Mini Clubman Through The Years

The Mini Clubman has been launched in India and, while a lot of people may confuse the Clubman to be something recent, the nameplate has a history behind it. The Mini was, in its early days, a two-door car that could seat four. Today, the Clubman nameplate represents a different kind of Mini – one in which you can still seat four, but do not have to ask the driver or the front seat passenger to get out of the car and pull their seat forward for you to get out. In other words, you can call it a four-door Mini. But how did the Clubman name get attached to Mini?

The Mini Clubman is not a 21st century nameplate given to an iconic car. In fact, it was not even conceived when Mini was bought by Germany's BMW. The Clubman nameplate dates back to 1969 when the car company was still owned by British Leyland. It was Roy Hanes (who, prior to working with Mini, was with Ford) who gave the Mini a facelift that year. As part of the facelift, the Mini's grille and headlamps no longer remained separate and looked more square-like up front. This restyled Mini was called the Mini Clubman. It did not have four doors back then, though. The facelifted Mini had not just the Clubman but also the 1275 GT model as part of its lineup. However, that is a topic for another day. The point here is that, at this point in time, Clubman did not signify a four-door model. Those were named Countryman and Traveller. However, Mini also brought out the Clubman Estate (worth noting) for those looking for a family car.

When BMW took control of the Mini brand, it did not have the rights to use the names Countryman and Traveller for some time since it had not purchased them along with the company. Fortunately, BMW had bought the name 'Clubman' and used it to refer to Mini's estate version. Under BMW's ownership, the first-generation Mini Clubman still did not get four doors. However, the car was bigger in size than the regular Mini. It also had features like bi-parting cargo area doors and a single backward-opening side door behind the right side door, called the 'Clubdoor'. The second-generation (current) Mini Clubman, based on BMW's UKL2 platform, has four doors. In the process, it has also got rid of the Clubdoor but retains the bi-parting cargo area doors.

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While the current Mini Clubman looks like a regular Mini till the B-pillar, the story changes as soon as you go past it. It is the largest Mini ever made by the brand. When it debuted internationally, it measured 4,270mm in length and 1,800mm in width, in contrast to its predecessor, which measured 3,960mm in length  and 1,684mm in width. Let us not even bring in the measurements of the 1969 Mini Clubman into this conversation.

This is the history of the Mini Clubman, a car that first became a family car with only two doors, then got two more doors, and is the largest Mini to be made today. Now, the Mini Clubman has been launched in India (Rs 37.90lakh ex-showroom Delhi) and you now know the history behind this iconic nameplate and on a unique car. As for how the new Mini Clubman has turned out to be, we will get to know once we get our hands on its keys.