Tag: F56

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MINI

2015 MINI JCW hatch – Australian pricing & specs

F56 MINI John Cooper Works

MINI Australia has released pricing and specification details for the new JCW hatch, which will go on sale locally later this month. And it is packed with standard kit!

MINI JCW standard equipment (Australian market)

  • 170kW/320Nm 2.0 litre four-cylinder TwinPower Turbo
  • 18-inch light alloy wheels
  • Dynamic Damper Control
  • John Cooper Works Sports Seats
  • LED headlights with LED daytime running lights
  • Head-Up Display with enhanced JCW specific content (gear indicator, rev display and shift lights)
  • Professional Navigation with 8.8-inch split screen monitor
  • DAB+ Digital Radio
  • Park Assist with front and rear Park Distance Control
  • Reversing camera
  • Extended Bluetooth with armrest and music streaming
  • MINI Visual Boost functionality
  • MINI Driving Modes
  • MINI Excitement package

List pricing starts at $47,400 for the standard 6-speed manual and from $49,950 for the 6-speed Steptronic auto.

In addition, MINI TLC service packs offering up to five years of coverage start at $980.

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MINI Video

VIDEO: F56 MINI JCW reviews

MINI JCW review

Filming and committing a car review to video for the world to see would be much harder than it looks. For one there’s critical people like me willing to cut you down while having no comparable experience.

And so, here’s two video reviews for the new 170kW/320Nm MINI JCW that we’re not too sure about.

The first one is from Xcar and aside from the presenter’s manner of adding, annoying and, unnecessary emphasis, every, two, or three words, is not too bad.

Recombu Cars is responsible for the second clip and if you come away from that feeling like you’ve been treated like an ignorant idiot you probably won’t be the first person to do so.

Actually, the first clip is a bit like that too. Aside from that there’s some good detail on the new JCW’s features.

But, a question for both presenters, is it really necessary to deal in so many clichés?

[Thanks to John for the tip]

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MINI MINI Challenge Video

VIDEO: 3rd-gen MINI Challenge car

MINI JCW Challenge car

MINI Challenge cars are very, very cool. Take one road-going JCW hardtop, rip its guts out and turn it into a bona fide racecar. Do that a few times over and put them all on a track and you have a recipe for fun and rubbing doors.

The 3rd-gen MINI Challenge car is ready to terrorise circuits around England. We trust you’ll enjoy this video brought to us by Xcar.

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MINI

2015 MINI JCW details announced (official)

F56 MINI John Cooper Works

MINI UK has quickly responded to the overnight leak of information for the new John Cooper Works hatch by publishing a short press release. You can see that after the break, along with more 2560px images.

In side profile the new JCW looks pretty good and dare we say it, we’re even starting to soften our views on that god awful front body kit. A 2.0 litre engine knocking out 170kW/320Nm is nothing to sneeze at, even if we suspect it’s marketing reasons only from preventing the hottest MINI hatch from having more power to play with. And four-pot Brembo brakes are a nice touch too.

There’ll be more info in a few weeks when Detroit lights up and we’ll bring you up to speed then as well.

UPDATE #1: 15 page press kit now available for download (165kb PDF).
UPDATE #2: 11 new pics added below.

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MINI

Sadly the MINI JCW bodykit has been spied

MINI Cooper S with JCW bodykit

We really want to like the new MINI. But we’re finding it pretty hard to do, visually anyway. Yes, it drives well, but its looks aren’t getting any better. In the past the John Cooper Works bodykit (aka JCW aero kit) has made a nice visual improvement over the regular Cooper S bodywork.

But not anymore.

That guppy mouth front-end is just so cumbersome and clunky that even the work experience kid would be ashamed. It had better have some pretty solid wind tunnel numbers behind it, otherwise we cannot see how on earth it ever got signed off. It is hideous!

We got a preview with the JCW concept late last year. Alas, it seems they were serious. Yes, it will look that bad.

In more positive news the MINI JCW should be online for us all to see sometime next month, before making a physical debut at Detroit in early January. That’s when we’ll learn how much power BMW will let MINI play with now that the Cooper S range employs 2.0 litre turbo engines.

The tip is around 170kW/345Nm. If nothing else it will be better to read about the next JCW than it will be to look at.

[Source: MotoringFile | Thanks to Andrew for the tip]

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MINI

Schadenfreude isn’t supposed to be ironic

MINI Cooper S (F56)

Here at AUSmotive, despite generally being big fans of all things MINI, we think the F56 is, well, a little bit ugly. Over time we expect our dissatisfaction with its design will fade, but right now, we think those lower air intakes at the front of the Cooper S are just ghastly.

Over in Germany, though, readers of Auto Motor und Sport have voted the MINI as the best looking car in its class. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. Even so, we’re amazed those crazy Germans could come up with such a result.

“We at MINI Design are particularly proud to have won this award. Positive feedback from customers and fans is very encouraging to us in our day-to-day design work for the MINI brand,” explains Anders Warming, Head of MINI Design. “We very much look forward to pursuing this work further.”

So just sign-off on the bloody Rocketman, then, Anders. Now, that is cool!

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MINI

MINI 5 door revealed

MINI 5 door

It’s got 72mm more interior length, 61mm more elbow and shoulder room, plus 15mm more headroom and an extra 67 litres of luggage space. Oh yeah, and five doors. It’s the first ever MINI 5 door.

