MINI2

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.

Continue reading MINI Cooper S - Full Test Drive Review.

Following our exclusive report on the SuperChips modification for the new MINI One last month, MINI2 were invited along to Buckingham this week to test SuperChips own MINI One for ourselves, to find out if the real world improvement is as impressive at it appears on paper.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: MINI2 Drives SuperChips MINI One

Seven days and more than 1,500 miles has given me a real chance to get a feel for the new MINI Cooper. I have some niggles, and I found some pleasing little extra’s which made the new MINI seem a little bit more refined than other small cars on the market today. But what about that key issue: what is is like driving the new MINI Cooper?

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI - Part Six - MINI Cooper Review

A few reviews I have read say it is a crime to compare the new MINI with the Classic Mini, then most of them carry on doing just that throughout the entire report. Well being a classic Mini fan at heart, and knowing a few classic Mini colleagues who would love the chance to give the new MINI a good look over away from the glare of an eager salesman I just had to take a trip up to Manchester and the Peak District to put these two generations of Mini together on the roads for some fun.

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI - Part Seven - When MINI met Mini

While the MINI was in our possession, MINI2 users where offered the chance to fire questions, which we would then endeavour to answer. The following is what we managed to get for you all.

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI - Part Five - Your questions answered

Well, at long last the waiting was over. At 8:35am on Wednesday the 8th of August a press MINI Cooper, my transport for the week to come, was delivered by the ‘Man from MINI’.After driving a MINI Cooper at the media launch in Italy, and then putting both MINI One’s and Cooper’s through their paces on the track at Bedford I had a fair idea of what to expect. But living with a car is a far cry from having a drive and a play with a car, and a much tougher test.

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI - Part One - MINI Arrives

First impressions of the MINI Cooper were good. I already know and love the shape of the MINI. It really looks like nothing else on the road, and this press car was a highly polished and well maintained piece of kit. The morning weather was pretty clear when the MINI arrived, the Silver paint work was glistening nicely in the sun. I opened up the door to look over the interior. The full leather upholstery really sets of the rest of the trim nicely, and with the silver dash and door inserts, really suit the silver and black exterior combination. Where as some of the colours for the Mini, such as yellow, or red and white look playful and fun, the silver and black looks more solid and purposeful to me, and this interior helped emphasise this effect.

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI. Part Two - First impressions

Having a MINI Cooper for a week and 1,556.3 miles gave me the chance to take a note pad with me on almost every journey, and make a note of all those ‘little things’ that either make you smile, or make you wonder why it’s like it is. The following is the result of a weeks worth of scribbling, note taking, and nit picking.

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI - Part Three - Niceties and Niggles

During the course of the week we managed to snap hundreds of photo’s of the new MINI Cooper. The following is a small selection, and ‘photo diary’ of some of the things we got up to with the new MINI. During day one no photo’s were taken, so the story starts with day two, and a play in the woods.

Continue reading A WEEK WITH MINI - Part Four - Photo’s and Fun

Yesterday saw the first chance mini clubs and some members of the media have had to drive the new MINI. Of course MINI2 also had to be there, and it was our first drive of a right hand drive MINI Cooper, as well as our first drive of the base model MINI One. Along with key members of the MINI team in the UK, notable names on the guest list included Basil Wales, Paddy Hopkirk and Mike Cooper, who arrived in his own John Cooper Works MINI Cooper with a distinctive FUN number plate.

Continue reading MINI One and Cooper track day report