Mini Cooper
Long-Term Car: 2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe First Impressions
After our first driving experience with the new Mini Coupe, you can probably imagine our delight when we found out we’d be able to get a Cooper S Coupe in for a long-term test. Historically our long-term coverage of cars has lead to better and deeper understanding of the models (no surprise there), and I don’t know that we’ve ever had anything as interesting to drive and as controversial to our audience as the Coupe for the long haul. Our year with Mini should prove to be filled with debate, at the very least.
Rumors: Auto Show—Mini Panel Van Coming To Geneva
Auto Motor und Sport is reporting that Mini will be launching a cargo-oriented version of the Mini Cooper Clubman at the Geneva Auto Show. The Clubman sits on a stretched version of the standard Cooper’s hatchback platform.
Winding Road Video: 2012 Mini Cooper JCW Coupe – Quick Drive
This week at Winding Road, we open up the taps on a 2012 Mini Cooper JCW Coupe.
Winding Road Presents The Best Cars Of 2012
If you’re a driving enthusiast, and are considering the purchase of a new car in 2012, the prospect of you being able to find something you truly love is better than ever before. Horsepower and torque are being delivered to the winding roads of our nation in record outputs. Fuel economy is getting better at a faster rate than ever before, while overall luxury, safety, and build quality leaves even the last generation of automobiles in the dust.
Long Term Car: 2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe
With the dawn of a new year just behind us, we decided it was high time we got another long-term tester into the office. This time around, we snagged a 2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe for a whopping 366 days. That’s right, we’ll be driving this Mini through the snows of February, the ice of April, the humidity of August, and the changing colors of October, as we take it on road trips both far and wide.
List: Top Ten Racecars Of 2011
Being an automotive journalist is a pretty cool job. We drive sweet cars, do a lot of traveling, and generally get to be car guys for 40 hours a week. That being said, if you asked any of the staffers at Winding Road if there’s another job they’d rather have, odds are racecar driver would be pretty high up on the list. That’s right, we’re all big race fans, and 2011 has been a great year for new race cars. Why list our favorites? Because racecar.
Driven: 2012 Toyota Yaris
Throw it into a bend, and it just seems to go. It’s not the most graceful cornering experience you’ll ever have, tending to roll a bit too much, but this thing’s ability to carry speed around corners will put at least a small smile on your face. Where it’s different from the previous model is that it actually is tolerable to ride in when you aren’t going around turns. The suspension does a good job of soaking up road imperfections, although it’s hardly Ford Fiesta-like in its execution. There’s still too much vertical motion over the real rough patches.
First Look: 2013 Chevrolet Spark
Attractive, affordable, efficient, and they make one in pink. What else do you need to know about the upcoming Chevrolet Spark mini car, honestly?
List: The Ten Greatest Movie Cars
We like movies. More importantly, we like movies that feature cars as integral parts of the story. So we’ve put together a list of ten of the most influential, important, and downright entertaining vehicles in cinema history. Quite simply, these cars made the movies as much as any flesh-and-blood actor. Of course, there will be disputes about just whether we should have included Mad Max’s Ford Falcon, James Bond’s Toyota 2000GT, or Herbie (wait, there probably won’t be any arguments about that last one). We’re pretty confident with our choices though. So without further ado, read on for our list of the ten greatest cars from the movies.
First Look: 2012 Mini Roadster
The ink is still drying on our first drive of the Mini Coupe, and already the Anglo-German brand is dropping another model on us. Called the Mini Roadster, it is essentially a convertible version of the Coupe, sporting a similar two-seat, three-box design.
List: Ten Best Vehicles For Tailgating
The pro and college football seasons are well and truly underway, which means if you haven’t been, you need to start thinking about tailgates. Keys to a good tailgate vehicle include storage, looks, and seating among others. Oh yeah, and as per WR rules, they need to be pretty good to drive too. Go Blue!
