[James Haigh]

Test drove 2 Hartge Cooper S's yesterday down at Birds of Uxbridge.
Was three up which didn't help but the car felt noticeably quicker than my standard S with just me in. Weight of passengers equalled about 170kg which doesn't exactly do much for the power to weight ratio!!!!
Third and fourth are where the car most shines in my opinion. The gearing is even longer than before (Bad or good, decide for yourself) but 2nd wasn't too far shy of 80 when fully wound on and 3rd showed an indicated ton.
The supercharger wine if also quite a lot more apparent.
I pick mine up on Saturday morning and can't wait to see the difference with just me in.
Like the standard S the car has a very smooth power delivery right through the rev range and keeps on pulling hard right through to above 7000 revs.
When driving slow at low revs I didn't notice any hesitation or juddering like I have read on few occasions before.

[northandy]

James... are you getting the exhaust as well ?... i'm thinking about the kit for next year, but really like the look of the exhaust so might get that first (i've heard it wont make much of a difference power wise on the standard "S")... as for your comment on gearing, do you mean its longer because you can use the higher rev range, or did they have different gearboxes ?.... have fun !!!

[James Haigh]

I would love the exhaust. It looked and sounded awsome but doesn't give any power gains according to Hartge/Birds. Still I want it bad but at 900 quid it is just not going to happen at the moment unfortunatley.
The gearing is longer due to the increase in revs you have to play with.
I test drove two Hartge S's, one had the exhaust and one didn't. Felt pretty much the same when nailed!!!