Mini Cooper S Coupe
While not exactly practical, modern Mini has usurped it’s perhaps pretentious retro design roots. It is now available in coupe form. Take a two door with almost no back seat or boot, chop away half the roof and in so doing lose the back seat completely, while eliminating some of the boot height. What do you get? One of the best cars I have driven in ages. Rather than being a compromised family car, this is a completely selfish and impractical sports coupe which is only capable of raising adrenalin in two people at a time. In Cooper S form as tested that is exactly what it did. In a recent trip up and down the Franschoek pass, it was exhilarating, pure and completely focussed. In this Mini less is so much more. To make it go faster they added lightness. It turns in, hugs the road and responds almost telepathically. It is so good that I am having to resort to the standard hackneyed motoring cliches to describe it. Apologies. In short it is a treat.
No it won’t pull a plough or get the kindergarten across the river in an emergency. What it will do is light up your face in a rictus smile on every mountain pass. It will also attract a lot of attention in town with its looks. At night the interior is lit up as in all modern Mini’s by variable colour lighting. While mentioning that interior, it is similar to preceding Mini’s, but better. Every item is just a little incrementally improved, making this a remarkably better interior from an admittedly high base. It really is that good. The switchgear is more encompassing, more ergonomic, good looking and if you can decode modern symbols, intuitive. Even the BMW derived iDrivey thingummy is easy enough to use, even if my iPod and iPad steadfastly insisted on remaining mute, and never quite worked, an apparent software upgrade issue. The Mini connectivity, including streaming internet radio and Facebook and Twitter connectivity is a treat. The integration works. It is also cool, if you are on an iPhone, iPod or iPad, you can get feedback on the car back at home. If you download the Mini-connected app, it will tell you things like how many litres of fuel are left and the like.
Scan its credentials and the performance may seem lacklustre among fast hatchback brethren. From the wheel it is a different story. It has a very firm, if too large tyres aren’t selected, but resilient ride. Skittishness is just avoided, and what remains is sharpness. It feels, on bad roads, as if it is an invincible rally car, skating in control above ripples. It is predictable and rewarding to push hard, but just as importantly, easy. It doesn’t corner on rails so much as dance around corners to its masters every wish. It is that good. The six speed manual box on test was crisp and slick and a delight to row about in. 6.9 seconds to 100km/h and 6.3 litres per 100km are good enough numbers really. 135 kW is derived from the boosted 1600, torque is 240Nm which climbs to 260 briefly on over-boost.
The drivetrain has tractability at its heart; this isn’t some 1 dimensional rev happy track-day car, it is quite happy to allow you to go from dawdle to illegal while lazily leaving it in sixth. In sport mode the exhaust popped and spluttered in a reassuringly impolite, overfuelling and endearingly noisy way. It sounded just right. In normal mode it played good citizen and suitable to do the morning traffic in without becoming tiring or droning..
Not without its flaws, the first being, for the pleasure of getting less of a Mini, you get to pay more, from the ‘“regular” S at R288,000; this one is a mere R319 000. It’s other fault, and mind you, I hardly noticed it between the ride and the Harman Kardon sound system was a persistent rattle from the boot area.