Gallery: ten years of Mini concept cars

500 years ago, Nostradamus wrote this on a napkin. "One day there will be a small car called a Mini. Then there will be another. But it one won't be small. Everyone will describe it as ‘funky'. Many will buy. The concepts will be odd. "

That was a lie.

But he may as well have done - since the launch of the One ten years ago, more than 300,000 have been bought in Britain. And its success probably has a lot to do with BMW slavishly bumping the Mini brand into so many niches - family estate, hoonigan's b-roader, SUV, diminutive luxo-thing, city coupe, trendy rag-top etc etc...

And lunging into new markets always starts with a concept car. So we thought we'd look back at the beginnings of Mini's ever expanding genome.

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This is how Mini presented us with the Traveller concept back in '06. Thank GOD the production version didn't end up looking this stupid...

The all-electric Mini E debuted at the LA Autoshow three years ago then got sent off for field trials - it was deployed in several countries for testing as part of BMW's Project I (a program aiming to develop small, light, urban econoboxes). Not strictly a concept, then, but an interesting statement of intent.

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Inspired by a teenage boy wearing his baseball cap backwards, the coupe concept didn't really change much from concept to production. Which is a shame.

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Built to drum up excitement for the Mini Countryman Crossover, it was loosely based on the 1964 Mini Moke, only it had four-wheel drive. And it was enormous. And very luxurious.

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This three-door Golf GTI-worrying Countryman thing has us a bit baffled. But BMW reckons it'll be in production come late 2013.

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Hey! A Mini that's actually mini! This thing's just 11ft 3in long (the normal One's 12ft 2in). Mini's marketing director, Ian Robertson, says: ‘We will assess reaction to the Rocketman before deciding on whether there is a case for it to be a production car."

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And like this on Facebook if you think Mini should build it.