[trackbird]

My wife has been looking at Mini Cooper's lately. Unfortunately, the Mini dealer didn't want her VW very badly (50% depreciation in 1.5 years and 25k miles?).

It was wet out and I kept the test drive short, but I really liked it (Cooper S). Actually, I liked it more than I thought I really would. It could use a bit more power, but it wasn't a pig (it's not a Camaro either). The handling was reasonably crisp and it was a bit go cart like. I found myself thinking that I could possibly live with one of those as a daily driver. And, tires and such for autocross will be considerably cheaper than my current ride. I'm really thinking that I should take another look at these. It's small, and really rather fun to drive.

She won't be buying one for a while, but....I could probably sell the Z at this point..... :leaving:

[slowTA]

Let's not forget that a Mini is a SMALL car, if it didn't turn on a dime then there would be something seriously wrong with it. The shorter wheelbase alone dictates this. Lets face it, a Mini's wheelbase is about 3/4's of an F-body.

Personally I like the idea that I can get up to highway speed without shifting 4 or 5 times. You don't have to push an F-body to get the job done in a reasonable amount of time. We complain about ricers and how they're screaming all the time, maybe it's because they have to just to keep up.

If there's no good place to shift into second based on course layout I can launch the car in second and still get some wheel spin a few feet out. Once I'm in second gear I rarely need first. Even on slower turns I can keep it in second and have plenty of torque.