As expected, the next Clubman will be almost identical to the close-to-production Clubman Concept that made its debut at the 2014 edition of the Geneva Motor Show. Positioned as an alternative to the Volkswagen Golf, it will stretch roughly 166 inches long, 72 inches wide, and will be 57 inches tall, dimensions that will make it slightly bigger in all directions than the Countryman and, ironically, the biggest MINI-badged car ever built.
MINI’s teaser sketch reveals that the next Clubman will lose its predecessor’s suicide rear doors but it will retain the barn doors that have characterized the family-friendly MINI for decades. Pictures of the front end are not currently available, though earlier spy shots suggest the design will be all but carried over from the Hardtop.
Under the skin, the Clubman will share its front-wheel drive UKL platform with the third-gen MINI Hardtop, the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, and the all-new 2016 X1. Buyers will likely be asked to choose between the Clubman Cooper, which will pack a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine rated at 134 horsepower, and the Clubman Cooper S, which will benefit from a 189-horsepower 2.0-liter turbo four.
Front-wheel drive will come standard, and a weather-beating all-wheel drive system could be offered a little later in the production run. It is too early to tell whether or not a range-topping John Cooper Works-badged Clubman will round out the lineup.
Stay tuned, we’ll bring you live pictures of MINI’s second-gen Clubman straight from the show floor in Frankfurt as soon as the veil is lifted. After greeting the show-going public in Germany, the Clubman is scheduled to go on sale nationwide next spring as a 2017 model.
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