2014 Mini Superleggera



The Mini Superleggera Vision concept car caused a storm at the 2014 Villa d’Este concours d’elegance. Traditionalists complained it was a further assault on Alec Issigonis’s bijou beauty, the original Mini, while more progressive types raved about the fresh aesthetic on tap in this collaboration with the Italian design house Touring.

The Superleggera challenges what we think a Mini should be. And that’s quite deliberate. Mini wants to move into new space; just check out the new five-door Mini hatch which will out-sell the three-door once launched. The Superleggera is 4162 mm long, 1964 mm wide (1825 mm without mirrors) and 1209 mm low. Yep, it’s footprint dwarfs that of a Mazda MX-5.


The Mini Superleggera feels like a fully paid-up member of the Mini family: during Georg’s drive at Villa d’Este, he found the steering quick, the brakes a touch grabby, the ride firm. It’s like a Mini that’s been chopped and stretched and squeezed into an entirely new, Italian-tailored wardrobe. Mini has successfully spread its DNA from hatch to cabrio, through a six-door estate and into coupes. It seems that a fully fledged roadster could segue the brand’s famously responsive DNA further afield still.

Mini chief designer Anders Warming is a Chris Bangle scholar and a BMW veteran. Previous creations of the 42 year-old Belgian include the X-Coupé, Gina and Mille Miglia concepts, so he’s done some landmark BMWs. ‘We first started discussing the Superleggera almost six years ago,’ he tells CAR. ‘Immediately after the 2013 Concorso, [BMW design chief] Adrian van Hooydonk gave us the thumbs up. The idea was to conceive a modern Riva power boat for the road, a proper Italian barchetta with a British soul. While Minis typically have short stubby noses, the Superleggera musters a relaxed cab backward design with a self-conscious and relatively long front end. We did not want to end up with a retro-look car, but tapping the tradition of the great English roadster was perfectly okay - think MGA, Triumph TR2, Austin Healey.’


The new Mini roadster feels remarkably spacious, thanks to those engorged dimensions. When Georg slips behind the wheel he reports a spacious cabin, body-hugging seats and ergonomics that will scare precisely nobody. Note also how there are no conventional door handles; instead, pushing a flush-fitting button next to the waistline finisher makes the door pop open.

Will it go on sale?

Despite certain type approval-related modifications, the production version is said to retain the character and charisma of the 2014 concept car. Good news!


Although its makers are keen to adopt the complex one-off plug-in technology featured in the design exercise (e-motor up front, combustion engine driving the rear wheels), the two-seater soft-top must still be matched to the modular front- and all-wheel drive FAAR architecture which underpins the current Mini range.

This points to a range of three- and four-cylinder engines and the prospect of a Mini Superleggera Cooper S running a 189 bhp 2.0-litre turbo.