Active - me too !

Fiesta chased my backside when I had an Astra 16v and more recently a three up Rover 416 (old shape) hassled the P1 in the tight and twisties. He was prepared to take more risks but he held it all together fair play.

I find that I really do not know (or practice) enough about performance 4WD hence I`m more at home with quick FWD Golf`s as I`ve spent far more time with them. I can trust them more than the Subaru as a result and hence have more `fun`. However, when things open up a bit there`s nothing like that smooth power delivery to make up for it....until the next tight corner / Rover comes along !

Enjoy, whatever.

 

Just wait till the car is run in mate and then see if a mini can keep up with you.... I very much doubt it, just give him a quick wave and say good bye

 

All the talk of going round corners quickly is often put into perspective when something happens mid bend like it did to me today. I thought I was a bit of a wuss on corners and take them considerably below the grip levels of the car and probably below that of some hot hatches too. However, I also try to drive so that I can stop in a distance I can see to be clear. This morning rounded a wet greasy uphill left hander with high foliage on each side, and as I was as the view onto the straight apppeared I saw a deer, a transit van, a VW Polo and another car all in the middle of the road after an incident and they had all stupidly left the road blocked after a blind bend to save a deer that had been hit earlier without at all considering their personal safety. I stopped with the ABS about 1.5 car lengths from the whole proceedings, and there was no way you could have seen it coming. This suggests to me that I was driving perfectly fast enough around that corner and the more frequent limitation in a Scoob is visibility rather than outright grip. Often you don't know what is around that next corner and cannot see and there are no visibility cues. If you were pressing on to anything like the limits of the car I think a lot of the time your visibility would not be enough to stop in. Not a preach - I could easily have smashed into the whole lot if I was going 10 mph faster which the car would have happily done - I have done it in the wet when visibility on that bend was better with the lower foliage.

 

Close one John, glad it didn't end in disaster! All the more reason to carry a warning triangle and place it 100-200m back up the road in the event of an incident.

Bless those braided hoses of yours

 

It took a mini to beat you to realize you're a bad driver?

 

John, I've been in the car with you.....your no wuss! I regarded you as someone that would/could make rapid progress if they wished but I felt safe cause you didn't push it to silly limits/speeds. The night I was with you we took some corners at speeds where if something had been round the corner at just the wrong spot we'd have been screwed. As we discussed at the time, that is a risk you take and you could be just as screwed at or below the speed limit. The real idiots are the ones that will have the car at 99% of it's limit on a blind corner and not be caring about what might be round it!! At least you were not driving my car, remember the brakes

 

Well after today's experience I need to think again how I take those roads I know and love so well if I am going fast enough that I am screwed if something unpredicatable happens - that is clearly unacceptable risk. It is not enough to know you can get round the bend on your side of the road with spare grip assuming nothing untoward happens. Trouble is it is easy to know the road as it is static but not appreciate what could be new on it this time. You can open it up where you can see it is clear - open bends, seeing ahead etc, the road we went out on is largely like that unlike the one today, but I will do some reflective driving of it tonight with the next version of the ECU map and see what it looks like again and see what I can improve.

 

I see what your saying John and appreciate the 'what if' factor is still strong in your mind but if you are really wanting to elimate the risks surely the only answer is to buy a slower car and drive at sensible speeds all the time.

I agree you should not take unreasonable risks, etc on the public roads but you could be driving at 50mph on a straight section of a B-road and all it takes is a blow out to take you onto the opposite side of the road into on-coming traffic.

I say people should drive within their own limits and the limits of the road and circumstances at that time - unfortunatly though you can't cover all the bases, accidents (proper ones) do happen sometimes.

 

I know what you mean John, last year at the Scottish rally I was going between the stages in the scoob, driving around twisty blind country roads I didn't know, at what I considered to be a safe speed, and kept on having metros and the like right behind me through the corners. I was driving so I could just about stop in the distance I could see, yet all the locals knew they could go around these corners 20mph faster than I was taking them (guess they could see around these blind corners).

