Bodgery

........

hybwrx2002

Cooper is a great handling car. As its frontwheel drive its pretty easy to drive hard and control. Its a lot more forgiving.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

The copper is a demon in the bends and -as its front wheel drive- can be pushed right to its limits without fear that it'll snap into oversteer; it'll just start to wash wide. You may not be exploiting all of the Sti's potential, but even so there is no shame in having trouble loosing a cooper through the twisties.

Best.

Bodgery

hybwrx2002/Best - that's how it felt to me - I was not miles of the limit in those conditions and felt like I'd be seriously punished for any little mistake, whereas the Cooper driver no doubt had easy to control and pretty predictable understeer. Mind you, I washed out on a couple of corners that he didn't...

Slick555

Never under estimate a mini !!! especially in the twisties and under breaking.

I live in Byfleet and have my MY00 MOT'd at Brooklands Horse Power, a mini specialist. A friend also works there so I get a look at the cars when i'm there.

And talk about money. Scooby owners love their extra's but so do owners of mini's. I've seen them new and old, looking fantastic and like old heaps, yet they're running anything up to turbos or nitrous. Nitrous on a mini? I couldn't believe it.

So dont be surprised by them and don't look and think its standard.

john banks

Mini will have a good traction control system a la BMW DSC? Can make a huge difference IMHO.

Mini - no lag, light weight, DSC.

STi - lag, non-linear power delivery, heavy, no traction control but AWD.

ozzy

Other than car advantage, I've found the new Eagle GSD-3's much more squirmy in the wet than my original F1's. The Impreza has the AWD, but it can lose grip easily. Yes, the AWD will help you escape trouble, but on public roads I'd much rather have outright grip than something that just breaks into a slide (albeit a nice 4-wheel one).

Not what you want on a public road when you run the risk of sliding wide into the oncoming lane.

JohnS

iTrader: (1)

Remember also that it's much easier to follow a car that's being driven quickly and keep up with it, than it is to be in the lead as the driver in front is doing all the thinking about braking points, turn-in points, lines through the corner etc., especially if it's on unfamiliar roads.

The following driver can brake a little bit later, taker smoother lines through the corners as they can watch what the car in front is doing.

I'm guessing if the tables were turned, you would have been able to keep up with the mini quite easily, and still have plenty in reserve.

Andy_1271

The amount of performance based add-ons for the mini is extensive to put it mildly, bhp hikes are substantial even on the cooper S, bigger superchargers, intercoolers etc

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

John S that's a very good point, mate. It's easy to loose sight of this fact in all this talk about outright power, grip, traction etc....

Best.

Bodgery

completely agree with the last point - on the straights, easily pulling away - and it was dark and damp, so I was definately concentrating bloody hard! I will let someone pass next time this happens and let them do all the hard work, leaving me to look good by easily keeping up with them! Now why didn't I think of that in the heat of the moment!!!?

Roblad

Have to say I owned one of the first mini Coopers (BMW) fitted with "S" suspenstion. *Very* good handling car, probably the best FWD handling car I have ever driven.

Even in a scooby there is a limit to how fast any car can take a corner and the cooper Ss have good power too.

I still went back to scoob though, missed the prod in the back



Roblad.

dietbruboy

I've had both a Cooper and a Cooper S - and just replaced the S with a MY05 WRX in the past fortnight. Ok, the WRX isn't run in yet - and these past few hundred miles have been just a gentle introduction to Scoobs more than anything else.

The MINI's were brilliant cars, but not without their faults.

The Cooper S comes as standard with what they call "Sports Suspension Plus" (you get a choice of this or regular "Sports Suspension" when you buy a normally aspirated Cooper) and to me it probably sits a lot flatter in the corners than my WRX. I used to absolutely nail the S around roundabouts and bends at pace because you could. It was completely predictable and actually felt like it could handle more than the standard 163bhp - on smooth surfaces anyway.

It also feels like your going quicker than you probably are too - as it was noisy and that suspension was rock hard - and you were constantly aware of every rut and camber change. There is more tyre noise in the WRX but I'd rather have that the interior creak itself off its hinges like in the MINI. They might have a good reputation, but I've had two which were built shockingly - bits falling off, water getting in where it shouldn't, rattles, pulls to the left, incorrect tyre alignment, steamed up rear lights, roof guttering that came off in your hands, wipers stopping working in heavy rain, windows dropping when the electrics packed up - not to mention the vandalism it attracted.

The WRX to me seems more planted, less influenced by outside forces/potholes/crappy road surfaces etc - although a little more bouncy on standard springs and a little more rolly in the bends. Maybe thats what a spring change is a common first mod?

They both have identical pin sharp steering feel though - the MINI is maybe a little heavier feeling through the wheel, but both seem to me to have no slack whatsoever about the middle.

The other posters though are right about mods - the new MINI has two UK dedicated magazines (and a good few overseas) packed full of tuning Co's and aftermarket jiggery pokery.

Although it wasn't a very quick car in a straight line - people always under-estimate Cooper S's. It was one of the main things that p*ssed me off about the car. You'd constantly find folk cutting you up at the last minute or zipping across in front at junctions/roundabouts etc. I fully expect that kind to come to an end now I've switched allegiances.

hades

Very tunable, great handling but sometimes shockingly built seems to sum up the new minis.

Brother had a standard cooper for a while, with the sports suspension. Very nice handling, very chuckable, very resistant to understeer (as front driver cars go), ultimately you'd have to be very silly to lose it in a corner as well. The 115bhp cooper did feel very underpowered, but 200+ of works will definitely be "fairly brisk"! However, after huge amount of bits (including both seats, dashboard and steering rack) failed before 5k miles were on the clock, and the dealers / BMW UK didn't want to know (refused to entertain rejecting the car, etc), brother's cooper had to go.

The old minis could be a lot of fun, too. Spent many an hour of fun in my early driving years in a fibre-glass bodied, lowered, uprated suspension and brakes 1430 with ~110bhp that Dad had put together. On a twisty road, that would upset an amazing number of people too.