Mini Cooper S 2008>

[ROY]

Anyone got a Cooper S ??
Just replaced the Mrs Beetle Tdi with a 59 Plate Cooper Vert with a JCW full body kit in Lazer Blue (Almost the same as Sprint Blue)
Looks the dogs danglies but christ its so sloooooow !!
Or am i just ruined after driving the RS4

Come to think of it the A6 Tdi i'm in now is slow too

[Rick_RS4]

map it

[Trups]

Roy.

i have a Cooper S D coming mid March in white silver Met. Mrs moaned i had a nice car so my arm has been bent right back ive had to purchase one for her.

options i bought are:
sport pack
chilli pack
media pack
black xenons
sport suspension
black bonet stripes.

I didnt go for leather as i will put the JCW recaro CS's in towards the end of this year.

i drove a cooper D and that was ok, as soon as i got in the S D i quickly changed my mind.

Not the quickest cars but for the mrs it will do.

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Wife has a cooper S 2008 and yes in a straight line it is slow... but not sure what you expect from a 1.6 french engine?

Find the right road and you'll find that it'll give the RS4 a run for it's money and be incredibly good fun.
I see it as not better or worse thatn the RS4 but different.

[barryrs]

My wife is on her second cooper S; she had a 2002 model and when getting a newer one she preferred to stick with the supercharged version rather then the turbo. They are great fun through some twisty corners but as you say they feel pretty slow in a straight line.

Just as well as it happens because the turbos suffer with carbon build up.

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we haven't had any issues with carbon... although both me and the wife drive it like we stole it
I prefer the turbo if only not to have the really loud whiney power steering pump on the supercharged version!

[barryrs]

The power steering whine is much less obvious on the newer one than the early 2002 one but as you say still much louder than you would expect.

The carbon build up is the same as any other direct injection engine so worst case is the loss of a few BHP which is probably less obvious on a car with 170 or so bhp.

[ROY]

Glad I'm not the only one thinking its slow
My Mrs had a G40 Polo years ago which would bury the mini and that was only 115bhp so was expecting a bit more from the mini.

You need to be careful with the steering too bloody tramlining is a real concern especially with 17" run flats on
Think ill get the tracking double checked

[ROY]

Here's a pic of the little rascal

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You need to be careful with the steering too bloody tramlining is a real concern especially with 17" run flats on
Think ill get the tracking double checked

A lot depends on the model - the mk1 was not designed with run flats in mind and it bloody shows.
The mk2 is much better as the suspension was setup with runflats from the outset.

We spec'd ours with the front LSD and it makes it mcuh better on the front end when throwing it about and under power.

[ROY]

This one has LSD too ads
Its done 20k miles and one thing I've noticed when driving is the steering wheel isn't central when driving and its pulling to the right and really pulls to the right if you hit an imperfection in the road then kicks back left again.
I think the tracking is out, poss the right side is toed our too far so the slightest imperfection and that side wants to follow it
Had some fun in it but until i get the steering sorted I can't give it the beans
Good looking car though and surprisingly it's deffo a crumpet puller LOL

[hammy969]

Other half has 61 plate cooper s. A major step forward from her old cooper. Also it does not have run flats . This makes the handling so much more predictable, especially if you hit bumps mid corner.

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It's very sensitive to front wheel sizes - we had to replace one due to ou crude and was a bit crappy for a while. In the end rotated the wheels about with the rears.
Made things so much better with relatively similar sized front wheels.

[ROY]

Update on steering issue
Reported it to Mini and they told me to send it in to Mini but i don't want them to touch the car after what we found
Had the car up on the ramp at my local MOT station and OMG N/S Lower track control arm bush totally shot and O/S on its way - no wonder it was all over the place
How the hell did that get through an MOT at Mini 3 weeks ago ???? Not happy at all
Clutch is also a concern
Foot is almost off the pedal before it bites - plus a bit of clutch smell
Bushes being replaced in the morning along with tracking/alignment and clutch check

I can feel my neck swelling
If the clutch is on its way the car will be back at Mini like a blinking shot

Not a happy Bunny so far

[ROY]

Both n/s and o/ s bushes done wow what a difference
Bloody thing sticks to the road well