2002 MINI Cooper

The MINI is full of neat stuff, such as the large speedometer centered in the middle of the dash and the really cool rack of toggle switches mounted just below.

The smooth flow of the hood (bonnet) is acquired by using a single sheet of steel, which must be made of different thicknesses in order to facilitate the stamping of the curves. The headlights remain in the hood as it's raised. Jack Pitney, MINI general manger, with tongue placed firmly in cheek, explained how you could signal airplanes with the MINI's headlights.


There is only one word needed to describe the MINI suspension system: stiff! Along with a stiff suspension comes phenomenal handling attributes, but it is also a caveat. On very rough roads, such as those with pothole patches upon patched potholes, this suspension is going to shake the fillings out of your teeth. Fortunately, we do not encounter such poor conditions very often. The nicest adventure we experienced was on the very tight, twisting coastal roads of Northern California where we could enjoy the MINI's handling attributes without gaining the attention of the local law enforcement since the MINI handles like a go-cart. In fact, even when the MINI did gain the suspicions of the local gendarme, we were well within legal parameters; and, the constables we came face to face with only wanted to get a closer look at the car. They could only express their dismay that they were not the ones behind the wheel of our bright yellow MINI.

The compact 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine produces 115 horsepower and 110 lb.-ft. of torque.

How the BMW/MINI combination could fold so much ability into an economical vehicle that would produce so much fun is a quandary. The compact 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine produces 115 horsepower and 110 lb.-ft. of torque. We were absolutely surprised at the response from this engine. When looking at the horsepower and torque figures on paper, we figured it would be an adequate performer with average responsiveness. Boy, were we shocked. OK, it isn't an M3, but this little car performs so much better than we ever imagined.


As the MINI Cooper rolls out to dealers it will only be available with a five-speed manual transmission. However, in as soon as a few months we will see the addition of an automatic. But, this will be no ordinary automatic—it will be a constantly variable transmission (CVT). The big difference between a CVT and a traditional automatic is the CVT has no gears and therefore no shifting. Power is transferred to the road via a steel and rubber belt running between two variable conical pulleys. As the vehicle speed increases, the pulleys automatically change their "ratio." The odd thing is the engine never goes through its normal increase in speed, decrease at shifts and increase again. The rpms just steadily continue to increase. This system takes a good bit of getting familiar with, but once you do, you settle into the art of driving the MINI.


The MINI is just plain full of neat stuff, such as the large speedometer centered in the middle of the dash and the really cool rack of toggle switches mounted just below. We haven't seen toggle switches like these since the safety freaks took over. And, guess what? These have passed the safety tests. How cool is that?