3 replies to this topic

[IronmanG]

This is a curiosity question for historical buffs
Spi engines then Mpi were designed to improve emissions due to increasingly tighter MOT tests? They also improved driveability. How much did that all cost to design and implement especially with the 5 port.
If they had changed the head to a 7 port the level of complexity may have been reduced with improvements in refinement across the board. The cost may have been higher but it's all a question of scale. A hundred thousand cylinder heads would bring a decent bulk discount!
Would it have further increased the life of the car or were there further safety features lacking?

[Aria Aradhea]

I forgot where I read it, but I've read that the SPi engine with the catalytic converter is enough to meet the demands of the emissions regulations. It's also perhaps a much cheaper way of modernizing the Mini -somewhat- rather than making new casting for a head and the sales of the Mini itself is not justifiable for such an endeavor. At this stage in the Mini life, they were only selling around or less than 20,000 cars per year and Rover is already in the process of retiring the A-series engine.

The MPi and its front mounted radiator design and 2.7:1 gearing is to reduce the pass-by noise level and mostly just act as a stopgap until the year 2000 when they launched the new MINI.

The classic Mini will have no chance of getting a satisfactory NCAP safety rating. Remember the Metro?


This is all just from memory. Please correct me if I got something wrong.

[dotmatrix]

I think the mpi was also made to keep the brand alive until the new mini came along.

[Curley]

^ This

 

Rover started work on the MPI in '94 under the 'Mini Continuation Project' after BMW purchased Rover from BAe. At the time this was framed as an EU emissions thing but I suspect BMW had a plan to strip the viable brands Land Rover and the Mini name from the group. It was Rover (not sure exactly when it started) that started the 'new' Mini project under the R50 project (The R stands for Rover). BMW decided that the cost of MPI development was less than the lose of brand value in the Mini name knowing full well a new Mini was coming. BMW split the group in 2000 keeping the Mini name for themselves and rebranded to MINI to differentiate between the 'classic' Mini and the 'new' MINI.

 

@mab01uk has posted some interesting articles from the time here