Sent in my MF reader Andrie Chichak
A while back White Roof Radio mentioned that MINI Canada had some 3D animations on their web site and were giving away the 3D glasses, so I signed up, got my glasses and found out that being colour blind does not help at all. Later I get the following message in my email:
Dear Andrei,
>You and a guest have been selected to buckle up and take The MINI Challenge. This is an exclusive opportunity to experience MINI and its competitors in a unique environment under the direction of professional driving instructors.
Test the Next Generation MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S against the VW Rabbit, Mazda3 GS, VW GTI and Audi A3. By driving these vehicles through the same controlled course, you will be able to judge for yourself which vehicles perform the best.
Location: Race City Speedway
Well, how are you supposed to turn that down? I’ve heard about things like this before where you get stuck in the passenger seat with a “professional” driver and there is a salesman in the back seat telling you about easy financing terms. Not this time, we got to play with someone else’s cars.
Let me begin by coming clean, my daily driver is an early ’99 VW Golf. There, I’ve said it. I have a ’62 Mini Traveller, but it hasn’t been on the road for 16 years, and my long distance car is a ’97 Volvo 850 wagon. One of my brothers is a wrench for VW, the other collects classic Minis, my Mom has a ’05 Cooper automatic with a total of 5000km after 2 years. I didn’t come with any preconceived notions as to who was going to come out on top.
The contenders:
In the featherweight class:
2007 R56 Cooper 1.6L 4 cylinder 6 speed automatic (116HP/114 lb. ft.)
Volkswagen Rabbit 2.5 5 Cylinder (150HP/170 lb. ft.) 6 speed automatic
Mazda 3 2.0L 4 Cylinder (148HP/135 lb. ft.) 4 speed automatic
In the heavyweight class:
2007 R56 Cooper ‘S Turbo 1.6L 4 cylinder 6 speed manual (172HP/177 lb. ft.)
Audi A3 2.0L Turbo 6 speed automatic (200HP/207 lb. ft)
Volkswagen GTI 2.0L Turbo 6 speed automatic (200HP/207 lb. ft.)
My brother-in-law and I arrived at Race City Speedway in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Canada’s largest racing complex with ½ mile banked oval, ¼ mile drag strip, and 4km road course) where the little MINI signs led us to a big tarp tent just off of the pits.
This would be the hospitality tent with young, good looking, lifestyle representatives helping us fill in the obligatory questionnaires, offer us coffee and water, and look at the latest Sony offerings.
They are showing off a pepper white R52 Cooper ‘S convertible and a Checkmate packaged R56 Cooper ‘S – YUCK the checkerboard dash panels are way too shiny. We break taboos by opening the hoods (bonnets) to reveal those yucky mechanical bits, bwa ha ha ha.
To partake, you must sit through a 25 minute introduction and a tech talk by MINI’s senior driving instructor. He gave an abbreviated history of the Mini, overview of the technical specs of the MINIs and an explanation of what to look for when buying any car (narrow down your choices to the top three then arrange to drive them all the same day). He also gave an explanation as to why you should look at the torque and weight specs instead of the horsepower specs when comparing vehicles.
Finally, he gave an overview of the competitors and why they were chosen. They chose two vehicles in each class that were best sellers with similar specs at a similar price point. They could have chosen more, but we only had 2 hours to play.
He introduces the driving instructors, they are all professional race drivers, mostly from Quebec, one from Belgium, and one from England. This could be good.
For the day they provided four MINIs; a British Racing Green ‘S with a 6 speed manual, leather seats (smells great), and those awful horseshoe wheels (flame spoke my butt!), two pepper white automatics one Cooper and one ‘S, and a mellow yellow Cooper automatic.
The course was set up at the end of the front straight of the road race track and took the form of a “worst of everyday driving” slalom. You got a chance to zip in and out of traffic (watch out for the cones), avoid small child on a bike (a cone rides out into traffic), do fast lane changes (that damn cone tried to cut me off), accelerate heavily (get that cone), and do panic stops (that cone just jumped out in front of me).
