[rasp]

Hi Everyone.

For those that are interested in the Birds/Hartge MCS there is going to be what seems to be a good review of the car with Clarkson in the new series of Top Gear in either May or June. The car will be shown static in the studio and might even be driven by the Stig.
Top Gear have had the car for two days last week and Clarky seems to be very impressed you might of read about a bit of it in the Sun newspaper this week.
A number of people can be invited on the day ( usually on a Wednesday ) to the studio but I am not sure on numbers yet, I will keep you posted.

Rasp.

[MINI Raider]

Well if anyones needed to make up the numbers count on me!!

[OnlyS4me]

I just came back from Hartge Beckingen together with QQQ, and we are absolutely not impressed with the test car provided by them. Too rough, too loud and almost if there was someting wrong with the ECU. The car shivered complety when taking the foot of the gas, and the engine sounded as it could break down every minute. And at low revs there was nobody home. The adjustable sport suspension was an improvement over the original setup, but not even close to the Digi-Tec one.
We came to the conclusion that the Digi-Tec package is unbeatable at this moment.

Watch the headlines in this forum section for a complete report on both the Digi-Tec and Hartge Cooper S.

[KenL]

None of the UK magazines that have tested the Hartge S have reported any of the things you noticed. From what I've read it has had excellent reviews and considered a real bargain.

[OnlyS4me]

As I stated above, it could be due to that specific car, but it was there only and official demonstrator car. The car you saw in pictures in articles was the Electric Blue car from above, altered into Dark Silver with the Hartge BMW wheels pasted in Photoshop (this is a quote from the salesperson we spoke).

The original Hartge wheel is just finished and Tuv approved and we saw the first made in the flesh now.
It's absolutely beautiful, no doubt about that.

[rasp]

OnlyS4me

Sorry you never liked it, I can only imagine it was that particular car you drove, my car drives apsolutely 1st class, none of what you mention is at all apparent, mind you I have not got the adjustable suspension fitted and I am wondering what exhaust was fitted for it to be so loud.

Rasp

[SCA]

Quote:

Originally posted by OnlyS4me
As I stated above, it could be due to that specific car, but it was there only and official demonstrator car. The car you saw in pictures in articles was the Electric Blue car from above, altered into Dark Silver with the Hartge BMW wheels pasted in Photoshop (this is a quote from the salesperson we spoke).

The original Hartge wheel is just finished and Tuv approved and we saw the first made in the flesh now.
It's absolutely beautiful, no doubt about that.

The Hartge wheel you show is stunning. What does it weigh?

[OnlyS4me]

Quote:

Originally posted by SCA
The Hartge wheel you show is stunning. What does it weigh?

We asked the salesperson, and i thought he mentioned 11/12 kg. It's all so new, we have nothing black on white yet. Delivery of the wheels is planned for may. It's an 18" wheel fitted with 215/45/18 Pirelli P7000. They even couldn't tell us what type of suspension was on the car. All I could see was that it was adjustable, and when I say it was coloured in yellow an purple, does that ring any bells with someone here?

The exhaust was a prototype version, nothing like the Birds quad exhaust.

[OnlyS4me]

And to give you an idea of how the wheels look on the car, we placed the wheel in front of QQQ's car.

Do I need to say more ?

[AidenL]

Quote:

Originally posted by OnlyS4me
And to give you an idea of how the wheels look on the car, we placed the wheel in front of QQQ's car.

Do I need to say more ?

Super !!

[Pav]

thaat is the best after-market wheel i've seen so far. how long until they are available and will they be sold separately to the conversion?

[rasp]

SOUPED UP MINI IS ONE IN A MILLION!
Quotations from a recent article in the Sun newspaper..

We've always known that the new Mini's chassis could handle even more power and now tuning companies are queuing up to release it. Some of the modifications being offered are expensive and not that good, but I tried one this week that was sensational. A company called Hartge, try saying that after a couple of drinks – in fact try saying it when you’re sober – has fiddled about with the supercharger and let its geeks loose with the engine management system, so that their version of the Cooper produces a whopping 212bhp.
That’s about as much as you get from a Ford Focus RS and it means the Mini fairly flies, 0 to 60 in 6.6 seconds and a top speed of 145. 145mph. In a Mini. And the cost of this metamorphosis is just £1,700. So you get a 25 per cent power hike and only add ten per cent to the cost of the car.
I gave it a damn good seeing-to and couldn’t find any flaws. There was oodles of power at the top end of the rev range and lots of steak down at the bottom… they also offer a suspension kit which isn’t worth the bother as well as a four tailpipe exhaust system which is probably a bit much too. I liked their big wheels though.
In fact, I loved this car. It feels like it’s running on Tabasco sauce. Chic, cheap and properly fast, it’s the million pound jackpot.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeremy Clarkson, The Sun, February 14th 2003

[jos]

heeee only s4me; leuke dag gehad?
if i understand correctly digitec is better than hartge! (just comparing the motertuning and the sports-suspension)
i will hear from you andQQQQ
greetings from JOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[QQQ]

I can only confirm OS4Me's statements above. The test drive was an absolute dispappointment and totally different from what I'd expected. Especially the total absence of a noticable increase in low-end grunt was a major letdown for me. We did for example a test we also did on the digi-tec car: "accelerating" from 40 km/h (approx. 25 mph) in sixth gear. The digi-tec car picked up incredibly smooth, whilst the Hartge car stuttered and seemed to do not much more than my standard MCS. Of course power delivery at the (upper) middle and top end was much better, but not as much as I'd expected and certainly less impressive than the digi-tec car.

Another thing that worried me a bit was the high-revving of the supercharger. At digi-tec they already told us that their competetors were using a smaller pulley (in the range 52 - 54 mm), whilst they (for the sake of durability) were using a pulley of (only) 56 mm (if my recollection is right). The difference was absolutely audible, the Hartge supercharger really howls through the car (a very nice sound admittedly), compared to the digi-tec.

The Hartge wheels are manufactured by Ronal and had tyres on them in the size 215/35/18 (instead of the 215/45/18 mentioned above. Hartge are aiming to retail them at euro 2,500 a set (including tyres).

Anyway, I went to Beckingen knowing that Hartge would have to do a very, very good job to restrain me from going with digi-tec. I still had some doubts when re-reading EVO's report about the Hartge's power delivery in the top rev range. The test made the decision easy really (leaving in the middle whether this was due to a bad Hartge demo or not), I'm going with digi-tec. Their car was so fantastically balanced and on top of that is so favourably priced that there is only one possible choice. Appointment will be made tomorrow.

QQQ

[LMB]

Cheers QQQ

[AidenL]

Great reports there M and E !

Pity the Hartge wasn't up to standard.......

How much is the Digitech conversion setting you back E?

[KarmanS]

Great report, guys! Thanks very much for that. Hope it was only the demonstration car that's having the problems for the Hartge setup.

[LMB]

Have you ordered your S yet Karman?

[OnlyS4me]

Quote:

Originally posted by KarmanS
Great report, guys! Thanks very much for that. Hope it was only the demonstration car that's having the problems for the Hartge setup.

You havent seen nothing yet, i still have to make the full reviews of both test occasions.
Paul has asked me to make them a little bit more official and sent it over to him.....

[LMB]

Quote:

Originally posted by OnlyS4me
You havent seen nothing yet, i still have to make the full reviews of both test occasions.
Paul has asked me to make them a little bit more official and sent it over to him.....

You mean you haven't done them already?