MINI Roadster at Detroit

The two-seater MINI Roadster has finally made its production debut at Detroit, ahead of going on sale in the spring starting from £18,015 for the entry-level Cooper. Based on the MINI Cabriolet, the Roadster is slightly lower, shorter and narrower. The rear seats have been removed to free up more luggage capacity, but most important of all it uses a lightweight fabric roof, that's is manually rather than electrically operated to help keep weight to a minimum. MINI claims this means the Roadster has the lowest centre of gravity of any model in the range. As with the Coupe, the Roadster also features extra bracing front and rear for improved handling over the MINI Hatch, while a forward biased weight distribution helps boost traction. This will be especially useful in the John Cooper Works model, which has a 1.6-litre turbo with 208hp. The Cooper S will use the same engine but it has been tuned to provide 181bhp, while the Cooper will use a naturally aspirated version with 121bhp. A 2.0-litre diesel with 141bhp that's capable of 62.8mpg will be offered in the MINI Cooper SD.