Even so I came around a 90 degree left bend at 25mph and just as I started to accelerate I noticed a digger sticking its nose out of the 8ft hedge, there was no way I was going to stop in the 10ft gap before it (and even if I had the queue of 3 cars behind me wouldn't) so I did the only thing I could and planted the accelerator while pulling as close to the traffic coming the other direction as possible. When my wing mirror went past there was no more than about an inch between it and the (now stationary) digger, my passenger was pinned flat against the seat and never spoke for about 20 minutes (I may have been worried, but at least I hadn't been within a foot of being restyled by a piece of agricultural machinery)

 

logiclee: Hi I`m from Notts too (Retford). Yes the 4000 revs is an arsesole, if I had permitted myself to use more I would have stone chipped his front end as I left him with his grin turning to a grimmace!.
RichS: Comments noted thanks!.
1/ I don`t know.
2/ I do know.
3/ I wasn`t.
4/ Not stupid enough to risk my n.c.b. 7+ years insurance @ £454 pa
5/ You are correct.
John Banks: Well too much to comment on! I don`t wish to be or sound patronising but I have found your replies to me and others on this thread to make very interesting reading and very informative. Makes a great change from some of the muppet threads and comments! Thanks.
nigelward: How right you are.
davyboy: I was going to say "**** off" however propriorty prevents me!.
Tony T: Quite right!
Stealth: I will mate Tks.
Katana: See remarks davyboy!.
Well thanks all for your comments better reading than in (Revs) mag
Regards Bob.

 

I feel I am in a good position to comment.

The cooper has excellent road holding ability. It is really solid through the corners, harldy any body roll, with no drift at all and the ASC doesn't even come in to play. Obviously they aren't a match in a straight line but once you get above 4,500revs they pick up a lot quicker. I'm not suprised it could keep up, I'd even go as far as saying it may make better progress through the corners.

 

For what it is worth, my m8 has a (BMW) Cooper which I have driven and the ride and handling are outstanding. They are no slouch, the roll is minimal, the the traction control is very efficient.

They are obviously outgunned power wise, but any decent driver would give you a good run for your money on the twisties. Needless to say, the power exits would let them down. I have nothing but top respect for these cars and can't wait until my m8 picks up his new Cooper S. When the new Cooper S is finally released and starts to appear on the roads, the game will be on

Steve

 

SPEED v CORNERS

Know of an incident where BMW Driver took blind corner too fast - round corner was a TRACTOR - TRACTOR STOPPED BMW - Driver in hossie for a couple of weeks !

Think about it - this does happen.

Jokes about 1 less BMW would not be appropriate

 

Hiya,

I had a 106 GTI (120bhp) before my new Scoob. Don't get me wrong, I love the scoob - it's a whole different experience. But when it comes to sheer chuckability and total speed over a windy road, give me back the Pug anytime. I would easily keep up with (myself) driving the WRX. The scoob has way too much body roll, and I was also surprised to find it understeers more than my 106 GTI did.

that's my 2p worth
DaveR

 

Well i've driven a '00 Turbo and a Cooper over the same bit of twisty stuff, and i found the Mini to be only marginally slower. In the dry, that is. I'd like to see the Mini keep anywhere near the scooby in the wet.

 

got one of each and have to say that the MINI has surprised me from day one. yeah out and out performance is down and I am not surprised there was not much in the cornering speed (saftey first though). I have to say the MINI is becoming the prefered choice for me, just a bit more fun day to day where I am, the scoob it the favorite for serious driving but on most roads the difference in performance is not much use with the traffic ques etc the MINI starts being fun at slightly lower speeds.

having said that still love the scoob!

 

Reckon I should add my two penneth into this one.

Having had a couple of Scoobs and curently owning an R33GTR V-Spec, I bought a MINI Cooper as my everyday car. It's quite possibly the most fun car I've ever owned. Now it's not quick in a straight line, infact, a 106GTI would leave it trailing. However, throw in some corners, and some off camber bends, and it's just awesome.

Now mine has 17 inch alloys, and the sports plus suspension which means it's a little firm, but the composure and lack of body roll is exemplary. I've seen standard WRX's wallow all over the place infront of me, when the MINI is composed and not flustered at all.

Put it another way, the MINI was less than a second slower round Mallory Park than my old UK Turbo.

It's not about the power, it's how you use it, and how much of it you can use at any one time. I tend to find that you just never back off in the MINI. I know that Scoobs make people smile, but the grins on MINI drivers faces are always that little bit bigger.

Look out for it at Donington later this year!

Matt