I know it's been discussed before, but I'm considering trading my 350Z for a brand new Cooper S Works.
I know they're in a different class; 280bhp vs 210bhp is a big difference, but, on the open road, does the 350z really pull away from a Works, or not????
I don't know if somebody has had the chance to compare both of them on a straight line, and that is my biggest doubt. I know the Works will be more fun to drive and better handling, but acceleration wise, don't know if the're a big gap between them.
If someone can feed me in with some info. and convince me to order a 2005 Works, I would really appreciate it. I hope I'll be test driving a Works very soon, that will also help me out to decide.
with these numbers, i would say 350z is faster on straight
it really depends on how you like to drive. for me i got a JCW MCS because i drove in city alot and i don't do drag racing so i don't care the top speed. Howerer, if you like to go top speed, i would say 350z is better.
In terms of handling, i would say both are fun. one is FF one is FR, the handling feels a little different. i guess you will like both. hope these info will help you out. cheers
sold my MCS for a 350Z. three months later sold the 350Z and got a regular cooper. even with the huge power drop from 350z to standard cooper i would say the cooper is a MUCH, MUCH better drive. in my opinion its just a better all around car. there is more to how a car drives than power. get the MCS, you will not miss your Z at all. it was worth the trade alone just to get rid of those HORRIBLE deadly blind spots of the Z.
I agree that both are good cars, but for a daily drive, i would say mini is the best.
350z is just for fun. what i mean by fun is to drive out on weekend for show or speed.
350z has horrible blind spots and i am totally agree. that makes the car hard to drive. need to watch out when changing lanes and parking.
I totally agree that the 350z's blind spots ares a killer. It does make things hard when trying to park into a tight spot. On the other hard, it is definitely a fast car and fun to drive, although I think not as fun as a Mini from what I heard.
This is a tough decision: does anybody know the acceleration specs for the 2005 Works (0-60 and 1/4 mile)? Not the factory ones, but from a well know car magazine for example.
Of course it's a matter of taste, but I didn't like the Z at all when I test drove it. It may be fast, but it's quite a clumsy ride when compared to MINI. The Z is a real sports car, very hard to drive in city. I recall that the specs for the Works are fairly 6.2 seconds and 1/4 mile in 14.6 seconds.
My friend has recently purchased a 350Z. Personally I think they are very nice cars indeed and sound wonderful but I wouldn't say that speed is their greatest asset. In a straightline his 350z is noticably faster than my standard MCS but its not a completely different league of acceleration like I was expecting it to be. Through a twistie section of corners he cannot pull away from me and I have even gained a bit of road from time to time when the corners change direction quickly. Once the road straightens out though his bhp advantage does pull him away.
A works MCS is about the same straightline performance as the 350Z from my experience. I would say that neither of them are exceptionally fast but both delivery their power in a similar torquey manner. Both are great cars and great fun to drive.
With Motor Trend recently testing a stock 2005MCS at 0-60 in 6.4secs, I wouldn't be surprisedd if the JCW can do it in 6.0 or maybe even 5.9. The revised gearing makes all the difference in the world, as the 2004's do 0-60 in 7.1 secs.
I went from an M Coupe to an '05 MCS Works in September. I had many concerns as to whether I would miss the horsepower of the MC, but I have to say that I have no regrets.
I had the chance to drive another M Coupe this weekend which one of my friends has recently bought, and I have to say that I don't really miss it that much. So it's stupidly fast in a straight line, goes pretty well around the bends and sounds pretty awesome, but there was something that just made me want to get back to my Mini.
An M Coupe, that's a mighty fast car McBert!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I'm almost 99% convinced. I'm just waiting to test drive one but currently having some difficulties from my dealer to locate one.
Is it worth test driving a MCS (no Works package) in order to get an idea on the performance, handling, etc...? Or is there such a big difference between a regular MCS and a Works?
I can't believe no BMW/Mini dealers in Spain have a single 2005 MCS Works to test drive!!!!
I got my JCW fitted after 2000 miles, so I got a pretty good feel for the standard car before the conversion.
I think that if you test drive a standard Cooper S you should get a pretty good idea of what the JCW will be like. If you like the standard MCS, you'll love it with 210 bhp.
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Need feedback - Trading a 350Z 
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