[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:

[trackbird]

Personally I like the idea that I can get up to highway speed without shifting 4 or 5 times.

True, but on a backroad, if you are in and out of gears in an F-body, you are probably going way too fast. And, I agree that it's nice to blend with traffic in a single gear (or nearly so), but there is something to be said for a car you can "drive" and you have to keep cooking a bit to get the job done. Basically, if you lower the limits, you can drive the car 85% and not risk serious jail time.

Think of "bombing down backroads" in an old Toyota van. You can work really hard and not go very quickly at all (but you might feel like you are). That's the extreme example of what I was saying (it can be fun to have to work a bit to go quickly).

Remember, I'm talking about this purely from a street car perspective.

My Camaro is almost too fast to be a fun street car for the occasional back road trip. By the time I'm shifting in and out of a few gears and having fun, I'm approaching 90+, or I would be. So, I just stuff it in 5th and drive home instead and can go plenty fast to get in trouble with no real effort. When the limits are that high, it's tough to actually get to have any fun with it.

I guess part of my thinking of Mini's (and such) is since I've decided not to autocross next year. I just can't justify the cost for 10 days of running (between front bearings, a rear end rebuild/bearings, brake pads, rotors tires, event fees and fuel, I'm looking at close to $2500, or at least $2,000, for 10 days of running events).