keendean

Been thinking about a Mini Cooper S works 210bhp, I'm not sure about the Hartage version, and I don't know the diffrences. The thinking behind a mini is, I travel 50 miles a day round trip, mainly back roads with a mixture of bends and a few fast straights. Been and done 3 Scoobs, Evo, S2000, Integra, Clio V6, S3. So a Mini will be economical-ish, good fun round the bends, low maintenance, cheap-ish insurance, but what are they like on the road? Are they any fun? It's either that, or a S3 but with some decent suspension mods and a decent remap. Looking for a fun but fast A to be B car that I can afford to run, got a house now and other things that I've got to spend my money on, so a reliable already tuned car that only has a 1.6 seems to make sense, thinking that the tax will be cheap-ish too. I don't carry any passengers, and I have use of a Mondeo for long trips etc

Has anyone made the move to one of these cars, and come from awd turbo backround? I know they will be chalk and cheese, but will they will be able to cut it with the current hot hatch brigade?
Got about 11k to spend.

Mike123

Not sure I would say economical for the performance if the std Cooper S is much to go by - is it the s/c one you're thinking of?

billythekid

They are not that great on fuel, a friend of mine has one and he gets about 25mpg at best and in town its almost as bad as a subaru. He also put a hole through a valve a few weeks ago, cost the best part of 2k to fix. Apparently its quite common as the cooling in cyl 1 & 2 is not very good. They are quite funky cars though and 210+ bhp through the front wheels means they are quite fast on straight runs.

Gutmann pug

Ray West (west tuning in the middle of Thruxton circuit) does some very naughty conversions to Coopers. I would have a chat with him ans see what he has to offer before you buy from anyone else.
West Tuning - Mini Cooper S

wall

Owned a Cooper S - with a few little mods - for 2.5 years (prior I had Sti, Evo, BMW 330, Elise 111S, ...).

As a fwd was obviously different in balance (fast in a turn then power later) but had very responsive steering, great balance and handling (I'd say on tight twisty roads better than all the above except Elise), good grip: a fun car.

In the time I had it (purchased new) never had any problems except a few minor electrical gremlins (windows, internal lights). Cheap to insure, expensive to service (BMW ...), not as economical fuel-wise as you'd expect from a 1.6.

Overall a good ownership experience.

Get 16" wheels with high performance 205 non-runflat tires. Handling is much compromised by 17s, especially the factory ones which weight a tonne (unsprung weight = bad thing ). If you must have 17s get aftermarket light ones with non-runflat tires.

Wall

matchmaker

A colleague of mine has a standard S. Heavy on fuel and the runflats are crap and cost a fortune to replace

lestippp

I think these cars must be quite good fun given their good handling characteristics and you see lots of girls and hairdressers driving them

Hold their value extremely well but they really are more about posing (that's why celeb's unsually have one in their enviromentaly friendly, car fleets) than driving, check out the drivers and I guarantee they will be wearing the current trend in clobber, sunglasses, etc and they will have blond, streaked, spiky hair do's, go on have a look. They will probably just be leaving the tanning salon to

Matteeboy

Always been a bit suprised how poor the acceleration figures are for these, given that they are about 180bhp/tonne.

jonc

Economy wise and bank per buck, I'd go for a late Clio 172/182 with Cup packs or a Clio Trophy which are around the same sort of price for a Works Cooper S. Not sure how you'd feel having run a Clio V6 to go to a "lesser" model, but they have great performance and are relatively frugal, around 34mpg on average with "enthusiastic" driving and if you corner hard enough, the most fun you can have on 3 wheels. Speeking from experiece, I conceed that its not as well built as the Mini, but they are mechanically strong and I certainly had no reliability issues during 2.5 years of ownership. Failing that, there are a new breed of mini hot hatches that are built better and possibly faster eg Corsa VXR or Clio 197, the new Mini Copper S (turbo) if your budget allows it.

TheJesus

The Cooper S Works is about Clio 182 pace at a much higher price. I may be biased, but I prefer the Clio as an overall package, they are really fun to drive and can be made pretty quick.

LOL, beaten to it!

Andy M3

My brother has a Cooper S with 17's - god awful ride, 16's are a must, esspecially on a back lane thrash.

Scoobless

I drive a mini cooper s uprated to 220bhp and it isn't cheap on the fuel side,anywhere between 18-27mpg,as above you need to stick with the 16" wheels for a more comfortable ride...keeps up with most when rolling and surprises quiet a few

Snazy

Had the pleasure for spending a weekend in the Welsh mountains in the R56 Mini Cooper S (turbo not s/c)
Fun fun fun is all I can say. Lovely on the motorway, superb thru the twisties, and suprisingly powerful. The delivery is smooth and constant, unlike the s/c version which was on/off. Strange at its usually the opposite way round.

Twin scroll turbo, power throughout the revs, and not afraid of triple figure speeds.
Up round Snowdonia, the climbs get sharper, and the turns tighter, but still no challenge for the Mini

I have to say, for a fairly big guy, I didnt feel cramped, the car holds the road superbly, and I would repeat the weekend anytime.
One of the few cars thats put a MASSIVE grin on my face in recent years. Unlike the s/c version.

JTaylor

MINI Cooper S Works | evo Car Reviews | Car Reviews | evo

Mal K

Go for the R56 S 'turbocharged'. You will be surprised at how quick they are. New BMW/Peugeot engines, lower CO2 emissions (less tax), better fuel consumption. Even driven hard will return 35 mpg and the engine in ours is still relatively tight. Oh and the sport button that gives you more feel thru the steering wheel and better throttle response.

keendean

I can't afford a new mini, but I may go back to my roots and look at a clio trophy, I owned a williams and 16v many many moons ago, I like quick point point hot hatches, where you don't have to slow down to much on B roads, either that or a s3 again with a remap, albeit that are a tad too heavy. Thanks for the responses onthe mini, I think I may be asking too much, asking for a performance car not to cost too much money. I guess when I was younger I went through all the typical hot hatches, as they were so light you never needed 300bhp + to have fun, these days you want reliabilty, but not all the weight, also my disposable income has become less. I get my insurance payout next week I hope, so I'll go shopping then and test drive a few cars, but my choice is limited But after the comments on the Mini S works, its beyond my budget, and not as cheap to run as I thought, new plan Edited the Phase MkI is very very heavy, and a massive pendulum in wet, and not as quick as it looks, with very long gearing, and feedabck very vague up top the limit of chucking you off the road, I'd not see the trophy as a downgrade, and maybe the bhp per tonne is similar? But the Clio will depreciate quickly