For whatever reason, whether I was too busy over the past few years or BMW South Africa didn’t have Mini test vehicles when I had the time to test drive them, I have never driven a Mini and it wasn’t until the recent Mini Clubman launch that I realised on what I had been missing out.
Do you remember the Mini ad in which a guy races to get his girlfriend, who was stung by a bee, to hospital? But when they arrive after the Mini slaloms its way through traffic, she is better because of the adrenaline rush induced by the journey.
That’s how I felt after driving the 1,6-litre turbo-charged Clubman Cooper S during its recent launch in Cape Town — I was thoroughly impressed by just how responsive and sporty this Mini is.
‘It’s meant to be a quirky car,” said Guy Kilfoil, BMW/Mini communications manager, when I asked why it had only three doors as opposed to the regular format of either two or four doors. The Clubman has two doors in the front, a smaller rear-hinged so-called Clubdoor behind the driver and two swing-gate doors at the rear.
It’s 24cm longer than the regular Mini and was designed to offer buyers a roomier option in the range, which consists of the two-door Mini and the convertible, which is due to be replaced towards the end of the year.
An issue raised during the launch was why the Clubdoor was on the right-hand side, when common sense dictates that in right-hand drive markets the door should be on the left. Unfortunately, only a third of the Minis sold globally end up in right-hand drive markets, so it didn’t make sense to spend what would have been a massive amount of money to move the petrol tank to the right and the Clubdoor to the left of the vehicle.
Besides, the only real worry is that the Clubdoor would open into traffic, but this door doesn’t have an exterior handle and can be opened only when the driver’s door is opened.
The slick six-speed gearbox makes pushing this brash upstart to its limit an effortlessly easy task and the confident road-holding ensures that a little spirited driving isn’t discouraged.
The suspension on the Cooper S, which has 128kW of power and 240Nm of torque, is a bit stiff and that’s the way we like it on a car with as much vooma as this. The Cooper S accelerates from 0-100km/h in 7,6s and reaches a respectable top speed of 224km/h.
The exterior is easy on the eye and the interior styling continues the quirky theme with silver switches where you would normally expect run-of-the-mill buttons for things like the electric windows. It’s a comfortable enough interior with the fitment standard quite high and there is now sufficient room for at least four adults, and when the rear seats are folded down there is a whopping 900-odd litres of space.
But there was one thing that was quite jarring inside the Mini: there is the most hideously large speedo in the centre of the dashboard. It’s not even at a slight angle, as these central speedometers sometimes are, to make it easier for the driver to know what speed he or she is driving at.
This is where the quirky theme falls flat on the tarmac with a thud. A central speedo is not quirky or different or clever — it’s normally an attempt by whatever manufacturer to distinguish its product from other cars and if it is not done properly it comes across as shortsighted, lazy and daft. Especially on a car as quick as the Cooper S, you want to know what speed you’re driving at and to have to take your eyes of the road, even for a split-second, at high speeds, is ridiculous.
Thankfully, the rev counter is where it should be, in front of the driver, so you will still be able to tell when you’ve buried that rev-counter needle too far into the red zone.
The usual electronic gizmos such as ABS, EBD, cornering brake control and dynamic stability control are standard, as are six airbags, electrical power steering and cruise control.
The functional yet sporty Mini Clubman Cooper retails at R209 500 and the Cooper S (which is well worth the extra moolla) will set you back R260 500.