Over 1,700 Miles of Open Top Motoring.

When MINI2 were offered the chance to drive a MINI Convertible from Seville in Spain home to Buckinghamshire in the UK, we of course leapt at the chance! 1,700 miles later we had returned home, a little dusty, but all the better for the experience. The purpose of the trip was, of course, to become accustomed to the MINI Convertible to enable us to write an in depth report of our experience, and if you want to learn just what a car is like to live with, taking this journey, on toll roads, country lanes, through small back roads, over and around mountains, and around the centre of some of the busiest cities in Europe is very hard to beat!

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Our journey began in Southern Spain, just outside of Seville. The setting was idyllic and the MINI Convertibles lined up awaiting their eager drivers looked fantastic in the morning sunlight. After a quick briefing (and bird pooh wiping), we were on our way. No plan, a poor quality map of Europe, no bookings, and no real other clue how to get home other than to “head North”! We’d been tipped off by some of the more experienced motoring journalists that the coastal roads, via places such as Granada, Valencia and Barcelona would be quicker, and possibly more scenic than the more direct route through central Spain. Effectively the route would be toll motorways all the way, but the scenery was still fantastic, and as you can see in the photographs above and below, we still found time to get off the beaten track!

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Late in the afternoon in we finally experienced the fabled weather “too hot for a Convertible”. Living in England, we’d heard of this phenomenon but never fully appreciated it, but when you’re stuck on a motorway, no laybys in sight, in 37° heat, the sun beating down on you, it’s all a bit much! Still, we struggled on somehow. Eventually however,
we found a place to stop, take some snaps, and put the roof up! (See photos below).

At the end of the first days driving we had already covered several hundred miles, and found ourselves battling the quite ridiculous traffic in the city of Valencia in an attempt to find a place to spend the night. At this point I decided the rear view with the hood up can be frighteningly bad. I swore that, unless there was a storm in process, this would be the last time I attempted city driving with the roof up!

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Morning on the second day of our European road trip. In Spain, in summer. The rain beating on our hotel window. This wasn’t right, we’re testing a Convertible!

Despite the early morning downpour, the conditions soon improved as we headed on our way towards the Spanish French border, skimming past Barcelona and through the Pyrenees mountains. Our map generously indicated “scenic routes”, so we came to the conclusion that if we really want to test the MINI, and get some nice photographs, that’s the route we should take.

By this time we were feeling well and truly at home behind the wheel of the Convertible MINI One, and looking forward to the test of some twisty mountain roads. The Convertible could, at times, feel very sluggish and asthmatic on the longer uphill stretches of the motorways in Spain. From time to time we did found ourselves feeling very slow, foot to the floor, as other cars breezed past us. If this was a hard top I’d be more concerned, but at least in a Convertible you can enjoy the open top experience and try to forget about the fact a local farmer has just sped past in his rickety old truck!

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Once we’d hit “the twisties” (and boy, did some of these roads twist), the Convertible really began to impress once again. We’d already been pleased with the lack of wind
and noise with the roof down, and marveled at the luggage swallowing capability of the apparently tiny boot (no, really!), but the handling of the Convertible is where it impressed us most.

The efforts BMW have gone to to ensure the soft top MINI handles as well as possible are mightily impressive, and in real life the car does exceptionally well. On the roads around the mountains, even when pushing quite hard, the car never twitched, never felt out of control, and never did anything unexpected. I don’t think you can ask for much more than that.

Tackling these roads, the roof peeled all the way back, open to the fresh mountain air, the sounds of the cow bells, and the scream of a classic car rally heading in the other direction was pure motoring heaven. We could have happily remained in the mountains all day, but time was against us, so we had to motor on.

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The rest of the day was spent sprinting along the motorway to Orleans, just south of Paris. The trip between Valencia and Orleans (including stops) taken in one day was a real endurance test of both car and drivers, and we nearly stopped early several times on our approach. However, after some night driving (the new halogens are very good, the interior “flood lighting” pretty pointless), we found a place to stop before heading into Paris the following morning.

In Paris (the roof down, not making that mistake again!) the car handled the city driving very well. There are many cobbled streets in the city, and that was a test of how “juddery” the car really is. Sure, it wobbles and shakes a little more than the hatchback, but only a little, nothing disturbing, or even slightly disconcerting at all. We found a hotel that morning, book ourselves in, and slept.

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The following morning we headed out of the city onto the motorways, the Eurostar, and back home. Our all too brief, but still very enjoyable, journey was at an end.

During the week that followed we managed to take our total mileage in the MINI Convertible to over 2,000 and really grew to enjoy the car. That’s not to say this MINI was without it’s faults. The car we had was pre-production and the hood soon had some signs of wear, the boot wouldn’t shut tight without a real “slam”, and there was some loose
interior and exterior trim. Following our epic Spain to France leg of the journey the gearing also seemed to get quite noisy, however that calmed down soon enough after resting the car for a while.

The MINI Convertible has gone back now and it will be missed, especially when the sun is shining. We wont be swapping our Cooper S any time soon, but if open top motoring is your thing, you really cant go far wrong with the MINI Convertible. It’s a winner.