It almost looks like a slightly stretched version of an early Mini Cooper.

Morris and Mini did have a partnership for some time. This is probably one of those vehicles that came out of it.

Morris and Austin both built Minis. Morris as the Mini, Austin (at first) as the Se7en. Both Austin and Morris were simply brands owned by the same company: British Leyland.

There was no separate "Mini" brand till the 1980's, when the Mini's replacement came in under the "Mini Metro" branding. Then that was dropped and Mini became an Austin again, then a Rover. Then BMW bought them up off of British Aerospace and turned Mini into a brand on its own before dumping the rest of Rover.

And to make things confusing: The new long MINI is called a Clubman. But there already was a Mini called Clubman (they still look a bit strange to me).

The original Clubman was supposed to replace all of the original mini's over the course of the 1970's, but the general public seemed to prefer the original styling. So the Clubmans became the sporty versions for a while.

The new one... ..uhg.

hmmm is this historically a service vehicle or is it for Crescent Classic Rally (.com)? Just asking since Enzo used a cinquecento as his personal vehicle.

Naw I think it was a rally runner just dressed up as a delivery vehicle. But it would be pretty cool to see one of these hauling Ferrari replacement parts around.

true, but i still think something from Fiat would be more likely from a historical perspective

I love the classic minis.
nasty lil rides. u would not think that they are able to do wat are.
they handle fantastically at speed for their size. but thats cause their not American.
yes I am American so I can say it, our cars ain't shit...

I don't like it with the black flares, but otherwise this is really sweet. I get to see the Mini panel vans fairly frequently where I am. The Travellers too.