Everything that’s old is new again. Forty-one years after its auspicious debut, the Mini has finally been updated, and new parent company BMW has big plans for the racy little econobox.

When it goes on sale in the U.S. in March 2002 as the Mini-Cooper, BMW will have gone through an arduous internal audit that will determine which seventy or so of its dealers will get to sell the 25,000 units that will be imported here. The car will not be marketed under the BMW label, so the dealers will be creating separate showrooms for the little bomber. Given the parent company’s strength in large urban markets on both coasts, points in between may not see the Mini for awhile.

The update of the original, produced from 1959 through last August, clearly evokes memories of its predecessor, particularly in the view of its friendly front grille, the positioning of the wheels at the corners, and the overall body proportions. Given that, many feeling nostalgia for the old car will be placing orders, which is going to skew BMW’s demographic dreams for the new car. Still, money is money.

Ideal customers “like standing out in a crowd and driving a car that people notice,” noted Helmut Panke, a member of BMW’s supervisory board. “They have a keen sense of style and believe a car says a lot about them. Mini fits their image and their attitude to life. They look for modernity, fun and excitement.”

Not much different from the original crowd. The original Mini was the very embodiment of the Swingin’ Sixties, particularly in its home market of England. Chaps such as Beatle Paul McCartney tooled around London in Minis. Marketed through both Austin and Morris, Sir Alec Issigonis’ design was scrawled around four adults sitting upright on bench seats.

This gave passengers 80 percent of the Mini’s interior volume in a car that was less than 11 feet long. The four-cylinder engine, originally only 850 ccs in displacement, was mounted transversely above the front suspension, with the engine and four-speed gearbox sharing a common oil sump, a basic economy car design that is still widely used to this day.

Weighing only 1,288 lbs., the Mini had an extremely low center of gravity thanks to its tiny, 10-inch wheels, and this feature, combined with the corner positioning of these wheels, gave the car unparalleled maneuverability. Enthusiasts quickly embraced the Mini, and after racer John Cooper started producing performance versions in 1961, the proletarian vision that Issigonis had for the car gave way to a grand racing history, which included three consecutive wins in the Monte Carlo Rallye between 1963 and 1965.

Importation to the U.S. stopped in 1968, thanks to so-called safety and environmental concerns, yet the original design has remained a mainstay in the European and Japanese markets to this day. Trademark rights to the Mini was all BMW chose to hold on to after this year’s Rover debacle, and after a close look at the new car, it’s easy to guess why: the new car will be a guaranteed hit, no matter what.

With “retro” becoming damaged goods as a derivative phrase, BMW prefers to refer to the new Mini as a “heritage” evolution of the original design. At the nose, the bonnet, lights and grille provide an updated rendition of the classic Mini face. The body is wide and steeply raked, with the flared wheel arches found in the original Mini-Coopers, combining in the quintessential little-toaster-glued-to-the-road appearance of the original. The lowness of the design is emphasized by wraparound glass that hides the A, B and C pillars; the greenhouse effect can be reinforced by an optional panoramic sunroof.

The simple, straightforward interior design of the original is retained, with the characteristic central speedometer. Switchwork has been designed to convey Mini memories.

Like the original, the doors open wide, although the hinges are modern, internally mounted units. Remote central locking is standard, along with an adjustable steering column. Modern touches include a remote-opening trunk and a 50/50 folding rear seat.

BMW is still feeling out performance goals for the car. The engine is a four-cam, 1.6-liter unit produced in South Africa, and company executives gave the impression at a recent New York press preview that they were soliciting input as to what horsepower output should be. The suspension will be typically BMW — multilink units at the cutting edge of technology — and body stiffness is promised to be “two to three times as stiff as any other modern car its size”. Agility, in other words, should knock your eyeballs out of their sockets, even with today’s 16-inch wheels as standard.

Even though the new Mini-Cooper is 18 inches longer than the original, this is still one tiny piece of transportation, and in a world dominated by SUVs, BMW is very self-conscious about projecting a safe image for the new car. “It will be the safest car of its size,” a company release says, “with an extremely strong passenger safety cell, advanced crumple zones, side impact protection, anti-lock brakes, a tire-pressure warning system [Are you paying attention, Ford?] and up to six airbags. Front and side airbags will be standard for both front occupants and head airbags will be an option.”