Mini Countryman exclusive - Autocar.co.uk











Autocar has had exclusive access to the upcoming Mini Countryman, which goes on sale from £16,000 in September.
More details of plans to promote the car and Mini in the World Rally Cham,pionship have also emerged, with reports in Autocar magazine suggesting a Prodrive-run team could be announced later this month.
Intercontinental Rally Champion Kris Meeke is being strongly linked to a drive with the team, alongside either former Subaru driver Chris Atkinson or double Junior World rally Champion Per-Gunnar Andersson.
Prodrive's sporting director Richard Taylor didn't comment on rumours the team was developing a Mini World Rally Car, and denied the team had signed any drivers.
"We don't have a car to put a driver in yet," he said. "We are always talking to drivers about what they might be doing and what we might be doing. Anyone who has won an international series has got to be worth looking at."
Meeke, who currently drives for the Peugeot UK team in the IRC, said: "I know of the Prodrive-mini rumours and my goal is to get to the WRC, but at the moment I have no other focus that with Peugeot UK and the IRC."
Prodrive ran Britain's only WRC champions, Colin McRae and Richard Burns, to their titles in Subaru Imprezas.
The Mini Countryman will go on sale with the choice of three petrol and two diesel engines, ranging in power from 89bhp in the One D Countryman to 181bhp in the Cooper S Countryman.