SA Road Tests

Welcome

It struck me one day that people who love cabriolets, convertibles, roadsters, drop-tops, sports cars - call them what you will - are probably less concerned with who made them than with how they make their drivers feel. It's rather like motorcycles; there is an indescribable unity with Nature, a one-ness with the road and a bonding with the elements - the sun on your skin, the breeze through your hair and the living sounds of the open road.

That's why I decided to copy and paste all my cabriolet reports into a single folder where drop-top fans can find them all without having to scrabble through endless menus.

I have to warn you that it took a while to warm to the cabriolet phenomenon - convertibles are mostly loved, hankered after and driven by women, so we guys often find them hard to appreciate. For that reason, you may find some of the writing a little tongue-in-cheek, sceptical or even downright chauvinist. What can I say? I'm male and I can't help it. Just bear with me though, because I believe that the stories still contain valid information that will hopefully help you make an informed buying decision.


*To read one of our road tests, just select from the drop-down menu that appears as you hover your cursor over the folder's title.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports, so even if you're looking to buy second-hand, you have an idea of what it cost originally.


We drive the 2009 MINI Cooper ‘S’ convertible

Roof-down is actually quite fun

Much has been written about the Mini and its 50-year history. The basic econobox of 1959 developed through various body styles and engine expansions, winning races and rallies along the way. It also, like the VW Beetle, wriggled its way into the hearts of people everywhere.

Again, like the Beetle, it has been chosen by marketing types as an icon upon which to build a retro-mobile aimed at those who hate to let go of the past. Unlike the original, though, today’s Mini is no longer a funky and cheeky little buzzbox designed to provide transport for the masses. It has, like most 50-year olds, gained in mass and girth while developing a taste for comfort and modern conveniences. Put another way, the student activist has become a card-carrying Capitalist.

Witness the addition over the years of air conditioning, a German engine with twin-scroll turbocharging, a myriad electronic driving aids, leather seats, Xenon headlights and heaven knows what else. Current editions, like the Cooper ‘S’ convertible I drove recently, even have electrically operated soft tops. In other words, it’s a BMW on a short wheelbase, fitted with a plumper rendition of its earlier body. In light of its new persona. then, let’s look at what it is…

MINI convertibles share the same basic 1 598 cc 16-valve four-cylinder engine, available in three stages of tune – ‘Cooper’ in 88 kW naturally aspirated form, ‘Cooper S’ in 128 kW turbocharged configuration and ‘John Cooper Works (JCW),’ the 155 kW version. All but the JCW are available with a choice of 6-speed manual or automatic transmissions.

All are fitted with air conditioning, CD player/radio with MP3 and auxiliary input, four airbags, active roll-over bars, disc brakes all around, central door locking with crash sensors, dynamic stability control with ABS and CBC, fog lights, a multi function steering wheel, park distance control at the rear and a tyre pressure monitor. Receiving special mention is the big black push button that sets the engine in motion. The 1959 version also had a starter button, pinched from great-grampy’s 1940s Studebaker pickup. Go figure.

 “S” versions gain the extra power, microfiltered automatic aircon, on-board computer, sports seats and bigger wheels and tyres. BMW makes much of the topless Mini’s ‘fun and cheeky lifestyle’ image, its energetic performance and ‘go-kart style’ handling.  Perform it certainly does, doing zero to 100 km/h in about 8 seconds and topping out at a whisker over 220 km/h.

The roof-down lifestyle thing is actually quite fun and as mentioned in previous reviews, women of all ages seem to lose any sense of reason when confronted by it. My spouse once again bullied me into driving this way at every possible opportunity. The test car was fitted with the optional gauge that shows how many hours the car has been operated in topless mode. Forty-three hours over a total test distance of 9 100 km in the hands of KZN journalists, indicates that the wind-in-your-hair experience was given a fair trial by all of us.

About town, one can appreciate what the fuss is about, but out on the open road things aren’t quite as enjoyable. Wind buffeting is severe over about 80 km/h, so I declined to try it at anything over 100.  A kit to cover the rear seat area is available at R2 550 and is claimed to overcome the buffeting problem, but my question is simply: “why?” This is a BMW, cheekily priced, I might add and design details like this should be identified and fixed after the first test in the wind tunnel, surely?

Another detail belying the makers’ upmarket imagery is the cheap and tacky silver plastic sound- and vent hardware on the central dash area. On a R328 350 motorcar, I expected better. In the convertible’s favour though, road behaviour has been made a lot less twitchy by revamping the suspension system since the sedan I drove last January. Or is it partly to do with the extra 100 kg of body stiffening built in?

The numbers
Price: R328 350
Engine: 1 598 cc 4-cylinder, turbocharged
Power: 128 kW at 5 500 rpm
Torque: 240 Nm between 1 600  and 5 000 rpm (260 Nm on overboost)
Zero to 100 km/h: about 8,1 seconds
Maximum speed: 221 km/h
Fuel consumption: about 8,6 l/100 km


What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

My articles appear every Wednesday in the motoring pages of The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles most months of the year (press cars are withdrawn over the festive season - wonder why?) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police. Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so I do actually exist.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you thoroughly disagree with what I say? That's your privilege, because if everybody agreed on everything, the world would be a boring place. All I ask is that you remain calm, so please blow off a little steam before venting too vigorously.