MINI Cooper S vs Porsche 911

Sections: Best of the Web | Motorsports Sep 23rd, 2005 37 Comments

In keeping with the recent MotoringFIle motorsports kick, I thought I’d pass this little tidbit on.

This week, I received the September newsletter from MINI-Madness. Within the email was a bit about a race-prepped S going toe-to-toe with some serious machinery… and most notably a Porsche 993 C2!

Steve Diniz and Jason Aranha of Spider Racing were out racing at Texas Motorsport Ranch recently. After a solid performance by the team, the weekend was wrapping up, and the final event was a fun race comprised of the remaining cars. But as it turned out, the fun race turned out to be the most exciting race to watch:

The field was comprised of a PTG replica E-46 M3, Porsche 993 C2, the Mini, 2 E-30 M3′s and a 2002 BMW. Jason really wanted an overall win and went for it, the M3 pulled away with the 993 following and Jason hot on his tail. By the second lap Jason tried a pass and got everyone’s attention, from then on it was the best show of the weekend especially when Jason passed the 993 and held him off till the finish. The bmw crowd was cheering like crazy seeing the Mini beat a fairly new 911.

But it gets better. MINI-Madness is hosting the in-car footage from the race – from BOTH the MINI and the 993 – so you can really get the driver’s perspectives of the action as it unfolded!

Video from the MINI in-car camera (Thanks to Jason and Steve)
Video from the Porsche in-car camera (Thanks to George Abdalla)

The videos are pretty large Windows Media Player files. You may need to download the free player (Mac or Windows).

Update: Apparently due to bandwidth issues the videos have been removed from the above links. You can still see a full video (and I mean full) at Spiderspeed.com/media. However be warned, it’s encoded using Divx and is still 123Mb.

To play Divx files you may need a player like VLC.

Written By: Lawrence

Frank

Link to videos not found.
Z4MINI

Why is this suprising? We always knew a MINI could do it…especially if the track is tight. I suspect that driver skill is also a HUGE factor here.
Avitor

Could someone who downloaded those onboard cam WMVs maybe put them up on Bittorrent?
John

Gabe, regarding the first link in this article, it lead to some car show site with no connection to MINI. Instead, it should link to http://www.mini-madness.com (the hyphen was missing).
Bob

I’d be up for a torrent of those vids too.
Wraith

wow, that in-car video is awesome! he was all over that Porsche
Z4MINI
Some more observations:
1. The track was very tight with only a couple of straights. This is ideal for the MINI.
2. I suspect the Porsche driver was not very good. He was unable to widen the gap on the straights like the white car (M3?) did.
Just the same….good job on the part of the MINI driver.
Bob

The Mini takes the Porshe at around the 9:15 mark of that big video. Then you can see it in his rear view mirror!
Nathaniel Salzman

The MINI is of course a little cornering demon when properly handled, but I was impressed with how well it held its own in the straights. Given a few more laps, I think it could have caught the white BMW ahead of it. The 992 didn’t fall behind, but it wasn’t really catching the MINI either in the straights. Which makes sense no more than the car weighs.

Regardless, for those of you who haven’t seen the video yet, it’s great fun to see someone drive the tires off a MINI. My favorite part was watching from the 992′s perspective and seeing the MINI actually drift the rear a little bit. Very cool.
danielg

I took the liberty to download, cut, and convert the file. I’ve shortened the file to 2 minutes, starting at 8m 30s.

PLEASE SAVE TO YOUR COMPUTER Same file, two formats (if unsure, choose the first file): WMV (5.4 MB) MPG (20.1 MB)
http://motoringfile.com Gabe

I took the liberty to download, cut, and convert the file. I’ve shortened the file to 2 minutes, starting at 8m 30s.

You my friend are a gentlman and a scholar. Well done!
danielg

You my friend are a gentlman and a scholar. Well done!

You are welcome to use them in your top post, too.
Yegor

I just watched it on my 30″ Apple in full screen. It gets too pixelated of-course, but I felt like in driver’s seat. My heart started beating faster. This is awesome. It’s about 20 minutes long and MINI passes the Porsche on around 11th. I think Porsche was slowing MINI down. I couldn’t see the M3 while MINI was behind the Porsche, but as soon as it passes, M3 appears.
Steve

It would have been more impressive had it been smoother, both drivers were all over the place. Both drivers got lucky on numerous occaisions.
O(=^=)O Capn

Dang, I’ve downloaded all this stuff and nothing works. What gives? Email Yes, I downloaded all the players and videos.

