The third-generation Mini arrives on UK roads and
faces the Blue Oval’s benchmark hot hatch. Can the Mini’s extra power help it
overcome its weight and price shortfalls?
Mini treads a very fine line with its new
Cooper S. Arguably it always has, but in the latest iteration the bells,
whistles and son et lumière seem to have been ratcheted up another notch, so
the line is thinner than ever. Some of the designs and ideas, I confess, I
looked at with childish glee. The ring of lights around the hug e central
display illuminates in various ways and colours depending on the function being
performed: call someone via Bluetooth and some blue dashes chase each other
round the circle; with the satnav engaged, a semicircle lights up and then
diminishes as you near the next junction or turning; select the ‘Green’ driving
mode and it glows purple (only joking with this last one).
The
Mini gets a new, lighter six-speed manual gearbox that has quicker, slicker
shifts
The whole interior is fun, and with the
new, more supportive seats (the seats were always a let-down in previous
generations) and fantastic NVH levels, it feels like a lovely place on a long
journey. But then it oversteps the mark. Turn the collar at the base of the
gear lever (an excellent idea that saves you hunting for a button in the heat
of battle) to select Sport and the screen in the circle displays the words
‘Maximum go-kart feel’. That’s like selling a cask-strength whisky with the slogan
‘Particularly light-headed and giggly version’. To compound this crassness, the
message is accompanied with thought-bubble pictures of a go-kart and a small
rocket, both of which look like they have been drawn for a cheery pre-school
book. It’s patronizing towards both the driver and the car.
Excellent
body control, well weighted steering and mobile rear end make the Fiesta ST a
great drive
It’s a good job, then, that the Mini is
largely best left in its Normal setting. The car that we drove on the launch
was fitted with the standard passive dampers, but this UK car has the optional
($635) variable dampers, which would seem like an option worth speccing.
Sometimes the differences between variable damper settings can be fairly
minimal, but the Cooper S’s demeanour changes markedly. In its standard setting
the car feels much more supple, particularly in its secondary ride, and as a
result copes far better with bumpy UK B-roads (and general everyday driving).
There's
more elbow and kneeroom up front compared with the previous Mini
On smoother terrain you get a little extra
precision from the steering in Sport mode, but tome the car feels happier as a
whole in its more relaxed setting because it breathes with the road rather than
fighting it. The standard 16in wheels (our car is on17s, a $765 option) might
change things, so it would be interesting to try a car with a bit more
sidewall, unfashionable though that might be.
There
are few identifiers to mark the ST out as the sporting flagship inside
Sport mode is more enjoyable for what it
does to the engine, sharpening the throttle response and allowing some
exuberant pops from the exhaust on a trailing throttle. The Mini also has a
rev-matching system on the manual gearbox (effectively heel-and-toeing for you
when you down-change) and this seems to improve in Sport mode, although it is
disabled if you turn off the DSC. Mini claims 189bhp and 206lb ft of torque, up
8bhp and 29lb ft on the previous generation car, but the new2-litre turbo
engine doesn’t feel like it has quite the eagerness and enthusiasm of the old
1.6 turbo (which frequently felt much more potent than its official figures).
However, the Cooper S remains a very quick little car and you still need to be
careful how you ladle on the power out of tighter corners if you don’t want to
find the DSC cutting in as it tries to curb the wheelspin.