Driven: 2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe
This car takes Mini’s trademark go-kart handling to another level. Minis already deliver the majority of feedback through the suspension, and that is no different on the Coupe. But it’s the way that information is transmitted that really impresses. The two-seater uses a torsion wall, which runs between the seats and trunk, and connects to the B-pillars and rocker panels. This keeps the Coupe structurally rigid, while having the happy effect of transmitting the cars lateral motion right behind the driver’s gluteus maximus. This front-drive Mini delivers an almost mid-engine sensation of feedback, as the majority of weight passes extremely close to the driver.
Comparison Test: Mini Cooper S Countryman All4 vs. Nissan Juke AWD
Too often our characterizations of the cars we drive are heavily influenced by the way those cars look. My use of “our” here is fairly inclusive, with auto writers, enthusiasts, and run-of-the-mill drivers all included. As reviewers, we obviously try to take a step back from our initial, uninformed first feelings about a vehicle in an effort to make an objective appraisal. But the truth is that sometimes it can be hard to look at something that you are instinctively drawn to, and then find fault with it. We want to like the cars that we like the looks of—simple truth.
Secondhand Gems: Sensible Twenty-Something Fun
It’s Friday evening at the local pub. Or Saturday afternoon at the coffee house near campus. Or Monday morning in the break room at work. Wherever you go, you’re almost always surrounded by a core group of friends and colleagues; they’re young, single, perhaps a bit idealistic but also realistic, just like you.
Winding Road Video: 2011 Mini Countryman – Quick Drive
This week we take you on a short tour of the 2011 Mini Countryman. For this video, we left the Countryman in sport mode (hence all the pops and burbles from the exhaust).
Winding Road Issue 72 Is Now Available!
In this very special issue of Winding Road, we pick the best of all the engaging cars we’ve driven in the 2011 Winding Road Involvement Index Awards.
Blog: 2011 Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works vs. The Aftermarket
In terms of engine mods, the JCW features reinforced pistons, a lower compression ratio (10.0:1 versus 10.5:1 in the Cooper S) and more boost (1.3 bar in the JCW, 0.9 bar in the Cooper S) from a larger turbocharger and exhaust manifold. A larger cold-air intake and mass airflow sensor are also fitted to improve throttle response. Finally, a reworked exhaust system produces a genuinely mean sounding note, that barks and burbles on overrun. All that mechanical nonsense means there’s 208 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque (207 pound-feet during overboost) at the disposal of your right foot.
Quick Drive: 2012 Fiat 500 Sport 6AT
For starters, the automatic gearbox isn’t a bad one, shifting appropriately up and down on its own most of the time, and quick-but-not-jarring when used via the “Auto Stick” lever. Considering that the five-speed manual isn’t a terrific gearbox as far as these things go, the “loss” in terms of enthusiastic driving for the auto isn’t as great as it might be.
Comparison Test: 2012 Fiat 500 Sport vs. 2011 Mini Cooper
When we reported our first drive experience with the 2012 Fiat 500 back in February, the response we got to the review was remarkable. Hundreds of you felt moved to write comments directed at our assessment of the car, about the history and future of Fiat in America, and in response to one another. Of course a massive number of you also questioned, both with genuine curiosity and with already-entrenched bias, how the 500 would stack up in a head-to-head duel with the Mini Cooper.
List: The 15 Most Involving Cars Per Dollar
We came across an interesting statistic while working on the Quick Drive of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X SE last week. By cross referencing the Evo’s score on the Involvement Index, we discovered that each point of involvement would cost about $411. Compare that to our Index-topping Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sports, which with a $2.58-million price tag will cost approximately $26,000 per point, and you see the bargain that the Evo represents.
Refreshed: What’s Changed For The 2011 Mini Cooper S
After two to three years on the market, it isn’t unusual to see a manufacturer change some things about a model, no matter how successful it’s been. Such has been the case for the 2011 Mini Cooper S, which sees a host of changes inside, outside, and under the hood. We spent a week with the revised Cooper S to see what impact these changes actually made.
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