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Originally Posted by Car Magazine
The car in our pictures is a chassis mule allowing BMW engineers to develop the SAV without the worry of disguising prototypes. Initial development work was carried out under Clubman bodies, but this mule means items like the lights can be placed in their final production position.
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OMG what a BS!
FABEAN prototypes (special vehicles for testing suspension loads) are used initially - before the chassis incl suspension is featured in a mule or a real original prototype. FABEAN checks the computer made load calculations in a real life ... the data collected during FABEAN testings are then uploaded into suspension load simulator where BMW are testing suspension work & reliability (eg. they can perform life-time suspension work in a week! Eg. simulating hard drive on The Ring ... 24 hours, 7 days. Non-stop.
After FABEAN tests are done, the chassis is mounted in a mule (eg. Mini Clubman in this case), or original prototype.
And of course: FABEAN vehicles have nothing to do with the designs of the upcoming new models. Abslutely nothing! Yet sometimes parts of an existing model are used (eg. headlights, rarlights, fascia etc) - remember the X5/X6 FABEAN with pre-FL E65 7er headlights ...
