MINI Roadster: Official Pictures, Prices & Specs

MINI Roadster - official photos, specs and prices

With the MINI Coupe hitting the roads just about now, next in line for MINI is the MINI Roadster, with the soft-top, two-seat MINI due to hit UK showrooms in the Spring.

As a prelude to that, MINI got up early this Sunday morning to send us over 200 photos of the Roadster, together with specs of the Roadster models and the UK prices.

Just like its tin-top sibling – the MINI Coupe – the MINI Roadster is all about the drive, so in every way that counts – apart from its drop top – the Roadster is a fresh-air Coupe.

That means we’ll be getting only the more powerful MINI lumps under the bonnet.

Petrol engines for the Roadster are the ubiquitous 1.6 litre in three flavours – 208bhp, 181bhp and 121bhp- with a diesel MINI Cooper SD Roadster adding an oil-burner with 141bhp.

To save weight – and cost – the MINI Roadster eschews an electric soft top for a quick flip manual job which can be flipped back from the front seat and stows in space ahead of the boot lid.

Top of the heap Roadster is the MINI John Cooper Works Roadster at £24,850, which gets 208bhp, a 0-62mph of 6.5 seconds, 38.7mpg and emits 169g/km.

Behind the JCW is the MINI is the MINI Cooper S Roadster at a useful saving of £4k (£20,900) over the JCW yet which still manages to deliver 181bhp, a 0-62mph of 7.0 seconds, 47.1mpg and emissions of 139g/km.

Entry point for the MINI Roadster is the MINI Cooper Roadster at £18,015 with 121bhp, 0-62mph in 9.2 seconds, 49.6mpg and emissions of 133g/km.

If it’s an oil-burning MINI Roadster that floats your boat, the MINI Cooper SD Roadster is a convincing package, offering 141bhp, 0-62mph in 8.1 seconds, an impressive 62.8mpg and emissions of just 118g/km.

MINI say that the fabric roof gives the MINI Roadster the lowest centre of gravity of any MINI, which promises a lot of fun from this two-seater softop. The MINI Coupe already evokes the go-kart feel of the original Minis, and the MINI Roadster promises to ramp that up a notch.

(215 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

By Cars UK