by Gauk
Thu, Feb 6, 2020 2:45 AM

British mini-car brand, MINI, could build a small, driver focused, high-performance sports car to take on the Alpine A110.

MINI hasn't given up on a halo car to outdo their own fire-breathing 225kW MINI GP hot hatch. There’s rumours it could even be mid-engined.

Having just launched its first EV, the MINI Electric, and with plans to develop even smaller models still as moves newer and more scalable EV platforms take place, the British brand desires to unleash an 'Alpine A110-rivalling mid-engine vehicle'.

The current generation of MINI vehicles under BMW have been exclusively front-drive, front-engined vehicles with the option of all-wheel drive on some models.

“But if we give our engineers some more spare [time and resource], they’ll come up with a mid-engine car,” said Andreas Lampka, MINI’s head of communications during the MINI Electric launch in Miami..

When asked if this would be MINI’s idea of a compact supercar, Lampka hinted that future high-performance MINI's wouldn’t necessarily need to have a combustion engine.

The 2014 MINI Superleggera concept (pictured) was an EV

The 2014 MINI Superleggera concept was revealed at the Villa d’Este Concorso car show on the shores of Lake Como, Italy. It was mostly made from aluminium and aided in the design by Italian design house Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. But, unfortunately, it was always just a design experiment, though it's an idea of what a sports car made by MINI could look like.

Nevertheless, Lampka said there was definitely a possibility in the future for such a sports car from MINI.

“Let’s see how the brand develops. Because yes, it is exciting times for MINI. We are confident we are making the right decisions and the other side you don’t know what is going to be the next challenge for the brand,” he said.

published by Gauk