I think the entire planet is in agreement that the BMW/Mini collaboration was an enormous success when designing and producing the 2nd generation Mini. The original Mini was produced from 1959 – 2000 with the 2nd generation making its entrance to the market in early 2001.
The original Mini was, and continues to be, a 60s icon and even if you’re not a Mini fan, sighting an original Mini is sure to bring a smile to your face. BMW obviously considered this ‘challenge accepted’ when they brought out the R50-R53 models with a distinctly 60s feel. Yes it was bigger, yes it was heavier, yes it was safer, but it held all of that British retro charm that seemed so important to the Mini brand.
This particular Mini Adventure started with an R52 (code for the soft top) Mini Cooper in Cool Blue making 115 hp from an agricultural 1.6 litre petrol engine. I loved the colour, I loved the convertible, I loved the looks. I loved everything about it except the speed. It was time to look at the Cooper S.
After much umming and ahhing, a tidy Mini Cooper S convertible was found on 42,000 miles in Cleveland. Ignoring the occasional lumpy idle, the steering wheel lurching aggressively to the right under acceleration and the hurricane-like wind noise coming from the roof above 50mph, we handed over the cash and drove on our way south having transferred all of our possessions from the diesel Astra we had travelled down in.
The first generation of the modern Mini bolted a supercharger to their 1.6 petrol engine to create the Cooper S. This was the first and last generation to supercharge the engine as after this BMW decided to turbocharge later models with varying degrees of success and reliability.
There are both benefits and pitfalls to superchargers; the former being the predictability of the power available it having a N/A style continuous delivery without the wave of torque delivered by a turbocharger and a relatively small power band as a result. The pitfalls are mainly the perceived lack of ‘oomph’ compared to a turbocharger and that it is a less efficient method of forced induction as it drains more power from the engine to drive the belt than the more economical method of using waste exhaust gases to drive a turbine and compressor as with a turbocharger. However, both of these aside, you’re hard pushed to beat the shear joy of supercharger whine as you give it the beans.
The Cooper S is as exciting around town as it is on an A road. Go-kart-like handling is complemented by over-fuelling on overrun creating a symphony of burbles, pops and bangs almost on command. This is the kind of thing you need a re-map and an exhaust system to achieve, along with a healthy dose of ‘fingers crossed’.
There are many that believe that the R50-R53 Mini’s are well on their way to becoming a modern classic. I have the opportunity to keep this Cooper S Convertible mainly off the road (apart from the odd weekend run in the sun) at 56,000 miles on the clock for a 13 year old car. Cooper S’s peaked on the road at 34,000 between 2007 and 2009 though it’s hard to pin down how many Cooper S Convertibles were sold in the UK. Cabrio’s have a tendency to retain their value more than their hardtop counterparts, likely due to reduced supply thanks to the lunatics who originally went out and spent more £££’s on something with a shorter shelf life.
This one has developed a bad leak on the passenger side turning the passenger footwell in to an aquarium depending on the wind direction and incline on which it is parked should the heavens open overnight.
The lumpy idle remains an intermittent niggle and with few other symptoms, there is no way of pinning this down until it gets worse.
The violent apparent torque steer turned out to be a severely worn lower suspension arm bush which have now been replaced by poly bushes, and when I say severely worn, I mean sheared…
A garage application is in with Aberdeen City Council to see if I can secure some dry storage for this beauty to try and keep her tip-top for years to come. Nothing puts a smile on my face like this British/German love child. The Mini is dead. Long live the Mini.
Turbochatter 