The Gentleman Is Back

MINI Club Cooper

- Ashraaq Wahab

Fond memories may be invoked by many on hearing the Clubman name. The first Clubman was born out of the 1969 restyle of the original Mini by Roy Haynes, and resulted in the squarer front. The Clubman was intended as the replacement for the plush Riley and Wolseley variants. It is at the same time that the 1275GT was introduced as well alongside the Clubman although the difference between the two is clear side-by-side. The Clubman featured a more elongated nose and better crash safety as a result. In the Estate Wagon variant of the clubman, as in the standard Mini Estate, the rear had the famous "Barn Doors". Clubmans were quite popular in Sri Lanka. My mother's family had one as well (although it changed hands just prior to my birth!). Looking at the Mighty Mini Club's recent Festival of Minis' event, many classic Clubmans still survive and are being driven on a daily basis!

Under BMW's stewardship of the Mini brand, the Clubman made a re-appearance in 2007. It was identical to the 3 door estate right up to the B-pillar, from which a 240mm increase in length and the Barn Doors marked the difference. It also featured the "Clubdoor" - a small door behind the main front door and situated on the right hand side of the car regardless of market. This made entry and exit particularly interesting in right-hand-drive markets, where this door is on the road side of the car. A Clubman "Bond Street" special edition was also created in 2013, and this model bowed out in 2014, to be replaced shortly by the second generation F54, what we are looking at here. First introduced in 2015, it is the longest Mini at 426cm, even longer than the Countryman. It also is the first to feature Mini’s ALL4 all-wheel-drive system which uses an electrohydraulic system to power the rear wheels on demand. The Clubman comes in Cooper spec (1.5L) and Cooper S spec (2.0L). Our test car is a Cooper spec model.