From the start box, go straight into a 50km/hr series of offset gates, into a 45 km/hr slalom, a 40 km/hr left/right child avoidance maneuver, long right sweeper into an abrupt left lane change, 50km/hr ABS panic stop while steering through a right lane change, a 15km/hr low speed tight S section leading into a 80km/hr drag into the ABS testing stop box (remembering to put in the clutch or else the French-Canadian instructors will laugh on your lapel).
The speeds were meant to be maximums, but they didn’t seem too worried if you knew what you were doing (nobody got sent home early).
The Cooper automatic was hard pressed to get up to speed, the suspension was willing but the engine was weak. The hardest problem with the ‘S was keeping the speed down, it is easily as quick as the GTI and A3, though it has much easier to drive quickly.
Engine
The Audi and GTI share the same 2 litre turbo and when pressed they showed the same behavior – a very annoying throttle response, initially nothing, “one steamboat – two steamboat – three steamboat” then WOOSH!!!, back off slightly and you get HEAVY deceleration, touch the throttle and you get HEAVY acceleration. A very on/off feel. Not very inspiring.
The Rabbit was pretty forgettable. Good pull, but chained to the automatic, it couldn’t come out and play. Didn’t show well. The wall flower of the day.
The ‘S had minimal turbo lag, very good progressive power, and none of the on/off feel of the VWs.
The Mazda had enough power, not enough to get you in trouble (the suspension took care of that), but enough that we were told to keep the transmission in full automatic as it wouldn’t last long in sport mode (eeek).
The Cooper was … adequate. With the automatic it felt like something my mother would use to go shopping.
I really couldn’t get a good feel as to how fast the cars went in the tests as the course was quite tight and you really didn’t have much of a chance to look down at your speedo. The “keep it in second gear” rule did keep the speeds from getting into the brown trouser zone.
We finally decided that the passenger would watch the speedo as the driver accelerated towards the ABS test stop box.
Neither the Cooper or the Mazda 3 could reach 80K in the distance allocated, close but they only got to about 70kph. The ‘S, on the other hand, managed to get up to about 90 before hauling on the binders (with that great smell of rubber and brake pads mixed in). The GTI and Audi had no trouble getting up to speed, but it was definitely “go – wait – wait – wait – woooosh – on/off/on/off/on/off”.
Brakes
Most of the test was done without brakes except for the ABS test sections so I can only comment on the panic stops.
The VWs, Audi, and Mazda all had a tendency for the brake pedals go to the floor on panic stops. It was disturbing enough for us to ask to try the BRG ‘S again to make sure that it didn’t do it too (not that we wanted to go again, nooooo couldn’t be that), it didn’t. All cars had good brakes, no drama, I just hated the pedal on the floor feel.
Handling
The Audi felt like a much bigger car than the MINI and the slalom corners required a wider line and slower speed.
The Mazda was much worse than expected to the point it felt like the tyres were low on air or perhaps it was bigger than the Audi. My partner managed to not only clip a cone, but get it firmly wedged under the car.
The VWs were nice and tight, but the stars were the MINIs. Just look, steer, and keep feeding in the throttle until you get scared. Think 3 cones ahead because they come up fast.
Interior Styling
The NAV system on the Cooper makes the already large centre speedo into a disk the size of the original Mini’s wheels. Instead of having a needle radiating from the center of the disk, they have a pointer running around the outside. Not great for a peripheral glance to see what position the needle is in to give you an order-of-magnitude idea of your speed.
The Mazda dash was the most likely to be used in bad anime. I suppose the bad visibility of the angly tube design does keep the passenger from asking why you are going so slow.
The German cars were just…correct. Everything in its place and a place for everything. Little charm but no bad design either.
Exterior Styling
Mazda – non-descript, appliance like styling. Most ignorable.
