Mini Cabrio Spied Again

Apart from a little duct tape surrounding the rear light clusters, this vehicle appears to be almost production ready. Manufacturer’s generally conduct a limited build run of a new model prior to full on production. These vehicles are usually built on the main production assembly line; this enables the manufacturing engineers to assess their build processes for the new model before committing to large scale volume – ironing out any teething problems. A number of these vehicles are then supplied to the development engineers for final sign off, and the vehicle you see before you in these pictures will be one of these limited run prototypes.

Since the powertrains will probably be carried over from the fixed lid Mini’s, there would be no requirement for extra cold development/sign off work on the oily bits. The development of the Mini Cabrio would have concentrated on the integration of the convertible top to the body design and maintaining structural ridgidity of the monoqoque. The structure would have been signed off quite early on in the program so expect this little vehicle to be conducting final hood testing just to make sure the mechanisms function correctly in sub zero temperatures.

BMW must be timing the launch of this vehicle for the northern hemisphere spring, so should we expect the new Mini Cabrio to show its face at the Geneva show?