Mini’s intent to launch an SUV has been an open secret since the Crossover concept debuted at the 2008 Paris auto show. Typically, as concepts near the production stage, those displayed to the public get less weird. Not so much with the Beachcomber concept.
The Crossover concept featured one of the weirdest collections of doors since Escher stopped sketching: two regular doors on the passenger side, a sliding rear driver-side door, a side-hinged rear hatch, and a sliding roof. Rather than fix that and present a more production-ready solution, Mini just lopped them all off this time around Jeep Wrangler–style, while the sliding roof stays. Half of a tailgate remains, holding a faux external-spare cover that the company recommends packing with the periphery of your active lifestyle. We think a bunch of MaMa Rosa’s frozen pizzas would fit—and probably thaw nicely over a campfire.
The purpose of this paucity of body work is supposedly to remove anything that would “limit the intensity of the occupants’ encounter with their surrounding world,” but that statement just seems insincere to us. An oak tree caving in your face is pretty frickin’ intense, after all; but for some reason the Beachcomber has seatbelts.
Thanks to: Car and Driver