The usual models have been announced for the launch, meaning the new MINI 5 door can be ordered in Cooper, Cooper D, Cooper S and Cooper SD trim.

As well as those interior dimensions listed above, the versatility of BMW’s UKL1 platform is further highlighted in the increase in length of the 5 door compared with the F56 3 door. At 3982mm, the Cooper models are 161mm longer than the 3 door, while the Cooper S models are 4005m in length.

A “MINI” that’s over four metres long, whatever will they think of next?

We expect the MINI 5 door will be on sale in Australia later this year, although there is a chance MINI Australia could hold off for an early 2015 sales launch.

There’s more pics and detail after the break, including a couple of PDF downloads.

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MINI

Here comes the new MINI JCW

F56 MINI JCW prototype

The F56 MINI John Cooper Works has just been photographed in testing at the Nürburgring. We already know the new Cooper S has a bit of spunk about it and while we’re not mad keen on the styling of the next JCW, we do think the 170kW+ offered by its 2.0 litre turbo four should be a bit of fun!

The all-new JCW will be revealed later this year and should be on sale in Australia in the early stages of 2015.

[Source: Autoblog | Pic: CarPix]

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Drive Thru MINI

Drive Thru: F56 MINI Cooper S

MINI Cooper S

We’re unashamed MINI fans here at AUSmotive, especially the warmer versions. However, during the development of the F56 we became concerned that BMW was beginning to strip too much of the character away from the brand which has captured the imagination of hot hatch fans around the world since its relaunch in 2001.

BMW’s first attempt at a Cooper S, the R53, was in some ways its best effort. Sure there were build quality issues and its unsophisticated engine wouldn’t have looked out of place in a piece of farm machinery, but such things were offset by the car’s unmistakable charisma. The R53’s best traits were its just right retro styling, pinpoint handling and razor sharp steering. That it was all capped off by an endearing chorus belted out by the supercharger was the icing on the cake.

The car which followed, the R56, was undoubtedly an improvement in virtually all aspects. Yet, while it still left you with a broad smile, some of the cheekiness from the R53 had been lost. So what of the third attempt, the F56? Has BMW been able to integrate MINI more closely with the BMW family and still keep its sense of fun and noted go kart feel?

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MINI

MINI slashes Australian pricing for F56 introduction

MINI Cooper (F56)

MINI Australia will be rolling out the new F56 range across the country this month and has announced it has slashed pricing compared with outgoing R56 models.

“The new MINI receives the latest technology and features for a much higher level of refinement,” said MINI Australia GM, Kai Bruesewitz. “At the same time, we’ve retained the engaging ‘go-kart’ driving style this iconic vehicle is known for.

“But the best news for Australian MINI fans is that we have been able to reduce the pricing of the all-new MINI, making it more accessible than ever before.”

At launch there will be three models on offer:

  • MINI Cooper – $26,650
    (1.5 litre 3-cyl petrol engine, 100kW/220Nm, 4.7l/100km, 0–100km 7.9s)
  • MINI Cooper D – $31,800
    (1.5 litre 3-cyl diesel engine, 85kW/270Nm, 3.7l/100km, 0–100km 9.2s)
  • MINI Cooper S – $36,950
    (2.0 litre 4-cyl petrol engine, 141kW/280Nm, 5.9l/100km, 0–1006.8s)

Lined up against old pricing, the Cooper D has dropped $3000, the Cooper S $3750 and the Cooper has had $5000 slashed from its list price.

Further details are available below, including a brief overview of included equipment. Full specs will be available closer to launch.

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MINI

MINI officially announces VDL Nedcar production

F56 MINI Cooper

MINI has announced it will be building the new F56 MINI hatch at the VDL Nedcar plant in Born, the Netherlands. Plant Oxford will remain as the focal point for MINI production, with VDL Nedcar brought on board to provide additional capacity.

“Contract production is a vital flexibility tool for us, and our experience gathered over the past ten years has been nothing but positive,” said Dr Klaus Draeger, BMW AG’s Board Member Purchasing and Supplier Network. “Splitting production of the new MINI Hatch between Oxford and Born will give our global production network additional leeway.

“The MINI brand is showing substantial growth. This is why we need additional, external production capacity on top of the capacity of the MINI plant in Oxford which stands at about 260,000 units per year in the medium term. VDL Nedcar has many years of experience in producing high quality vehicles, so the company is an ideal partner for us.”

MINIs will begin to roll off the VDL Nedcar production line in a few months. It will be the first time under BMW’s ownership the hatch has been built outside of Oxford.

VDL Nedcar joins MSF in Austria who have built over 125,000 Countryman and Paceman models for MINI. Almost 2.8 million MINI vehicles have been made since BMW relaunched the brand in 2001.

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MINI

The F56 MINI in detail

MINI Cooper S (F56)

The new MINI was revealed in November last year, but it’s just been give its full media launch. Which means you’ve got another chance to pore over details of the all-new F56 range.

As is the norm these days the new MINI has grown and it’s now a little bit longer (98mm), a little bit wider (44mm) and a little bit taller (7mm) than the model it replaces. MINI will be hoping it’s a little bit better as well.

It will be interesting to sample the lower-spec models which use 1.5 litre three cylinder engines. The Cooper S employs the biggest engine in a MINI yet, a 2.0 litre turbo four cylinder. Turbocharging features across the MINI range now in the chase for low down torque and fuel efficiency.

New pics and press material are all yours after the break.

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