Mini Coupe revealed

Fans of helmet-roofed cars, rejoice! Mini has officially revealed the first shots of the production coupe, albeit with a camouflaged rump.

The first two-seat Mini in history will come with the company's full complement of engines, including the 2.0-litre 143bhp SD and the feisty 211bhp John Cooper Works and should emulate the joyously scrappy handling characteristics we have come to love. It gets DSC, DTC and an optional electronic differential lock control; Mini reckons this makes it like a 'go-kart'. Nice.

That three-box shape, with a 'helmet-roof' inspired by a backwards cap, sticks closely to the concept we saw a couple of years back. It's lower and fractionally longer than the hatch, there's more room at the back for transporting cheese or viscous fluids and 'model-specific' strengthening elements that shift weight further forward, which aids traction.

Top stats are thus: the JCW Coupe is powered by a 1.6-litre turbo'd four-pot that'll hit 62mph in 6.4 secs, run on to 149mph and return 39.8mpg, the Cooper S records 6.9secs/143mph/48.7mpg, the Cooper Coupe 9 secs/127mph/52.3mpg, while the SD does the benchmark sprint in 7.9 secs, tops 134mph and returns a claimed 65.7mpg.

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