BMW wheels out Mini Clubman
Newswheel staff :: 31 July 2007 :: Filed under Estate/Wagon, Hatchback, Mini, Europe & UK
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Suicide door could have Brits dicing with death…
It may be a classic British icon. But the modern Mini is firmly in German hands. No use sulking, therefore, about the fact that BMW decided not to bother engineering the new Mini Clubman to suit our crazy right-hand drive needs. For the record, the Clubman is essentially a stretched Mini with increased luggage and passenger space. And it has a funky asymmetric suicide-door layout that ain’t exactly optimal for right-hand drive markets…
It’s been a relatively quick turn around for the Clubman, having first been shown in concept form back in 2005 at the Frankfurt show. The Clubman officially goes on sale this November. In production form, this elongated Mini grows by 80mm in wheelbase and 240mm overall compared with the standard car.
A pair of old school side-hinged doors provide access to the rear luggage compartment. Luggage capacity is up by 100 litres to 260 litres in normal configuration. Flatten out the rear split/folding seats and a mammoth 930 litres is on offer.
Stretched dimensions aside, the Clubman’s other key feature is its asymmetric suicide door. Designed to provide easier access to the rear passenger space, the “Clubman” door is only fitted on one side of the vehicle. And that side will be the right-hand side in all markets.
For right-hand drive territories like the UK, that means dicing with oncoming traffic. Slightly suboptimal, you say? Well, BMW claims it is simply too expensive to engineer that aspect of the car for both left and right-hand drive markets. Oh, and like many suicide door designs, it can only be opened when the front door is already ajar.
Chassis-wise, the Clubman sports the same front-strut and rear-multilink arrangement that does such sterling service in the boggo Mini. The familiar Valvetronic four-petrol engines will also make an appearance. The 1.6-litre 175bhp turbo lump will power the Clubman Cooper S, with the Cooper packing a 120bhp NA version of the same engine. Oil-burning aficionados can opt for the 110bhp Clubman D, which delivers a very handy 68.9mpg. However, the base 1.4-litre petrol engine from the Mini One will not be available in the Clubman.
All models will be offered with BMW’s fuel-saving brake energy regeneration and stop/start technologies. With a kerb weight of 1,250kg kerb weight (around 75kg more than the standard Mini), the Clubman shouldn’t be too far behind the exisiting car in terms of performance and handling.
But will it be as big a success as the current three-door car? With the side hinged rear doors and exaggerated - some would say clumsy - detailing, the Clubman is in danger of strolling past the cutsy retro vibe of the existing Mini and walking straight through the door marked “gimmicky”.
It’s also less overtly sporty than the standard Mini. And despite the increasingly popular view in the UK that enthusiastic driving is pathologically antisocial, sporty still sells.
The Clubman joins the existing three-door and cabrio models this November with prices kicking off at £14,235.
