TAKING the lead in the fuel consumption race, Mini’s new Cooper D model races into Australia with a 1.6-litre turbo-diesel engine that might be of French origin, but benefits from a huge amount of German engineering brilliance. The result is a car that not only sets the pace for fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, but is simply even more fun to drive than the less-efficient petrol-engined version. The official test figures rate the new Mini Cooper D at just 3.9L/100km and it wasn’t much worse than that on our enthusiastic first drive that explored the sporty side of this eco warrior. If this is the future of green motoring, where do we sign up?