[BruceK]

Kudos and congratulations to Paul Mullett for the first published driving report anywhere on the Cooper S!

Well done and with great pictures.

http://www.mini2.com/news/news.php?id=108

Thanks!

[Paul]

It really was a pleasure.

Fire away with anything you think I've missed or anything else you want to know, you can only put so much in a review.

[BigC]

Are you going to buy one ?

I know you were thinking about going for a highly spec'd Cooper instead of an S. Has this weekend made up your mind ?

Thanks for a great article.

Colin

[MadMiniManiac]

You say that the power is best at 2.5k to 3k revs. Does it die as you rev higher or is it quite a flat torque curve. Also what is the in gear acceleration like?
Were the cars run-in or can we expect some more performance.
Did anyone do an accurate 0-60 run?

Well done on a good report.

[noahe]

From the new Red/White Cooper S pictures that will grace my screen until mine arrives, to the confirmation that the Getrag 6-spd is the improvement I was hoping for (2500 in 6th, sweet!) that was a pleasure to read.

While I'm sure the trip to Portugal, and zipping around in a Cooper S for two days wasn't too hard on you, thank-you for the honest review. I'm glad that it stood up to the expectations of someone who has built it up in his mind as much as the rest of us has.

You've just earned my magazine money for this month. I'm becoming a sponsor. Right now.

[loder]

How were the space cloth seats? Comfortable/ Good quality?

[BruceK]

Paul,

Did you feel the full leather seats were more slippery in spirited driving vs. the cloth seats?

Oh, and did you have a chance to record any audio of the engine?

[Paul]

Quote:

Originally posted by MadMiniManiac
You say that the power is best at 2.5k to 3k revs.

Typo!

Whoops! 2.5 to 5k revs is more like it.

[MadMiniManiac]

That's a more reasonable power band then.
So is the low down grunt a lot better than the cooper?
Does it still have any flat spots like the cooper "3750 power dip" ?

Edited to say - The news has already spread to the EVO forum so maybe one of the rich guy's on there might give some sponsorship money.
I would but i'm a poor student in 700 quids worth of debt.

[Paul]

Seating.

Space cloth, it was the silver/grey and black finish (I'll post some pictures soon, too scruffy to grace the article).

The leather seats where blue/grey.

Both were very comfortable and grippy, the leather were a huge improvement on the non-sports leather seats.

My co-driver on day one, from Classic & Sports Car magazine was uncomfortable in the leather seats (which had lumbar support) after a while stuck in a traffic jam, I felt they were fine, but I had the lumbar support as far out the way as possible, I don't like it much for myself.

The cloth seats looked a bit odd to me, not so keen on the silver, looked a bit plain. But, the fact they had no pattern in the cloth also made the rear seats in particular look larger.

[Shay]

Paul
On a scale of 1 to 10 where would you place the Cooper vs the Cooper S in performance. Im talking day to day usable power rather than on the track.

[GeoffP]

Paul,
Have the rear wheel arches been modified to cover 16" & 17" wheels without fitting the ugly 'spats' fitted to lesser models with such wheels?

Geoff Poad

[robinboyes]

How many miles did the S's have on the clock ??
My Cooper didnt start to loosen up for at least 2000 miles.

[noahe]

Did the S feel any heavier than the Cooper when chucking it about?

Does the S engine make the car any quirkier, or is it still an easy drive?

Any idea what the Xenon interior lighting on the S was?

Shifting into Reverse? Can you do it by accident when downshifting from 2nd?

Any more shots from your adventure, regardless of how 'polished' they are? Think they'll turn up in your gallery (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

[BrantV]

Apart from the engine noise, is the transmission audible?

Did you have any problems engaging first gear? And did you try skipping gears from 1st->3rd, 4th->5th, etc...?

How well does it decelerate when you ease of the throttle?

And how good was the braking?

Road and track had unimpressive figures for the Cooper which were 60-0 in 143 feet, 80-0 in 253 ft. I'm assuming that the 175 tires were part of the problem, as well as the fact that they engage ABS by slamming their foot down. Was braking on the 17s significantly better?

Is that EB on 16s? The photos look great. Although a few could use some PS work to correct the sloping horizon line.

[Silver Surfer]

paul

your in the same boat as me cooper s vs cooper with all the trimmings

as my cooper has been rejected i have the chance to order an s as a replacement

im haveing a very hard time deciding what one to get
cooper fully loaded or an s with chili pack
(any one know a price and what you get yet)

I keep talking myself in to getting one then the other
after driving the s what one are you going for

[Yurinaut]

Nice article Paul. You solidified my choice for the S. I mailed off my specs to my dealer today. Can't wait to get that call.....ohh shivers.....

-Mike

[Paul]

I'll try and answer some more q's later on.

Regarding first/reverse.

There's no way you could go from 2nd to reverse in error, but I did go from other gears or neutral into reverse three times, normally when at a stand still, but fortunately not when parked on the cliff edge!

This I am sure is partly due to swapping to RHD.

[GoMiniGo]

Paul - switch to a LHD car could have definitely contributed to the mis-gearing. I drove a RHD Focus in Scotland and had a really hard time going from 2nd to 3rd. Always found 5th instead.

[minimum_wage]

Thank you for the review. It makes me feel better about waiting it out for an S. (I was kind of hoping you would be down on the car so that people who are ahead of me on the waiting list would go for the cooper instead.)