GTI – Can’t say that I care for their new corporate grill. It may have some sort of technical cooling reasoning, but I find it heavy and too reminiscent of the Edsel. Ugly 5 hole wheels. Not my cup of meat.
Rabbit – Yup, it’s a Rabbit.
Audi – Pretty generic. Ugly grill.
MINIs – you would have to be a real fan-boy to notice the differences between the old MINI and the new.
Was it worth driving 2.5 hours each way to attend? Oh, yeah!
Would you do it again? Oh, yeah!
Would it change your mind about buying a MINI? I don’t think so. It would solidify the choices you already made or you would blow off the whole experience as being too far from reality to be representative.
What did you learn? I hate automatics! You get way more turns if you can drive a standard. The ‘S would make a bitchin’ slalom car. See the corner, be the corner.
What did you miss? There was so much to take in it was hard to remember it all. And I forgot to try the sport button.
Who won?
Featherweight
Tie between the Cooper and the Rabbit, with the decision given to the MINI for its great handling. Looser, the Mazda for slushy handling, offensive dash, lack of styling, and potentially fragile transmission.
Heavyweight
It would have to be the ‘S. Great engine, great suspension, and brakes that build confidence. Second place tie to the Audi and GTI depending if you want a highway stormer or a boy racer.
good write up – thanks very much for spending the time to share your experience!
Interior Styling
“The German cars were just…correct. Everything in its place and a place for everything. Little charm but no bad design either”.
You mean boring…
You must be Marcel’s brother – I lurk on the minilist. 😉 Great write-up, a wonderful read, and I sure wish there was something like this in California!
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
<em>(In Napoleon Dynamite voice)</em> Lucky!
Putting the Mazda 3G S in the mix for this event was a bit disingenous on Mini’s part, as it is a much cheaper car than the Cooper S – the proper comparison for a reasonably S (as I am sure the test vehicles were) would have been the Mazdaspeed 3, at roughly the same price. That would have been a very interesting matchup!
I’d venture that MINI ran their own comparison of the Mazdaspeed 3 with the MCS and wasn’t too happy with the outcome–thus no MS3 in the MINI roadshows….
I’d say the Mazdaspeed 3 is horsepowered out of this go-’round, and MINI looks like they were closer to an apples-to-apples comparison – if they were allowing 100 HP increases over base models, I daresay the MINI would be in another bracket as well.
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
The Mazda 3 was not put against the Cooper S, but the Cooper, which is a fair comparison. The Mazdaspeed 3 would be a worthy competitor to the Cooper S, and I feel the Cooper S would do well. The Mazdaspeed is plagued with torque steer, and the MINI should handle better.
Thanks for the feedback.
As was mentioned above, in this case the Mazda 3 was put up against the Cooper, not the S. MINI Canada tried hard to have the cars matched in price and performance.
Someone on the Edmonton Mini Club website asked about the MazdaSpeed 3, so I did some poking around.
The MazdaSpeed 3 would be a better match to a JCW Cooper ‘S, with the other contestants being a GTI R32 and an Audi S3 (none of which are available in Canada).
The Mazda3s would have been a better choice to face off with the Cooper. 2.3l, 168hp for its 3k lbs. The sedan would have kept the rubber more in line with the MC as the hatch comes with 17s standard.
<em>The Mazdaspeed is plagued with torque steer, and the MINI should handle better.</em>
Possibly, but every comparo I’ve seen to date that has pitted the two against each other has the MS3 coming out on top. Let’s face it, 280 vs 170whatever hp (and ditto for the torque) can more than compensate for a few minor torque steer issues…
<em>I’d say the Mazdaspeed 3 is horsepowered out of this go-’round, and MINI looks like they were closer to an apples-to-apples comparison </em>
Not following the logic here. These 2 are within $500 of each other (at least in Canada) and they are both high performance cars. So it’s unfair to test the MS3 against the MCS because ther former offers so much more power for the same amount of money? Ahh, the reasoning of the fanbois…
I’m not saying that the MS3 is <em>a priori</em> a better car but the comparison sure seems resonable from an objective perspective.
