[jomini]

hi everybody,
ten days now my cooper kept me away from posting my first deeper impressions to this forum.
The first big trip we made to cologne, which is about 550 km from munich. Of course I did not take the Autobahn !
After I managed to escape the munich suburbs, the fun was that great that I missed more than once the important road sign to lead me the right way - probably I was too fast to realize them .
Time was running short, so I had to take the highway for the last 300 km - and I enjoyed it as well. After having a little race with a nice lady from Hamburg (at least her Lupo 1.4 came from there)- she was pushing the throttle really hard, not bothering about overtaking the rest on the rightmost lane - I was already revving 5000 1/min - I came to Cologne very relaxed.
In the evening I could proof the transport capability of the car by carrying loads of salad, augustiner beer to the party place - just hoping that the garlic sauce will stay off my carpet. This was the first moment when I thought the SSP+ is really hard, so did my two passengers - but I was driving slow in the city and the cologne streets are quite bad.
Next day I was really tired and was just wondering how I would make the way back to munich without falling asleep, but when I hit the Autobahn it went all automatically and very comfortable. After a while the RDC light began to flash yellow. I stooped at the next petrol station and measured the tire pressures. One was at 1.9 bar the others at 2.1. The system is working and since then all tires lost the same amount of air (about 0.1 bar in one week but measured at quite cold tires).
I arrived in munich really relaxed and my mental condition was by far better then when I started in Cologne - maybe you should get MINI rides as therapy .
Last Friday I had the car in the service to check the CD changer which wasn't working since I got the car (they reloaded the complete vehicle software, at least all settings of the BC were reset), a slight rattle in the right door (loose window winder) and the release of the right back seat (part had to be ordered).
In the evening I started with to mates to go skiing at the stubai glacier. Two pair of skis mounted on the roof with a magnetic ski-carrier (from BIG, 35 Euro at Autoteile Unger) the third pair of skis in a five series touring . We took the small roads and my colleagues where highly impressed and quite worried about not spilling the beer - which was alright for me, so I did not have to let them drive
The fun you can have in the mountains with this car is hard to describe. A problem can be, that the difference of your normal travelling speed to the speed of rest of the pack around (unfortunately most times in front of) you is really high. In really twisty sections it is possible that you feel fine at 100 km/h where the others prefer to go at 50 km/h. Good thing about that fact ist that overtaking doesn't take to long and dispite the fact that you need more space between two cars this makes it similar to ride a motorcycle in a decent way (R1, you'll probably know what I mean.
Normally if you overtake a car you won't see it anymore in the rear view mirror after the next bend.
Because I already made 2200 km in this first week, I can sy some words about the Cooper Power. If you're alone in your car and the road is not only straight, the power is really enough. Torque could be better to make you feel a bit more souvereign - but all in all it is a harmonic package with good throttle response and if you open the window in a tunnel you're really delighted about the sound of the exhaust and the intake.
With three persons and luggage I could use more power and defenitly more torque. Then you really have to keep up the revs to keep you going - but it's still fun. Just compensate lacking power by not using the brakes !
From 3rd gear upwards I think it doesn't make much sense to rev higher than 6000 1/min - here the engine gets a bit tired. Possible that this will be better in some thousand miles.
Fuel consumption is around 9 l/100 km, please don't ask for the equivalent miles per gallon.
What will be really a point of great concern is the tire wear if you use the chassis capabilities. How about the experience of the MINI owners who drive for some thousand miles now?
And one more question about tires. I have the 16" fitted with Dunlop SP SPORT 3000A Runflat.(http://www.dunloptyres.co.uk/images/...sport3000a.jpg)
Are there any experiences among the stupid-grin-club with these tires? Dry/wet grip, wear?
In the dry I am very happy with these tires. Very good grip and easy to control on the limit. In the wet it tends to a quite strong understeer, releasing the throttle won't always help - I have now comparison - how about the Goodyear NCT?

ok ladies and gentlemen - probably this posting got a bit to long - reason enough to relax in your MINIS by hitting the road. Enjoy!!!
jomini

[ricardo]

That's a great summary of life with a MINI.

I'm intrigued by that ski rack - can you give us some more info? Any idea if we can buy it over the Web? Any pics of MINI plus skis?

[karmuze]

OUTSTANDING

Very detailed and even-handed account of your initial driving experience, Thanks for taking the effort to post it here!

Here is a magnetic ski-rack that I have found:

I think it cost around 120USD-much more than the one jomini found for 35€. This a much more practical solution than the roof rack system in the MINI accessories brochure IMO.


Vielen Dank, jomini,für Seinen freudigen Bericht.

[jwilk]

I find it strange that these have locks when you can just pull the whole thing off.

[hummel]

Wahnsinn,
ein toller Bericht.
Viel Spass weiterhin

Hummel aus Hamburg

[jomini]

Hi there,
unfortunately I can't post a picture of the ski rack on the roof of the MINI - but it looked quite cool
I added a link to the shop where I purchased the rack (there's no online ordering possible).
http://www.autoteileunger.de/aktuell/Beinzel/05.html
The one which is shown is the more expensive model (52 Euro) - mine is not lockable - and of course: if you really want the skis, you can lift of the whole rack - you just have to manage to get something beneath one corner of the magnetic plate and off it is.
Mounted properly on the dry and clean (!!!) roof it stand all acceleration it all four directions and speed of 150 km/h. When I drove back from the mountains I really forgot for about thirty km that I had the rack on top - and did not take any care about it during cornering... And I cornered VERY enthusiastic Everything stayed where it was - luckily!!!

cheers
j.

[PigLick]

Something that just popped into my head...those magnetic racks must use very powerful magnets. Careful what you do with those suckers during install/removal. I'm gonna make a wild guess that zapping the ECU would probably not do much good for your MINI....

PigLick

[mr.bill]

Most importantly, keep the magnets well away from your keys!