Picked up our cab Sept 2nd. On the Sunday took it through 6 countries 2100 miles in 5 days! RULE: roof down unless raining. We cruised French autoroutes at 130 kph, no buffeting (windows up deflector in place. In Paris we switched on the air con (32 degs), over the alps we added a bit of heat to the feet. Stopped at Lake Garda for 2 days, car was run in by this point. Route home through Austria, over mountains into germany and cruised at 100 - 130 mph. Fastest we managed was a slight downward incline at 141 mph (roof was up for this top speed run but it didn't peel back and the Cooper S cab was stable.
Loved the engine noise accelerating over the mountain passes and bouncing back at us from tunnels, great on over-run too (pop pop bang). We averaged 32 mpg. Ride was better than our Cooper hatch (extra weight?). A true grand tourer, no aches after a 670 mile run from Auxerre to Lake Garda (we did stop every couple of hours). We had a great time and looking back at our euro tours since 1978, this was the most fun, go try.
Might try Florence next time, the autostrada from Bologna to Florence is Mini heaven.
Steffi |