MINI Paceman: First production car photo leaks

With the production version of the MINI Paceman due to debut at Paris 2012 we have the first leaked photo of MINI’s Evoque challenger.

It could be argued that the Range Rover Evoque has created a new premium SUV niche all for itself, but that’s not going to stop MINI going after a piece of the action.

So the MINI Paceman Concept from the 2011 Detroit Motor Show is going in to production as the stylish coupe version of the MINI Countryman, and MINI has been busy teasing it ahead of the Paris reveal.

But now we have the first leaked photo of the production version of the Paceman thanks to Motoring File who grabbed the photo above – mistakenly posted on MINI’s Space – before MINI realised they were out in the wild.

What the photo shows is a real MINI Paceman in a real world setting and it looks..actually quite convincing.

The Paceman doesn’t have the elegance and appeal of the Evoque, but it looks more cohesive than the Countryman on which it’s based.

Perhaps making it a bit lower, giving it a more coupe roofline and dropping a couple of doors has been enough to make the Tonka-like Countryman more stylish.

With a leak on the Interwebs it’s highly likely MINI will bit the bullet and do things officially, sooner rather than later.