Poooof JCW market gone. MINI needs to come in with 300 HP car or the market will pass them buy. All because a BMW will NEVER allow a MINI to have as much HP of any BMW PERIOD. If you want that much power you will have to buy a BMW or an even better idea leave the brand.
There are lots of cars that meet that stupid Euro bumper regulation & look fine. MINI is just using that as an excuse for their terrible design. GP1 go for it Mark! :yesnod:
The RS will look like the current FoST, with some slight cosmetic changes. Ford has historically brought out the RS towards the end of the models life cycle. It's like what MINI does with the GP.
I love my MINI and it's not going anywhere. But we just drove the ST to DC and back and I have to say it is the best road trip car I've ever driven. Quite for the kind of car it is. Suspension is a great balance. Power and 29 mpg over the entire trip including all the stop and go in DC. Just sayn'.
And I read yesterday the new Mazdaspeed 3 is going to be 300HP plus and possibly AWD. And MINI just finished third in a comparison between the Golf and Honda Civic. WTF is this world coming too.... The only thing that might hurt the RS and the 3 is weight--they're not exactly light to begin with, and AWD wont' help that. I tried to find out if the 2nd generation RS shed weight from the stock Focus but couldn't find anything, I'm hoping the third generation RS will manage to come in significantly lighter than the stock Focus, otherwise it's not exactly going to be a featherweight (which is why I'd rather have a Fiesta RS but that's just me).
Where did you see this? Was it a comparison between base level Golf, Civic, and a Justa, or GTI, SI, and S?
The big push with car companies is "add lightness".... More high strength steels which can be thinner gauge and more aluminum... That would be with new designs..... Doubt Ford would re-engineer "lightness" in an out going "halo" car.... But they might add HP to offset some of the negatives of weight...
As Colin once said "simplify & add lightness". Car makers are now getting the lightness part, but not simplify, they are crazy complex machines now.
Civic Si, Golf GT, MCS, I'll have to find it, I think it was in Car and Driver. The most disappointing thing about it was that usually when the R53 or R56 gets "beaten" in a comparison, it's because of cabin noise, harsh ride, etc. The F56 took knocks for body roll, feeling somewhat like a pig in the corners, basically not being as fun. When MINI gets shoved out of the race because it's not enough of a drivers car, I foresee problems ahead....
Was it the article that was discussed here... http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/minis-other-media/22198-motor-trend-compares-four-fun-sporty-runabouts-under-30-000-a.html#axzz3BhGcWVyM
That is ^^ exactly what I said when I took an F56 for a hard test drive. Its not a MINI if it does not have "Go-cart" handling. It's just a small BMW full of Nanny stuff and Tech garbage.
That's the article, read it while I was waiting for a haircut. The "spitting out the mouthpiece" line was classic....Forgot the WRX was in it. I googled for it earlier and couldn't find it, but found this from 2006: page 5 - 2006 Honda Civic Si vs. 2006 Mini Cooper S vs. 2006 Volkswagen GTI - Road & Track My, how times change...
Thanks for the link to the good old days. I didn't see the R53 as losing. Depends what you want in a car, back road bomber says what I wanted when I bought mine. As I've gotten older & more crotchety comfort figures in more that in the past. That being said I still want to bomb around on the back roads. :yesnod:
Yes, but it wasn't because the car wasn't fun to drive, in fact many thought it was the most fun. The reason it lost was because of it's daily driver capability, or lackthereof. Which is exactly what the new comparison brings up--it improved its daily driver comfort, lost it's tossability, and STILL finished last. I'd rather have a driver's car that's a go cart, but harsh on the road, then a refined car that's lost it's handling edge, but that's me. Unfortunately, if you lose that niche of a drivers car, and you're still far behind as a daily driver, you're worse off than where you started. Read the bottom comments--if you're looking for a fun car on the track, this is it (2006), now, 2014, those comments are nowhere to be found... From 2006: "Despite its rough ride and twitchy in-town manners, the Mini Cooper S is a hoot that many hard-core enthusiasts would still give the nod over the other two. Its excellent power and light weight make it the purist performer of the bunch, but too many little quirks hurt its overall appeal. Help is on the way in the form of an all-new 2007 Mini, which could turn the tide." 'If you plan to do an occasional track day, or some serious back-road bombing, the Mini Cooper S is the best choice. Though slightly twitchy, it's the most responsive of the three and therefore the most fun; the harder you drive it the better it works. It would be my choice, despite its "too-cute" looks and ergonomically disastrous interior.' That's EXACTLY what I wanted in the car, in those two paragraphs. It's not to be had in the current generation.