The MINI Superleggera – or “Minarri” as it is sometimes called – is one of the most exciting concept cars the brand has ever been involved with. Thanks to its magnificent proportions and classic design, it is arguably one of the most exciting concept cars of all time. To make it even more fun, MINI even planned to build the Superleggera, but unfortunately this never came to fruition. More recently, a gold-painted hybrid prototype captured the imagination again – perhaps even more so once we noticed all the production-related changes to the entire car. The jury is still out on whether the car will ever show up in the dealer’s inventory. However, thanks to further discussions with the design team and engineer Jürgen Greil, we have new insights into the driving behavior of the cars.
MINI Superleggera: As fun as it looks
The MINI Superleggera was an idea nearly seven years in the making and was described as “a dream come true” by a member of the team who was deeply involved in the project. It’s good to know that the praise and work were not in vain: the MINI Superleggera was “fun to drive” because 58% of the vehicle’s weight rested on the rear axle. That’s somewhere in the range of the Porsche 993 Turbo’s weight distribution and flirts with a 40/60 front/rear distribution. So “fun” might be a bit of an understatement. Underneath the sheet metal was a BMW i8 battery with a two-cylinder engine, mounted on the rear axle. The inspiration also came from Ferrari, and that’s apparently one of the reasons why the BMW i3 has rear-wheel drive.
But the car’s balance wasn’t the only reason it was so fun to drive. The weight is said to be around 1,000 kg or 2,200 pounds. That’s just shy of the weight of the current Miata. This car also makes about 180 horsepower, which isn’t a ton, but even if the MINI Superleggera makes about the same power, its huge rear-end favorability would make it an enthusiast’s dream come true. Remember that the MINI Superleggera was originally planned as an “i4” and was intended to be positioned below the i8. We’ve also since learned that the idea was to introduce a whole range of cars below the i8. So it wouldn’t just have been the parallel between the 911 and Boxster, but a whole series from the i3 to the i8.
The MINI Superleggera: Forbidden fun?
As previously mentioned, MINI never got around to putting the MINI Superleggera into production. Sources claim that the brand had too many variants back then and needed to reduce complexity rather than introduce new variables. Rich when you consider the sometimes overlapping variety in BMW’s offering, but MINI is, after all, a brand in its own right. There was the possibility of “pairing” the Mini Ferrari with an equivalent BMW vehicle, but unfortunately nothing ever materialized. Although Herbert Diess, then BMW’s head of development, tried to get production going at KTM together with Stefan Pierer, that also failed. Ironically, the little fun car was supposedly “too big a step”.
