It’s been a long time waiting. This car has been hyped up, not least by the enthusiastic members of this site, for such a long time. The wishes of a gutsy exhaust note, a shattering 0-60 time and pre-emptive comparisons with other small performance vehicles like the Clio 172 and Honda Civic Type-R have helped build the expectations of the flag ship MINI Cooper S to great heights. Finally, after placing a deposit on one of these cars last July, I became one of the first lucky few to take the Cooper S out to play on to the streets of Portugal.

We’ve all seen the Cooper S, we all know what it looks like. If you’ve not been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of one at the various motorshow appearances around the world, you can’t have missed the images that many happy snappers have posted all over MINI2. But as I stated after seeing my first S in the flesh for our exclusive video footage last month, photo’s don’t really do this car justice. People have said they don’t like the hood scoop and bulge. I love it. People say they don’t like the lack of chrome on the grille. I can forgive it. And others don’t like the new front and rear spoilers, larger with no silver line trim. Well, like it or not, it certainly helps give the friendly face of the MINI a little more aggression. Although I guess you could see it as pouting. With it’s unique styling features, including the larger roof spoiler, twin centre exhausts and alloy fuel cap, there’s no mistaking this for any other model in the range.

Leaving the dismal English weather behind, I was ignoring the forecasts and wishing for some sunny weather and clear roads. Unfortunately, for the first day at least, my wishes did not come true. Still, I was in no mood to let a little rain (or a lot of rain for that mater) spoil the day. The Dark Silver S which was my trusty stead for the first day came with optional DSC fitted. Other fitted options were 17″ S Spoke alloys, air-con, CD and full leather sports seats. On the second day I took to the roads in a different S, red with a white roof, cloth interior, but still with optional extra’s such as 17″ S spokes, air-con and DSC The route we were to follow took us out of town, along a stretch of motorway, and into some rather crazy Portuguese countryside, as well as some scenic coastal roads.

When you first sit inside the Cooper S, it feels much the same as sitting in a MINI One, or MINI Cooper. Apart from a few subtle styling differences, there’s very little to distinguish the interior of this car from it’s stable mates. The most obvious difference is the brushed alloy effect dash and door trim. Try as I might, I just can’t convince myself to like this. I know people will disagree with me on this one, but I just think it looks a lot like it’s trying too hard to be something it isn’t. If it was real alloy, which still may be an option in the future, then I would be much happier.

Once under way, crawling through the Lisbon traffic, once again the Cooper S felt very much like the MINI Cooper. The gear changes are positive, and it has a fairly short throw, and the clutch is very smooth and easy to control. However, you couldn’t help but notice the grumbling, throaty exhaust note, and the general feeling when you blipped the throttle that this car really could offer you much more than you’d ever be able to fully appreciate trundling around town.

Once on the open roads you realise just how true this is. The Cooper S takes a MINI Cooper with sports suspension plus, then gives it everything extra that some felt the Cooper was lacking. Cruising down stretches of motorway the Cooper S was very comfortable indeed. The noise inside the cabin when cruising is slightly louder than the Cooper, but that’s mostly due to the deep exhaust tone. Once up into sixth gear however, you could comfortably spend any decent length of motorway journey in this car and not experience any adverse side affects. The engine speed at 100km/h is about 3000rpm in fifth gear, and approx. 2500rpm in sixth. The power in the Cooper S is most usable between about 2.5 to 5 thousand RPM’s and over taking on the motorway is both effortless, and pleasing. This was the first time I really heard the supercharger whine, and what a sweet noise that is!

As comfortable eating up motorway miles as the Cooper S is, that’s not really what this car is all about. The promotional material often encourages people to pull off the main road, take a trip through the bends for some fun. Well I’ve rarely experienced so much fun going round some just plain silly bends, on wet tarmac, as I did with the Cooper S. As I mentioned earlier the car I drove on the first day had DSC, as did the Red/White Cooper S I took out on the second day. In the dry weather on the second day, I rarely saw the light on the tacho flash, or felt the DSC doing anything to aid the cars grip or positioning, but on the first day, myself and my co-driver for the day were taking bends at speeds and in a manner that in all honesty should have seen us at least on the wrong side of the road, if not off it all together, but the DSC came in and really helped drag the S round the corners in a way that just gave such confidence, and such a big grin, I just didn’t want to stop playing. Nor did I want to turn it off, it’s times like this when what many view as a ‘fun killing device’ helps you have more fun, and more to the point, could keep you from killing yourself! Although I was provoking the car, and TRYING to get the DSC to kick in, you could see how it could really drag you out of some tight situations if you ever activated it by error or as a result of an unpredictable situation.

When it comes to out and power, there are cars almost as small as the Cooper S which do deliver more power, but the impressive thing about the Cooper S is the style in which it puts the power to the ground. Switch of DSC/ASC and sure, it can happily spin it’s wheels with the best of them, but be a bit more careful with your launch method, and the Cooper S pulls away with deceptive ease. The exhausts makes a pleasing deep rumble, and you hear that sweet whine from under the bonnet, and before you think you should be, you’re at the magic 100km/h mark, and it’s very happy to keep on going.

Many people have asked about the exhaust note, is it deep enough, loud enough, does it sound like it’s all exhaust and no engine? Well personally I think the harmonic tuning of this car is one of it’s greatest assets. Best heard from outside the car, if the throttle is revved then released you get a lovely gurgling popping sound form the exhaust, and you can achieve the same when driving through the gears around the twisty lanes. This car really is such fun to drive. If you don’t mind the wind rushing in, it’s really good fun driving through the woods or streets with your windows open, so you can hear the car singing back to you. Makes for a big grin factor.

Unfortunately, due to colour/spec combinations I didn’t have a chance to drive a Cooper S with 16″ wheels, but after spending some time driving in the wet and dry weather on the 17’s I can say is that I was more than happy with the way they held the road. To me they felt neither a great deal worse, or better than the 16″ wheels I have experienced on a sports suspension plus equipped MINI Cooper, but with some of the ridiculously bad pot holes and unprotected road works on the Portuguese roads, I think 16″ wheels would be my personal choice if I lived in the area, just for cost of replacements if nothing else!

So, if you’re looking for out and out, false teeth swallowing, neck breaking speed, then there are other cars in a similar price band that could get from a to b quicker than the Cooper S. But if you’re looking for the most entertaining way to get yourself from a to b, preferably via several other letters of the alphabet, then I feel, and almost everyone else at the launch agreed, you’d have to go a long way to find a better car to do it in than the MINI Cooper S!

The MINI Cooper S goes on sale in the UK June 8th.