As a tribute to the genius who started an automotive design revolution back in 1959, the official reveal of the all-new 2014 Mini Cooper Hardtop will take place at the historic Mini Plant Oxford on November 18th — the birthday of Sir Alec Issigonis, who would have turned 107 on that date. The car will make its international debut two days later with a near-simultaneous unveiling at the Los Angeles and Tokyo Motor Shows. We’ll get our first taste of what’s to come next month when the Mini Vision Concept makes its first in-the-metal appearance at the Frankfurt Auto Show.
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While the new Mini Cooper Hardtop is light-years beyond the original Issigonis vision with respect to overall sophistication, it retains the fundamental core concepts found in its historic forebear: A diminutive yet super space-efficient package based around a unitized structure with a transversely mounted front-engine/front-wheel-drive powertrain.
Slightly larger than their current counterparts, the fully redesigned 2014 Mini Cooper and Cooper S Hardtops will go on sale in the U.S. during the first quarter of next year and feature new engines and transmissions, improved ride and handling, an enhanced cabin design with more user-friendly control layouts, and a host of new premium features including upgraded Mini Connected capabilities. Other models in the current Mini lineup are scheduled to transition onto this new platform during the course of the next 12-24 months in accordance with their specific product cycles.
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