Mini's new Crossover model is expected to be delivered to Prodrive's Banbury workshops before the end of the year, a source revealed to Motorsport News.
It is understood that Prodrive will will take charge of Mini's return to rallying, with BMW expected to make a formal announcement in April about plans to contest the WRC from 2011 onwards. The source stated to MN that Prodrive had completed the preliminary design work on the car.
A spokesperson for Prodrive said: " We've made no secret of the fact we want to get back into the WRC. We are in discussions with manufacturers but confidentiality agreements mean we can't say who they are.
"We've got a team of engineers who haven't been sitting still and have been looking at the generic design concepts which can be applied to different manufacturers," added the spokesperson.
