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The latest news is that BMW Mini has decided that is will stop development of the properly small Mini Rocketman. This car was previewed as a concept car at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show and I was genuinely excited that there was going to be a proper Mini instead of those ultra large Minis that we have right now. How unfortunate that this will now not be a reality. It seems that the Mini Rocketman concept will not be further developed as the car's really short wheelbase and overall length (304mm shorter than a regular BMW Mini) has created handling, stability and crash protection issues. If Mini were to modify the basic design it would have to spend more money. This isn't the case with BMW who are actually owned by spoilsports. The reason I say this is that this BMW who owns the Mini brand these days is a profit driven enterprise and the proof of this is the statement made by Albert Biermann, BMW M

John Cooper Works (JCW) has announced an upgraded tuning package for the 2011 MINI, which is available for all variants of the MINI Cooper and cabriolet variants. For the exterior, the stylistics touches include black border around the wheel arches, a honeycomb grille and side skirts that curve inwards that give the MINI models that distinct JCW look. The package also provide 17-inch light alloy wheels in a Cross-Spoke Challenge design. For the interior, the three-spoke steering wheel gets sporty red stitching on the black leather, JCW-badged door sills and a JCW adorned gear shift for manual gearboxes. The JCW tuning kit also provide power upgrades for the MINI Cooper S, MINI Cooper S Clubman and MINI Cooper S cabriolet. The twin-scroll turbocharged 1.6 liter 4-cylinder engine can be optimized to produced 200 bhp and 250 Nm of torque. To enhance the safety aspects, Dynamic Traction Control and Electronic Differential Lock functions are fitted to compliment the stability system.