Automobile Magazine has a fascinating article about taking four Minis (one classic three new) through France and following some of the old Monte Carlo Rallye circuit from the 60's. Here are a couple excerpts:
“It's been forty-one years since a brigade of Private and Works Minis first charged through this part of the world, conquering the impossibly grueling Coupe des Alpes Rally and claiming a spot in the hearts of garages of automotive enthusiasts in England and beyond for generations to come. From where we sit, hustling cover one-and-a-half-lane country roads and puttering through centuries-old villages, it's hard to imagine anything's changed in those four decades…
…As good as the modern Mini is on it's own, you really appreciate the brilliance of it of it only when it steps out with the car that is its bug-eyed inspiration. The sight is a rare and indelible treat for an American – considering the scarcity of old Minis in the States–and one that fixes the brand's mystique in ways no amount of clever advertising can.
When you drive the original back-to-back with a 2004 model, you realize, first of all, just how far the craft of automaking has come in forty-five years, in terms of occupant protection, level of equipment, and suppression of noise, vibration, and harshness. But you realize something else, too, something more surprising. Heated seats and xenon headlamps are all well and good, but it's the things that make a car a car–how it goes, how it stops, and how it turns–that truly defines a vehicle. And by that standard, the BMW-engineered iteration holds remarkably true to the car engineered by Sir Alec Issigonis. In an age when retro too often suggests nothing more than fake scoops or ovoid headlamps, the modern MINI stands apart. it embraces not merely the delightful appearance of it's forebear but its soul as well.”
Go check out the whole article at the newsstands (it's not available online).
<p>I'll have to second that statement regarding the soul of the new MINI. I was initially intrigued the first time I saw pics on the Web – I thought, mistakenly, it was almost as small as the original, so the styling was right in line with the original parameters Issigonis laid down. When I found out it was a wee bit larger, it no longer mattered as much – it still looked like a Mini, modernized. </p>
<p>My real revelation was the test drive at Irvine Motors. I had no real intention of buying one for a few years – I had gone there in secret because my oldest son had decided that this was the car he was going to buy, and had started saving money for a down payment! I certainly wasn't going to let him buy a pig in poke, so somehow I found myself standing in the Irvine parking lot, grinning, just staring at the brand new MINIs there. As sure as little green apples give gripe, they looked like by-God Minis! None were even for sale just yet, but I wangled a test drive in one of the Coopers out on a run, and went inside to see one up close. </p>
<p>I have had a bunch of Minis over the years, and they have a certain “feel”, and the view out the windshield is like no other – cut off at the top. I opened the driver's door and sat down, and looked out the front – damn me, it was cut off! Whoah, already getting vibes. Not quite low enough seating to match the original, but better in a more comfortable way – and I know from comfort in Minis.</p>
<p>The real deja vu' was when I reached over and popped the shifter into neutral and flicked it back and forth to get a feel for the throw. I had left the door open while doing this, and the showroom floor was nice, shiny tiles. </p>
<p>Now in the real old Coopers and 'S's, the vertical shifting was transferred to the gearbox by a long horizontal steel rod linkage inside a hollow aluminum housing that was about 4 or 5 inches from the road, [or lower if you shaved the trumpets on the suspension ;-)], that went to a transfer shaft affair out in the open on the upper back of the big finned tranny housing. [Jeez, how many of those did I rebuild!?!] When you flicked the shift back and forth in neutral, there was a distinctive, loud, hard clicking noise that you could hear magnified in weird way by that housing.</p>
<p>As I sat there flicking the shift, I was absolutely astounded to hear that sound coming from the new MINI, reflecting off the tiles! Frissons went up the back of my neck – that was the sound from all those years ago as I sat in my first Cooper. I literally leaned over and out the door looking upside down under the car, half expecting that darn housing. It was REALLY a strange feeling. I bet people thought I was teched or something if they saw me. ;-)</p>
<p>Then came the test drive – it was like one long time warp, only it was faster, more comfortable, and stopped a helluva lot better. It really hit when I cornered – Twilight Zoned, man. To this day I can't quite explain that feeling – I was driving a Mini, only it was a MINI, but they were the the same. </p>
<p>Right then I KNEW I had to have one. Now. Only I was gonna have to wait! AAAHHH! Somehow, I was going to have to tell my son that I was gonna beat him to it, and I hoped he wasn't gonna be pi**ed off, but this was something I had in my soul – the Mini soul – that called me from deep inside. </p>
<p>Metaphysics aside, my son was OK with it – he held out for an 'S', and now he's got the MINI soul, too. </p>
<pre><code> BCNU,
Rob in Dago
</code></pre>
<p>Wonderful story Rob, I think thats the best sum up I've ever read.</p>
<p>Wow – well done Rob!</p>
<p>Great story!</p>
<p>Don't go sappy on me now, you guys! He He. Thanks, for the kudos, but it was too good a feeling not to pass on someday. This is the perfect forum for it! Enjoy!</p>
<pre><code> BCNU,
</code></pre>
<p>Rob, hearing things, in Dago</p>
<p>yes it was wonderful…however it was like a travel report.how about the cars? did any break down????</p>
<p>gearbox
clatch
automobile transmissiom system
and … about new transmissiom system</p>