Some spy pictures of the new mini cabriolet.
Taken from www.autoexpress.co.uk under news.

 

They are actually 09's. The 08 will still be the R52

 

The new Mini Clubman is an interesting concept.

 

Hi, Chris! Welcome to NAM! Be sure to check out the Clubman Talk Forum!

 

 

It is a beautiful color, but I would order pepper white and spend the money saved on LSD.
My 03 MCS was $22,564. I balk at paying $10k more for a MCSc sidewalk.
The configurator shows it to be $30k+ with just Sidewalk and LSD

Ann

 

All it is, is Sparkiling Silver. In all press releases it is now mentioned as SS. The Silver White was a mistake, and has since been taken back by MINI.

 

There is a new color for the 2008 Convertible with Sidewalk... White Silver. It is a metallic pearl color, very nice from the color sample I have seen.

 

I'm very excited about this car... I think an S Conv will make an excellent replacement for my current droptop when the lease ends in early 2009!

 

In the MotoringFile interview, Gert Hildebrand (MINI chief designer) mentioned a "bright white" coming this fall for the Sidewalk. These photos look dissappointingly more silver than white. Actually they look just like Pure Silver to me. What was the source of the photos?

 

Yep is called White Silver...my bad, but its a nice color IMO.

The source for the picture was www.mini.de uh huh.

enjoy it...nice page.

 

That page does say (in translation) that the color shown will be available in 4th quarter 2007 and only for the Sidewalk cabrio.

Those pictures are also on the MINI International site and here are some more views of the color:

 

Saw pics of the '09 in Car and Driver. Top was down,looks like the top sits lower than before but at the expense of even less back seat room. The bad, the stupid roll bars in the back look even higher than they were. Europe regulations striking again?

 

Ah- Silver and White.

 

I bet those rollbar covers are fake to keep us off track



Look at the back window in the picture... notice head rests and no roll bars

 

I've been a proponent of the "no/low roll bar" theory based on this and other photos - though now when I look at this pic, if you look along the middle top of the rear window, there appears to be SOMETHING across there... another possibility is that they actually RAISED the rollbar structure UP, independent of the headrests, so it clears the rear window and provides more of an open view through the rearview with the topdown... if so, that would put the bar about the height of the shroud in the other top-down pics of the mules. I hope this isn't what they did... because it's gonna be even uglier IMHO... but from the top-up photos, that looks like a possibility...

 

That's the point I was trying to make in the other thread. There are rumors about MINI developing a pop-up rollbar, but I think this rollbar design opens enough of the rear view that they won't take it to the next level.

 

I was waiting for you to chime in...

Yeah - I wasn't seeing the part of what could be the higher roll bar in the top-up photos before... still not sure that's what I'm seeing there... but possible... So I think you're less crazy now.

 

I hope they dont use a stupid roll bar..I hate those...it will look tacky and reminiscent of the old VW Cabrio or a PT Cruiser Convertible.

The current MINI Cabrio's roll bars are at least somewhat sporty looking..

I'm hoping they have a pop up mechanism..they really should. Less expensive convertibles do..

 

I agree 100% with you - if that is a raised rollbar than it will be very ugly It could also be that it's easy to fit a tubular rollbar during testing like rkw is suggesting, but I don't know what design and testing timelines are and it feels like we're pretty late in the game not to have an integral piece of the safety system in place.

 

It just occurred to me that if they do plan a popup rollbar for '09, they WILL run a decoy bar when the top is down, to avoid hurting sales of the 2008 model. There's some hope...

 

I hope so... I really want an 09 JCW cabrio

 

That was my point originally - the "sham" is a sham. And that's the word from the "reliable source" at Motoringfile...

 

What's with the machine guns sticking out of the rear bumper corners? Is this car going to be in the next 007 movie?

 

they're there to keep the photographers away