(except that short 2 min video, awesome!)
O(=^=)O Capn

Figured it out. Yeah baby!
JL

They both could drive better. The MINI is not slowing enough before corners and is waiting way too long IMHO to get back on full throttle. Still entertaining.
fdavid

I have never done Autocross and I have to say it looks AWSOME! Seriously got goose bumps watching this. Lot’s of fun.
http://bravo5.org/blog blalor

That ain’t autocross, fdavid; that there’s a track! There’s a difference! :-) If you want this flavor of fun, go find yourself a Phil Wicks Driving Academy course near you. You won’t regret it!
http://motoringfile.com Gabe

If you want this flavor of fun, go find yourself a Phil Wicks Driving Academy course near you. You won’t regret it!

Amen to that.
Jon

In Autocross, you’re driving on a very short course set up on a large parking lot. The course is laid out with orange cones. You race against the stop watch, and your previous times through the cones.

Here, it’s on the track against other cars, at much higher speeds. Much riskier, but also, that much more exciting!
fdavid

Thanks for the info guys! I am new to this type of scene. Back in 1990 I had one of the first CRX Turbos complete with Haltech Fuel Management System (and a 486 PC LAptop!!) pretty fun in the 1/4 mile…12.9 my best time. Anyways, this looks like a lot of fun and the drag days are long gone for me. Do you guys know if I could attend such a Driving school around NYC?? Might consider getting a used mini just for this type of entertainment. Thanks!
petsounds

danielg, thanks for the download, that was sweet.

gabe – your article text says 993 C2, but the article title says mini vs. 911..

btw, what is entailed in a race-prepped mini? i assume all JCW upgrades available? or further engine work past that?
http://motoringfile.com Gabe

gabe – your article text says 993 C2, but the article title says mini vs. 911..

Well actually it’s not my article (the authors name is in the top left). But more to the point the 993 is an iteration of the 911.
Alan

993 is the factory designation for the 911 that was produced from 1995-1998.
http://bravo5.org/blog blalor

Do you guys know if I could attend such a Driving school around NYC?? Might consider getting a used mini just for this type of entertainment. Thanks!

You mean you don’t already have one?! Blasphemy! ;-)

I’m not familiar with other driving schools, a la PWDA; I just kind of stumbled on that one (but I sure am happy I did!). I am aware that some of the more serious single-marque clubs (Audi, BMW, Porsche) do track days that approach driving schools. I intend to look more into this after I’ve done a couple more of the more structured schools. I would start by examining the event schedules of nearby road courses and see what pops up. That’s how I found PWDA.

It’s highly addictive, and I’m quite frankly happy that Phil Wicks isn’t coming back to Indy this year; I just can’t afford it (and the associated “upgrades” that I’ve gotta get before doing another one: sticky tires and a Schroth harness to name two). I hope next year will be a different story!
petsounds

gabe – i figured that, but thanks for the clarification. ;) i don’t keep up much with those overpriced, overweight Bavarian autos..
tanya

Fun stuff. I love how he repeatedly throws the Mini into a slide before the left hander at the end of one of the straights. Sweetness.

Would really like to see the vid from the (lame) P-car’s pov. Did anyone nab that one before it was brought down?
fdavid

blalor: Oh yes I do own a Mini! Really nice indeed. MCS 05 Jet Black, 17″ BBS anthracite RGR’s, milltek exhaust, suspension, ect… But would consider getting another one just to gut it out and use it for racing purposes only! Thanks for the info.
Derek

The vid from the P-car was on NAM in late August IIRC, and I just can’t seem to find it now…. The link on that thread may still work. The Porsche driver is a great guy, an excellent driver and wasn’t “easing it” for the sake of the MCS. It was a real challenge for both.

Several of the local instructors from these parts (TX) were there and had some comments/follow-up on the NAM thread…

HTH

Derek
mike bowman

here it is along with the real story. http://members.tripod.com/ghmyc1m/NHIS000222_0001.wmv
mike bowman

Try this, go to north american motoring find a post by onasled & click on his sig. All the speculation & the real story from the source.
meanboy

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48650&page=1&pp=25
meanboy

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48650&page=1&pp=25
Derek

Mike – good suggestion: onasled is definitely a great driver in a well-prepared car, but it wasn’t him.

meanboy you found it.

more adds – MINID1 and TXMINI are both “local” enthusiasts / instructors with experience who can really belt it around the track. Great guys also.

Derek
http://www.spiderspeed.com Jason Aranha MINI Driver

Hello everyone, this is Jason The MINI driver. I appreciate the coments, the Mini was fun to drive, and I was glad we finished ahead of the 993 in the end, despite some understeering problems we had. (Note me missing almost every apex! :) woops)

I had to remove the video from my website as I went over my bandwidth for the entire month in one day 65Gigabites…ouch. Hope some other people can put it up!
Can

This is a really good video, I wanted to watch it from 993′s perspective too but it is not available.

Mini is an awesome car in tight tracks. I might add my own track videos..

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