It’s bigger and more serious than ever before, so the
rules of the game don’t apply, right? The new Mini begs to differ.
Growing up is rarely ever a picnic. Because for most of us,
it invariably involves getting serious about life, picking a career path and
sticking to it, planning for the future… things that most of us would rather
ignore until the gun shows up next to your head.
And then there’s the Mini, which seems to love growing up.
The Mini is that happy-go-lucky kid who got all the girls in high school, and
along the way, in a sort of natural progression, became a complete man – and
still gets all the girls. The Mini’s growing up has happened over 55 long but
extremely chilled out years. Ladies and gentleman – the new Mini Cooper S.
The Mini Cooper S
is every bit as good as its predecessor
But wait. In the process of growing up, has it forgotten how
to play? To have fun? To take corners like no other hatch can even think of? To
find out, we take a 20-hour flight halfway around the world, to Puerto Rico,
where Mini has lined up a few, well, Minis for us to have a go in.
This new Cooper is longer and wider than any other before
it. It’s grown a full 10cm in length and 4cm in width. This, the engineers say,
has been done to cope with the ever-increasing demands of the safety
department.
Apart from growing in size, the styling too is more mature.
Having said that, it’s still very classic Mini – large round headlamps,
hexagonal grille and overall round-theme metalwork.
Sports seats in
the Cooper S offer plenty of support
The big news for the technically inclined is that there’s
one less cylinder here. The block is now a 3-cylinder unit that displaces 1.5
litres. The similarity in displacement and number of cylinders with the new BMW
i8 is no coincidence. Yes, this is the same block that they’ve slipped into the
sci-fi-faced sedan from Munich. But here, it’s been heavily altered to suit
this pint-size hatchback.
The twin-stage turbo too is all-new, as is the magnitude of
tune. It gets variable valve timing and all the other mumbo jumbo needed for
the ideal compromise of power and economy. Output is 136bhp and 220Nm of spin.
Unheard of power from a 3-cylinder block in a hatch.
Also something you don’t normally associate with a
three-pot, and what you have here, are refinement, smoothness, and the ability
to rev quickly and cleanly up and down the band. Okay, so it’ll feel like a
three-pot despite all the German engineering that has gone in, but having said that,
it is the best three-pot you can have – oh, and best-sounding one as well.
As with the
standard Cooper, the cabin of the Cooper S is much improved
The Cooper that we’re driving in Puerto Rico has this engine
mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. There’s little chance that Mini will bring
this manual to India, and even it if does, it won’t be a bad thing. It’s slick
and smooth. It’s a pleasure to shift through the cogs with its super-short
throws. And in this combination, Mini claims it’ll hit a ton in 7.9 seconds.
Not bad for a hatch, and a three-pot at that, no?
Still, that might feel a bit unhurried relative to the more
powerful Cooper S, which will do 100 in 6.7sec. And the secret of that agility
is in the block. This one is a full-size 4-cylinder unit that displaces two
full litres of raw power. A total of 192 horses and 280Nm, with help from a
twin-stage blower. This one too begs to be revved all the way to the redline at
6,500rpm. The dividend of that two-stage turbo is that it can produce max torque
from as low as 1,250. No lag, no delay, just power from the word go.
