Dads turn to Drive

[CoopeR]

My Father had been a little skeptical about me purchasing the new Mini so I thought it was time to get him a drive and a closer look of the Cooper S so at least he has something to be skeptical about.

Firstly I better give you the rundown. He is a huge 'Classic' British Car nut and over my life has owned a lot of cars including :

Triumph Dolomite Sprint
Austin Healey Bug Eyed sprite
Rover P5B
MGCGT

Still owning:
Triumph TR3A
Mk1 GT Cortina (His Race car)
and He purchased me my 1965 Mini Cooper S as a wreck when I was 15 which I still own.

Little did he know what he started !

I have heard a lot of people say that the new car is wrong and they should have kept it as the 'Classic' and all those one eyed reactions so I was interested to see what his opinion of the car would be.

He loved the gearbox and the shortness of the shift, he said the dash looked a lot more like the original that he thought it would. Had a bit of a chuckle the battery is still located in the boot and our test car had a squeaky seat which he said was very Mini ! and don’t I know it.

During the drive he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face commenting on how no matter what gear you are in it just wants to go ! I tell you what he drove the poor little thing hard, but the Mini didn’t show any sign of letting go no matter how much it screamed or how fast he took the tight corners. Halfway though the 1 hour test he pulled over just to have a look at it on the side of the road and give it the standard 'under the bonnet' test giving that the tick of approval.

Upon returning to the dealer after locking our self in the car for a few seconds he said one thing, 'I want one'

Just wait till everyone else gets a go.....

[BruceK]

Great story!

Yup, unlike with New Beetle where VW only tried to get the shape vaguely familiar to the original, with the MINI the engineers and designers at Rover/BMW sought to infuse some good old classic Mini driving fun and character.

They succeeded.