The June 2007 issue of Road & Track compares another gaggle of “hot pocket-rockets”. Included in the test with the 2007 MINI Cooper S are the Honda Civic Si, Mazdaspeed3, Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, and Volkswagen GTI, all sporty cars in econobox guise. This is the theme of the twelve-page article.

The test took place on the curvy roads of northern California and the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Road & Track testers rated the five cars in several performance categories like acceleration, slalom, skidpad, and braking. Subjective ratings were applied to driving excitement, engine, gearbox, handling, styling, and others. All cars were four-door models except for the MINI Cooper S.

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If you saw the Minspeed (formerly MyMini) Dyno Day articles and the Minspeed pulley review, you know that I have made some engine performance upgrades to my 2006 MINI Cooper S. What you may not know is that I have also been working on upgrading the way my MINI handles as well. Over the past few months I have upgraded various parts of the MINI’s suspension (from brakes to coilovers). I plan to cover these upgrades in a series we will call - “The MotoringFun Suspension Project”. For this first article, I will cover the first 3 changes that were made - brakes, wheels and tires.

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Octane TV’s Sexy Road Test recently reviewed the 2007 MINI Cooper S. Verena motors around L.A. giving us the facts and figures on the new MCS as well as some history of John Cooper and the classic Mini rally cars of the ’60s.

For those who don’t know, last month I pulled the trigger on the next logical step in the search for more power under the bonnet - the Minspeed 15% supercharger pulley. If you recall, back at the Minspeed (MyMini) Winter Dyno Day, my 2006 MINI Cooper S was upgraded from stock status to modded status with the addition of the JCW intake and JCW exhaust with the Minspeed resonator eliminator. Those two mods put a grin on my face from the increased torque and enhanced sound, but nothing can compare to what was to follow next. Enter the pulley…

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I can’t believe it is March already. Summer is sneaking up on us in just a few months and now is a great time to start planning your summer motoring trips. For those trying to think of places to motor, alpinamike sent in this review of his trip last summer to Canada where he got to ride the Italian Job Stunt Track at Canada’s Wonderland Park. Thanks for the review Mike!

Here is a nice video review of the 2007 MINI from Roadfly.com.

[ 2007 MINI Video Review @ Roadfly.com ]

I have now been driving around with the JCW exhaust equipped with the MyMini/Minspeed resonator eliminator for a month and feel I can now give a true assessment of this mod. For those that missed it, check out the MyMini Winter Dyno Day posts (see links below) for information on my installation.

The resonator eliminator gives the JCW exhaust a deeper and throatier sound. It is louder than stock, but ONLY when you get on the gas. I find that the burble is much more pronounced and louder. If you are one of those MINI owners that hates the burble (or “back-firing” as some call it), than this mod (or most any exhaust mod for that matter) is not for you. I have found a way to control the burble, however. If you keep the revs consistent while shifting (ie. matching revs), you can actually suppress the burble for the most part. If you want more burble, simply press the gas a bit and let off completely. It really is quite a bit of fun playing with this aspect of the exhaust and enhances the motoring experience.

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Tonight I got my first look at the R56 in the flesh (or sheet metal as the case may be). And yes - I did get to drive it Special thanks to Burton Levine of Vista MINI for taking the time out of his busy schedule to give me a personal tour of the new MINI. I must say that when I first walked into the showroom tonight, I almost did not notice the new car at all. The staff at Vista MINI cleverly parked an R56 Cooper alongside a 2006 MINI Cooper and, at a quick glance, you really can’t tell the difference. If it was not for the enlarged fog lights I never would have picked it out without really looking hard. The beltlines are slightly higher and the side markers and side view mirrors are larger as well. But again, none of these details will be apparent to the casual passer-by/non-enthusiast.

If you have not had a chance to check out “MyMini Dyno Day - Part 1“, make sure you take a few minutes to read over it. In today’s article, I compiled all the data from the various cars that attended the MyMini Dyno Day, including mod lists, to give you an idea of what you can expect from certain mods. Unfortunately, I don’t have baseline data for the modded cars (except for mine) so there is no way to tell where they started from. Regardless, it should provide an interesting read. Please note that some runs were done with the famous blue wind tunnel contraption and some were just done with a large fan. If you see a car with one run higher than the other, chances are that run was done with the blue wind tunnel on the intercooler. Make sure you also check out the pictures in the gallery from the dyno day as well. I am working on a short video compilation of the various dyno runs and hope to have that posted soon too! Well enough of all that - now onto the results….

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On January 20, 2007, MotoringFun.com sponsor, MyMini, hosted a “Winter Dyno Day” in South Florida. Granted, most will not consider 68 degrees winter weather, but I’ll take it! We had approximately 15 MINIs come out for this event, inlcluding my own 2006 MINI Cooper S, known as “Scooter”. I had been eagerly anticipating this dyno day for a few months as I wanted to get a baseline dyno reading on my car in stock configuration before the modifications began. The modifications that are planned are not extreme by any means, however, before I started upgrading parts I wanted to see what our friends from Oxford gave me.
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