Spied: The F56 MINI Completely Without Camoflauge

BMW Marketing has a mole. Or at least it would appear that way as yet another marketing photo-shoot as been infiltrated by a spy photographer. This time it’s the F56′s turn to be (almost) completely exposed in a rather unflattering way. The shoot had three cars (two Cooper S’s and one Cooper) and is for initial marketing material to be launched this fall.
Autoblog is the first site to pony-up for the photos but look for them elsewhere on the web eventually. While we won’t take the photos and post them out of respect for the photographer and Autoblog we do ask that you come back here to join the MINI-centric discussion at MotoringFile. Check out all 27 photos in hi-res at Autoblog.
Before we dive into the photos, there’s one important thing to keep in mind here. These are taken using extremely long zoom lenses, so the views we’re seeing here are going to have a lot of telescopic compression, in addition to being from a strange, high angle. So don’t take the exact shape of anything too seriously.
A couple of key things worth pointing out straight away. We’re finally seeing the full extent of the Rocketman Concept’s influence on the F56. As previously reported here on MotoringFile, the LED “halo” headlight surrounds will serve as fulltime running lights on the F56. Also Rocketman bred, the front grille is finally exposed in all its open-mouthed glory. The rear end is finally coming into focus as well.
The tail lights have grown, as we’d seen in the previous spy shots, but now we’re seeing the full trim. Gone are the “island” tail lights seen on the previous two generations of MINIs. The side scuttles, on the other hand, appear to have returned to their R50/R53 island configuration. As with the R56, the headlights pass through the still clamshell bonnet.
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