New Mini R50, R52 and R53 (2001-2008)

The task of transferring the design of the 50s into the present was perfectly accomplished for this (originally) small car. The New Mini is a convincing heir to the Swinging Sixties.

When BMW took over Rover in 1994, the amalgamated drawing office, ADO for short, was already in the process of developing a new Mini. In 1997, the ACV 30 study showed the path that Rover and BMW had in mind. After the classic Mini was discontinued in 2000, the new Mini was built at the Cowley plant, Oxford, from 2001. It was built until 2008.

The Mini R50 was essentially developed by Rover. Originally, the Rover K-series engines were planned, but they were expensive to produce. On the other hand BMW did not want to be dependent on the Rover Group, which had just been sold and was in an economical decline, for engine equipment. So the petrol engines were from the Chrysler Neon, the diesel engines came from Toyota. The gearboxes were supplied by Peugeot until 2004, after which they were developed in-house and manufactured by Getrag, which solved the problems of the Peugeot gearbox.

The BMW Mini quotes many elements of the classic Mini, but is considerably larger. The opinion of the trade press at the time: Interior too small, price tag too big. The car also has the steeply raked windscreen of the original, the centre instrument on the dashboard and the wheels as far as possible to the corners of the body. The space utilisation of the new Mini cannot keep up with that of the original. But the driving behaviour is similar to that of the classic Mini. The New Mini is available in three variants, as the R50 Mini (Hatch) One, One D and Cooper, as the R52 Mini Convertible One, Cooper and Cooper S and as the R53 Mini (Hatch) Cooper S. The engine versions range from the basic diesel with 75 hp to the Cooper S JCW GP kit with 218 hp.