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Ah, the original Mini. We all know Alec Issigonis' landmark 1959 design – ADO 15 was the first car with a transversely-mounted engine (powering the front wheels), allowing as much as 60% of the car's length to be designated for passengers. The result was a car that barely crested the three-metre mark in length, at 3,054 mm, but could fit four fully-grown adults and their luggage.

Of course, since BMW restyled MINI as a marque, space efficiency has virtually fallen off the USP list. The first "new" MINI, launched in 2001, was infamous for having a cabin that was smaller than its predecessor's, despite being significantly larger. While subsequent models have addressed that issue somewhat by growing bigger and bigger, the words "excellent packaging" and "MINI" are still rarely seen together.

Which brings us to the new F55 MINI 5 door, the company's most determined stab yet at creating a more practical MINI through the addition of a pair of doors and copious amounts of metal, even though the current F56 hatch is the largest one yet. Of course, we've seen the Countryman before, but this is the first time that the regular hatch has ever spawned a more-door variant, classic or otherwise.

So, does this new model – which will arrive here before the end of the year – have enough substance to justify opening its new doors (literally and figuratively) to new customers, or is it just a MINI too far? We sample the Cooper S variant in the rolling hills of Oxfordshire in the UK to find out.

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