The MINI SD - will debut at Geneva 2011
It now seems certain – more than a year after we first reported it – that the MINI Cooper SD will debut at the Geneva Motor Show.
With the Detroit Motor Show out of the way – well, the news bit – attention and the rumourmill now turn to the next big car show on the calendar – the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. And today’s rumour is the arrival of the MINI Cooper SD to provide an almost hot diesel MINI to compliment the slightly warm MINI Cooper D.
But the MINI Cooper SD isn’t a new rumour – far from it. We first asked if we were going to get a MINI Cooper S Diesel as far back as November 2009. We had spy shots of what seemed to be a hotter diesel MINI and we speculated on a Cooper S Diesel with about 40bhp more than the Cooper D.
A year on from that original spy shot of a Disel Cooper S we had more spy shots – this time of a MINI Countryman Cooper SD complete with the appropriate badging. So it seemed our story from a year before was on the money, and all that was left to be answered was when MINI would launch the Cooper SD. We reckoned Geneva in March.
MINI appear to be happy to say – unofficially for now – that they are taking the hot diesel to Geneva. It will sport a 2.0 litre BMW lump with around 140bhp, 225lb/ft of torque and have the capacity for 65mpg. And although we’d expected more like 150bhp when we first reported the story in 2009, that lump of torque should make the MINI Cooper SD pretty lively.
Of course, this new engine will alllow MINI to add another 297 variations to its range; MINI Coupe Cooper SD, MINI Countryman Cooper SD, MINI Clubman Cooper SD, MINI Paceman Cooper SD…
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