North American Motoring Test Drive and Review of the R56
by
David Bunting
LET’S SKIP TO THE CONCLUSIONS
For those of you that like to skip to the end to read the conclusions first, I’ll save you the time:
The R56 deserves the title “go kart like handling” every bit as much as its predecessor.
Due to the improvements to the interior, suspension, and rear storage, the R56 is more livable on a daily basis than the R50/R53.
LET’S REFLECT
This past weekend I drove out to Arizona in my 2006 MINI COOPER for the launch of the 2007 COOPER and COOPER S. On the drive out, I tried to reflect on my five years of MINI ownership and the many achievements MINI has had in the U.S. during that time. Back in 2002, BMW and MINI were not just launching a new small car, they were launching a modern day version of an icon. Not only was the launch of the first MINI a runaway success, to the point where MINIUSA wound up selling on the order of 2.5 times their original sales estimates, but MINI fundamentally altered the perception of what small cars could be in the United States.
LET’S MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION
Driving up to the hotel, I saw my first R56, a sparkling silver/white Cooper. It looked every bit of what an evolution of the current car should. Upon taking some time to look at that car and the other parked around the hotel grounds, I was rapidly warming up to the exterior of the R56.
After asking around a bit about getting a car to photograph in another setting, I was able to get access to a couple of R56 COOPERs to move around on the hotel grounds. Upon sitting in the R56 for the first time, I was very impressed with the new seats. The higher quality of the interior materials was also easy to spot. The wood dash; was real wood. The brushed aluminum; was real aluminum (nothing like the painted plastic representation of metal we got in 2002 with the alloy patina dash). The new telescoping steering wheel felt familiar, but it was nice to be able to finally position it slightly to feel “just right”.
As first impressions go, I was feeling very good about the new MINI, but a real drive would have to wait until the following day.
LET’S MOTOR
Fortunately, the morning came quickly (staying up until 2 AM with friends will do that). After a quick breakfast it was time to pair up and then request a car for the morning’s drive. After doing a bit of checking into what was available, Gabe and I managed to get a Sparkling Silver / Black manual R56 COOPER S with the Red Lounge Leather interior. After getting things sorted, we hit the road for a drive through the city, out onto the highway, and eventually onto some fun two lane roads in the hills North East of Scottsdale, before finishing at the raceway where MINI had an autocross, road course, and drag strip available for testing of the R56.
Throughout the day, the one improvement that stood out for me as being the most significant was the interior. Earlier this week, I shared
my impressions of the R56 Interior on MotoringFile. For now I’d like to recommend that you read that article and then if you have questions, feel free to post them on either site and I’ll do my best to answer them.
One thing that every R56 MINI owner should add to their pre-flight checklist is pressing the sport button. It has a pronounced effect on the throttle responsiveness and the weighting of the steering. In normal mode, the throttle could be depressed nearly an inch before much happened and the steering was both lightly weighted and less sensitive to inputs. Once that Sport Button was pushed however, the car really came alive. The throttle would respond as soon as the pedal was touched, and the steering weighting changed and became more responsive. While I could foresee times where it would be good to be in the un-sporty mode, my own take was that 95% of the time sport mode was probably the mode I’d have the car in if I owned one.
Cabin noise is down compared to the previous generation MINI, particularly the MCS with the new twin scroll turbo and direct injection. The R56 MCS pulls smoothly throughout the rev range. The only real downside of this is that without sounding as stressed on the top end, it’s possible to find yourself going quite a bit faster than you might have otherwise thought.
LET’S NOT MISTAKE HARSHNESS FOR SPORTINESS
The wrap on the R56 is that it has somehow gone soft because the suspension isn’t as harsh as the R50 and R53. However, I would argue that harshness is just that, harshness.
Make no mistake, the R56 has a firm suspension, but that firmness also has a supple quality to it that is capable of knocking the peaks off of a sharp input. Part of the reason for that is the front struts in the R56 now have about an inch more travel than before.
The results speak for themselves: Even with 17” run-flats the R56 was more comfortable in normal driving than my 2006 MC with 15’s, regular tires, and the Koni FSD’s. That doesn’t mean though that the R56 isn’t just as capable if not more capable than the R50/R53 when pushed to the limit.
At the autocross course, both the automatic and 6-speed manual COOPER were available for us to test. The R56 behaved in the very predictable way that I have become accustomed to with my own MINI. Between the familiar handing and my recent two days of
Evolution Autocross School, I was able to put down the fastest time in the morning (timed for awards) and the top time of the day. Having done that, I am now
confident that the R56 in essentially showroom stock condition will place very well in the SCCA National Tour and in Topeka.
One interesting side note about the autocross, I was actually about a second to a second and a half quicker in the automatic than the manual COOPER. Part of the reason for this was that the manual transmission COOPERs available to test had 15” wheels with narrower tires. While it would have been nice to test both cars with the same wheels/tires I would say that the new automatic transmission was quite impressive from a performance standpoint compared to the manual.
On the track, we were able to test the COOPER and COOPER S. Again, when really pushed in this environment the R56 seemed to be right at home and the handing responses were spot on and familiar.
LET’S SPEC
I’m sure everyone here has played around with the
new MINIUSA configurator and noticed that as the configurator loads, it claims that there are 10 million possible combinations. From what we were told at the launch event, the truth of it is there are actually more like
150 trillion combinations.
As far as options go, here’s my take on a few of them:
- The Lounge Leather is worth the additional cost over the regular leather. If you’re debating this, stop. You can safely spec the lounge leather. You will be happy you did.
- The wood and aluminum dashes were also impressive.
- You no longer need to attempt to avoid the run-flats on the Cooper or spec the 16” wheels instead of the 17” wheels to get a comfortable MINI. The suspension is significantly better in terms of ride comfort.
- Visually, the 15" wheels on the COOPER look a little small now. I say this as someone who is a big fan of 15's on the R50. 16" wheels seem to fit the R56 COOPER a lot better. Plus, they have the added performance benefit noted above, AND the R56 suspension is so good that there isn't much if any real penalty for going ot the 16" wheels with the lower profile sidewalls and run-flats.
Closing Thoughts
Those North American Motoring members about to take delivery of an R56 will be very happy. With the second evolution of the modern MINI, BMW and MINI have yet again demonstrated their commitment to being good custodians of the MINI brand. Every MINI owner should make a point to get out and test drive an R56. The dual nature of the R56 is a little hard to fully capture in words, but the R56 is less jarring while maintaining that sharp MINI handling. Fear not though, the sport mode lives up to it's billing, and whether you're on open curvy roads or an autocross track, the R56 delivers the goods. The fact that it is also a better car around town makes what MINI has accomplished all the more impressive.
Photo Galleries:My Photos:
