Mini Clubman a cracking car and practical to boot

Among all the models in the increasingly diversified Mini range, the original Clubman was perhaps the weirdest of the lot. With its idiosyncratic door layout — two front, one rear, and two back — the Clubman was not your normal run-of-the-mill family car choice.

The single, rear-hinged, rear door was a mad design and particularly so for anyone who bought a right-hand drive version because that door only opened on the driver’s side and therefore if you were disgorging kids outside school, for example, you were letting them out into the ‘traffic’ side of the road and not the pavement side.

It was a controversial design touch and while wacky in its own right, it was also pretty dangerous.