The point is that in Europe small cars of the MINI´s size are very common. But most of these cars do not have the technical, safety and luxury equipment of the MINI. Many of these cars are lighter than 2.200 US lbs. So referring to cars of its size the MINI is quite heavy, compared with cars of its performance level the weight is rather low.
The gearing is quite tall even for a European car but it´s not extremely tall when looking on the overall gearing. Most cars here won´t touch 60 mph in 2nd gear, the S even hits 70 mph. When you speak of taller gearings in Europe these comments mostly refer to the top gears which are designed as overdrive in many family cars. The first two or three gears are often quite short to improve acceleration during city traffic (remember many subcompact cars here have 1.0-1.4l displacement with fairly under 100 bhp). And some manufacturers also keep the top gears short enough to limit the top speed only via the rev limiter (BMW for example). One should also keep in mind the relative high rev level with a maximum of nearly 7k in the S which is about 15% above most family cars. That gives the opportunity to choose shorter gears but BMW/MINI didn´t take that chance.
Klaus
The gearing is quite tall even for a European car but it´s not extremely tall when looking on the overall gearing. Most cars here won´t touch 60 mph in 2nd gear, the S even hits 70 mph. When you speak of taller gearings in Europe these comments mostly refer to the top gears which are designed as overdrive in many family cars. The first two or three gears are often quite short to improve acceleration during city traffic (remember many subcompact cars here have 1.0-1.4l displacement with fairly under 100 bhp). And some manufacturers also keep the top gears short enough to limit the top speed only via the rev limiter (BMW for example). One should also keep in mind the relative high rev level with a maximum of nearly 7k in the S which is about 15% above most family cars. That gives the opportunity to choose shorter gears but BMW/MINI didn´t take that chance.
Klaus
