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A brand new sports car from MINI will replace the slow selling Coupe and Roadster.
The company is set to axe it;s rather slow selling Coupe and Roadster models and replace them with a standalone more aggressive sports car that will rival the popular MX-5 model from Mazda.
Over the next six years, MINI has plans for an onslaught of new models, sources from the company say that the new sports car, which will have the next MINI's front wheel drive architecture, will be offered as a hard top and a soft top.
Unlike the current Coupe and Roadster models the new and sleeker MINi sports cars will share more or less no body panels with the remainder of the MINI line up. Though the MINI 2015, will have key styling cues from the rest of the new MINI range, including larger tail lamps, round headlights and curves along the sides of the car.
The newcoming models are believed to be codenamed the MINI F58, which is the hard top and the MINI F59 which is the soft top are due to be going on sale in late 2015 or early 2016.
As with the remainder of the MINI range, new three cylinder 1.5 litre petrol and diesel engines will be offered with entry level models. Though, it is the range topping JCW and Cooper S versions, powered by a new turbo 2.0 litre engine, that fans of performance will prefer.
The new modular engine family from BMW is said to be capable of producing between 40 brake horsepower and 74 brake horsepower per cylinder for petrol engines and between 26 brake horsepower and 60 brake horsepower for diesel engines. The sports car is expected to produce around 220 brake horsepower in JCW tune.
The 2015 MINI sports car mechanically will be very similar to the new hatch, running on the same platform, the new UKL1 front wheel drive platform, with similar steering and gearboxes and similar suspension, though all models will be tuned so that they deliver sharper reactions.