If price was the ONLY factor, sure, a Mazdaspeed 3 would be a fair comparison, at least from a Mazda fanboi point of view, I suppose. 😉 The fact that other comparisons of two dissimilarly powered cars have obvious results elsewhere isn’t germane to this test, it’s only a convenient straw man for mis-reasoned argument. But then again, it’s obvious from any objective examination of the cars in this test that similar performance (apples and apples, anyone?) was more important than that aspect, and a comparison of the Mazda 3 to the Cooper is much more logical, as Andrei has pointed out for those who read his review carefully.
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
One of the reasons that I took up “The Challenge” was that one of the guys that I work with is interested in buying a Mazda 3…until today possibly.
He heard that the kids have figured out how to break into a ‘3 without any tools and without doing any damage. It seems that if you bang on the door in just the right place, it opens.
He was looking for a car to replace his Escort – that was stolen.
Sounds like a heap of fun.
I’m surprised though at the lag that you mention with the GTI/A3 – Having driven the old S and the GTI back to back, I found the MINI more responsive but the GTI had very little lag – maybe just a little, but I’d say less than one steamboat…
It would have been the combination of turbo lag and being saddled with an automatic.
Good write up!
I attended a similar event in downtown Vancouver last fall, however; it was only a comparison of the range of Mini models on a smaller track. Lots of fun, but the comparison against competitive vehicles would really help to put things in perspective (Ford did this a few years ago with the Focus).
Overall, using this type of focused marketing, I think that Mini will continue to be successful in convincing buyers to seriously consider their cars.
I was shopping for the Mazda3 GS but once I optioned up the car to my liking, the MINI Cooper was actually less expensive with more standard equipment at the time. So I crossed the Mazda off my shopping list. That was a couple of years ago now. Certainly, pricewise and with recent upgrades to standard equipment in the Mazda is comparable to the MINI if you are not a driving enthusiast.
Good write-up.
<em>The fact that other comparisons of two dissimilarly powered cars have obvious results elsewhere isn’t germane to this test</em>
Huh? These 2 cars (the MCS and MS3) are at the same price point, compete on performance and handling, and will be extensively cross-shopped – so in what way is this <em>not</em> an appropriate matchup? Talk about a fan-boi excuse …
What would also make these cars an interesting comparison in a drive event is the opportunity to see what differences the respective manufacturer’s design priorities make in the fun factor of the final product, with Mazda placing more emphasis on engine output versus the MSC’s focus on style, polish, light weight, and amenities.
I won’t chop logic with an un-armed Mazda fanboi, as it would be unfair to such…let’s say..challenged individuals, but suffice it to say that this test had no MS3, because it didn’t fit the parameters of the set-up. We’re not being obtuse here, 1t’s as simple as that. Live with it. Others here have made much better choices for comparison of the basic performance envelopes of other cars than an ‘S’ v MS3, so it would be good to do a close reading of the replies here and learn something rather than mindlessly parrot the same thing over and over.
A fun read and an enviable event. It sounds a lot like the Skip Barber course I paid a lot for.
To MF staff: please spell Andrei’s name correctly. The by-line says
Sent in my MF reader Andrie Chichak
Now keep it civil ladies…
Yes they spelled my name wrong, but when you have a name that defies the “rules” of English, you get used to having it spelled wrong. “I” before “E” except in my name.
The new item from cars.com seems to agree with my findings quite well. I figured that the 260Hp of the MazdaSpeed 3 does NOT put it in the same performance group as the ‘S or the GTI. That is why I said that a better group would be the R56 MCW ‘S, GTI R32, and the S3 (none of which are available in Canada yet).
One good thing about the MS3 is that it is a GT spec car and does not have the “gone in 20 seconds” door lock problem.
Time for bed…it’s snowing again.
Good night from the Great White North