Mini Coupe and Roadster Headed To Production

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's worked for a lot of cars in the past, hasn't it?  How about the Jeep Cherokee?  The Fox-platform Mustangs?  One could definetely say that Mini has a tried-and-true formula, and thus "ain't broke."  But apparently Mini's strategy of selling cute, sharp handling sports cars disguised as hatchbacks (to the rate of 30,000 units YTD in the US, which by the way is about 23,000 more than BMW's own attempt at small premium cars, the 1-series Coupe) isn't enough, and they're adding more models.

Now, I think this is ridiculous, but I suppose diversity isn't a bad thing.  We've already covered the interesting looking Mini Coupe here, but the interesting news is that it and a drop-top sibling are headed to series production.  Including the current Mini Cooper and Convertible, as well as the Clubman and the upcoming Crossman SUV-joke, that'll bring the total of Mini derivatives to...  way too many.

Regardless of doing the math on how many times you can divide a tiny niche up, the Mini Coupe and Roadster are pretty cool.  The Coupe leaked out a few weeks before Frankfurt, but the Roadster is pretty fresh - and I think it's the better looking of the two.  Roadster and Coupe below:

BMW Group chairman Norbert Riethofer recently confirmed that the Coupe and Roadster versions of the Mini would be going into production soon at the company's Oxford, UK plant.  So what's different about the Roadster versus the convertible Mini?

There's only two seats, the windshield is bespoke and raked at a greater angle, the trunk and top are unique, and the rear bumper is redesigned with big marker lights on the outside, and a neatly situated center-exit exhaust setup.  Personally, I think it's a lot more cohesive shape than the odd-looking Mini convertible, which for some reason retains the (useless) back seats.  From some angles, it's kind of aggressive, actually.  And it looks much better than the convertible Mini Cooper with the top up, as well:

The Mini Coupe is neat in it's own way, too.  Especially when they park it next to a huge pile of rocks. Mini marketing department is a strange one, eh?

With their reduced weight and lower centers of gravity, these two-seater Minis are sure to be a blast to drive.  And the rear seats were useless anyway; who's going to miss them?  The Coupe and Roadster should be heading into production some time next year, and will be dicing through traffic with a Mac sticker on the back real soon. So be ready.