Power and performance
One of the zaniest-looking new cars around is the BMW Mini Coupe. Rob Maetzig drives the hot performance version.
PERHAPS this is the best way to describe the Mini Coupe. When you first see it your immediate reaction might be ‘‘Oh my’’. Then when you first drive the car your immediate reaction is likely to be ‘‘My oh my!’’
The ‘‘Oh my’’ reaction might be because this new Mini offering by owner BMW is so out there in its looks, that initially it might be difficult not to burst out laughing.
I know I laughed. I mean, really. When I first laid my eyes on the little car my immediate impression was its designers had essentially taken a perfectly good Mini and chopped it, turning it into a two-seater featuring what the company calls a ‘‘helmet’’ roof that sits atop very raked front and rear glass.
Further, the model I had for road test not only had a red roof over a metallic white bodyshell, but it had red double racing stripes and red wing mirrors as well. And the Coupe’s pronounced wheel arches were matt black, and they folded over big 17-inch alloy wheels.
The BMW blurb might have told me that the Mini Coupe represents a fascinating injection of variety into the super-compact sports car class, and that it is a new expression of the Mini design that offers extremely high emotional appeal. But as far as I was initially concerned the car looked more like a caricature than anything else.
Even worse, I had to drive the thing. So I climbed into the extroverted little vehicle, took in the unusual interior that has several design features harking back to the original Mini of the late 1950s, such as a big central speedometer and toggle-style switches on the centre console, and I started it up.
It was then it began to dawn on me that this car might also be capable of causing a ‘‘My oh my!’’ reaction.
That was because my test Mini Coupe was a John Cooper Works model that had several modifications to the 1.6-litre, BMW/PSA twin-scroll turbocharged engine under its stubby little bonnet, all of which result in its being capable of developing 155 kilowatts of power and 260 Newton metres of torque – and an overboost function allows this to increase to 280 Nm for short periods of time.
That’s a lot of grunt for a car so small. And so it was with renewed interest that I put the Coupe’s close-ratio, six-speed manual into first, and headed off out into the countryside.
It didn’t take long at all for me to realise this car can really fly. The Mini Coupe JCW can accelerate to 100kmh in just 6.4 seconds, and it has a top speed of 240kmh. And if you have time to look out the rear-vision mirror while hang- ing on for dear life as the Coupe does this sort of thing, you’ll notice that the car also features a large rear spoiler that pops up out of the boot once you pass 80 kmh. The purpose of that spoiler is to reduce lift at the back wheels when the car is travelling at really high speeds.
I have no idea if it works or not, because I found myself very busy concentrating on keeping this Mini on track.
The car’s sporty suspension, big tyres and short wheelbase seemed to constantly combine forces to pick up every road surface imperfection present a quite nervous ride.
But what fun. As I belted around some favourite country roads I spent far too much time rowing through the gears, using the Mini’s lovely manual, and listening to the Coupe’s raspy exhaust note, which even crackled during deceleration or on a trailing throttle.
John Cooper would have been pleased. The man who co-founded the Cooper Car Company in the United Kingdom and who was responsible for
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