup is admirable, there have been many owners and admirers that have wanted more from the Mini brand.
What would we love to see from this brand? We want a hot hatch that can provide us with more performance and compete with some of the other hot hatch models we see on the road today. Thankfully, Mini has given us what we’ve wanted in the past with some special models. Are they going to provide us with a new model and let us feel the performance and fun that can happen on the road while still giving us the individuality that’s been part of why we admire the Mini brand and the look that feels like a serious throwback to a time that’s passed?
The New Mini
As we clamor for the fun and the excitement we want to enjoy from the Mini brand a new model is set to debut at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. This new model will be the GP Concept which will toss us back to the time of the 2012 Mini John Cooper Works GP and the 2006 Mini Cooper S with a John Cooper Works GP Kit. This new concept could make its way to the production line and give us a Mini that’s made for the track or for the times when you see the open road in front of you.
This new model from Mini is expected to ride on 19-inch racetrack wheels and offer the air channeling needed to create the downforce required for the fun on the track in this car. There are carbon fiber air vents and other items made out of this lightweight material. On the inside, a roll cage is installed surrounding the low mounted bucket seats that give a five-point harness for safety. This interior is also set up to be lighter with the rear seat bench removed, no headliner and no door trim panels.
I would expect this car to have the powertrain upgrades you want to enjoy such as what we see under the hood of the John Cooper Works model. This new car will show up at the show sporting the 0059 number on the side of the car which refers to the first year the classic Mini was offered which was 1959. This new car should give us an interesting look, but you can expect when this car heads to production it may be limited to only 2,000 units, which is the same number the previous two models were offered in.
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