MINIUSA… happy first birthday!

One year ago today my wife and headed up the Knauz MINI for some test drives. We both managed to have the day off so we had all the time I the world to devote to the drives. The following is my post on Roadfly one year ago today:

Unfortunately this will have to be brief as I'm leaving for the weekend soon.

Thoughts:

First off the Cooper is a fine car. Almost fine enough to forget about the S. Especially considering I could probably get one next week. However with the S I'll be waiting until June (as I found out today). The Cooper's main weakness in my mind is the 45-70 acceleration. You must be “involved” with the tranny to get to 70 quickly. But that's part of the fun as well. The Cooper I drove had the 16s and was definately more harsh that my 325ci with 17s. But keep in mind it wasn't rough. It also didn't have the sport seats. I had to hang onto the wheel while cornering! I thing everyone getting a Cooper should seriously considering getting the sports seats.

The S was very nice. However it didn't “feel” as quick as I had expected. Because of the smoothness of the power it felt a bit laid back where I would have expected otherwise. The steering in both cars put my 325ci to shame. When I got back into it after the drives for the first time the steering felt very isolated and numb. I was shocked as I didn't realize that much difference when I was driving the MC and the MCS.

The car is small but it's so good looking. It's such a strange thing for such a small car to have so much presence.

Again I have to stress there was a lot less difference between the Cooper and the S than I had imagined. I think many people will go for the Cooper after they drive it. My wife wants me too (she wants something asap!). Still not sure though as I've been wanting the MCS for awhile. We put money down and could have one by summer. That being said the difference between the two is a lot less than the 50hp would suggest and the Cooper is much more compelling after the test drives.

I know there are a lot of people out there who are wondering about the sound. My wife managed to capture some freeway onramp accretion on her Cannon Powershot. it's not great quality but i think it gives you an idea.

MCS test drive video

As some of you know we ended up getting a Cooper as opposed to an MCS. Actually that night on our way down to St. Louis to visit some friends we and our beloved Volvo 760 were involved in a pretty bad head-on collision. We were okay but the Volvo was not. Because of that we needed a car pretty quickly… thus the Cooper that is parked outside my window right now.