MINI COOPER S AUTOMATIC
Does A
MINI Cooper S With An Automatic Gearbox Make Sense? Steve Ghosley Finds Out
To the petrol-head and the purist, the notion of an automatic gearbox in a MINI Cooper S would seem sacrilege at the a very least. For a driver to be totally in control of a fast sports car, manual gear selection has always been deemed to be an essential requirement, or so their theory goes. With modern technology and changing driving conditions, however, this argument is starting to look a little thin.
When you think of the amount of time our road cars spend in first gear these days crawling along in a traffic jam and the pressure exerted on drivers to reduce their speeds through the use of cameras and fines, the idea of throwing a car into a bend at high speed with the gearbox screaming as you change down starts to seem a bit out of place in this modern age. So, the idea of a fast sports car with a sophisticated automatic gearbox like the Mini Cooper S Automatic that we look at here may not be such a bad idea after all. The MINI Cooper S Automatic comes with a six-speed automatic transmission that includes Steptronic paddles on the steering wheel as standard. This is different from the Continuously Variable Transmission system offered on the MINI One and MINI Cooper as it has fixed gear ratios, which result in quicker gear changes.
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The paddles afford the effect of manual gear changing and provide input to the AGS system. This system, the acronym for which somehow stands for Adaptive Transmission Control, causes the transmission to adapt to the drivers driving style. So, if you like driving hard and changing late, then it will recognise this and maintain a gear for longer before changing up. The option for the automatic comes as an additional cost of £1,050.
Visually, from all aspects the automatic version looks just like the manual model. The bonnet sits 40mm higher than other MINIs to accommodate the added air intake scoop, necessary to cool the supercharger that boosts power from the standard Coopers 115bhp to some 170 braked horses - in excess of 100bhp per litre for those who cant be bothered with the mental arithmetic.
"The standard chassis is so good that it would have been a waste not to further exploit the whole set-up"
Theres a rear roof-mounted spoiler, plus body-coloured re-modelled front and rear sport bumpers, styled to contribute both to engine cooling and air flow. More air is channelled under the bonnet through an integrated black honeycomb grille in the bumper and theres a similar grille at the rear with two chrome-plated tailpipes sitting in the middle of it. Final touches include a couple of chrome-plated side grilles incorporating white indicator lenses and stamped with the Cooper S and a chrome-plated fuel filler cap. A recent round of revisions also added clear lens headlamps as well as the Hyper Blue colour option.
What is more important is that supercharged 1.6-litre engine, capable of rocketing the car from rest to sixty-two in 7.7s on the way to 137mph. This is only 0.
5s slower than the manual version in the sprint and 1mph less on the top speed. All of which would be useless were the basic car to be incapable of capitalising on all that power. The standard chassis is so good that it would have been a waste not to further exploit the whole set-up. The Cooper S package does that brilliantly.
Clamber underneath and youll spot BMWs Z-axle multi-link rear suspension, now made even more responsive with reinforced anti-roll bars on both axles and firmer springs that balance the increased engine output and lower the cars centre of gravity. This produces optimum road contact and cuts down on the kind of body roll you get when taking bends at speed. The excellent weight distribution (63% on the front wheels and 37% on the rear) also helps here. The first thing many will notice about the interior will still be the centrally mounted speedometer.
Otherwise, the interior isnt far removed from the other
MINI models and thats no bad thing. Access to the rear is still horrendous, although the laughable boot of the original Mini has been replaced by a more practical hatchback arrangement capable of carrying a decent amount of luggage. Some rather cheap silver-painted plastics are used in the interior, as the original aluminium fittings were ditched on the grounds of cost. Still, whats important is that under the skin, the Cooper S boasts all the post-millennial must-haves, including ABS, CBC (cornering brake control) and EBD (electronic brakeforce distribution).
In addition to this, BMWs lauded ASC+T (a combined traction control system) is included. Unfortunately, the DSC Dynamic Stability Control system is a pricey extra, which should be standard. All right, so the MINIs chassis is very good but in this car, youll soon develop such confidence behind the wheel that ridiculous cornering appears on the agenda sooner than you may at first credit. It probably wont have escaped your attention that parent company
BMW dont have a great deal of experience in producing front-wheel drive cars.
In fact, their advertising seems to pour scorn on the benefits of directing power forwards. Moreover, other manufacturers have shown that producing a sweet-handling yet powerful front-wheel drive car can be something of a task. Not so here. This Cooper S was pounded round the fearsome Nurburgring until it was right: BMW, after all, arent renowned for creating dynamic duffers. The MINI Cooper S in its manual form is a truly magnificent car when driven in the way it was intended. Many people aspire to own such vehicles and indeed do but with little intention of ever driving them to the limits of their design. The MINI Cooper S Automatic will appeal to this growing band of motorists who will be content to sit in a traffic jam knowing that they could, if they wanted to, mix it with the best of them.
BMW will find a ready market in America.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: MINI Cooper S Automatic
PRICE: £16,230 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 15
CO2 EMISSIONS: 216g/km
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 137mph / 0-62mph 7.7s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 22.1mpg (urban) / 41.5mpg (extra urban) / 31.4mpg (combined)
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front and side airbags, ASC+T, ABS with EBD
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 3626/1925/1396mm
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