I have only driven the ONE, but what I would like to know is: does the Cooper accelerate better than the ONE even from very low revs in any given gear? The data I have seen states that the gearing of the two cars is the same and not higher in the ONE. The data section of MINI2 gives the 50-75mph in 5th time as near identical at 14.5 secs for the ONE and 14.4 secs for the Cooper, which suggests that the cars are relying on torque (which are similar at 101 and 108 IBs/ft) at such low revs. Change down a gear (or 2) and the Cooper is substantially quicker, presumeably because the revs are higher and its power advantage is producing the better acceleration.
Are the power curves the same ? ie: do the cars drive the same up to say 5500rpm and then the Cooper's power suddenly kicks in? Is it only a thrashed Cooper that out performs a ONE or is it always noticeably quicker even in high gears at low revs? The reason I ask is that performance figures can seem misleading. My previous car was a Fiesta Zetec S which in a roadtest produces very close figures to the ONE but on the road felt much quicker when accelerating from rest or at say 30mph in 4th where it would surge forward on only touching the accelerator (it didn't seem to continue surging at higher revs though!) I could always roadtest one to find out but I am interested in people's opinions. |