By Ron Kiino
Photography by Andrew Harvey
Cooper S JCW rally car - quick, fun, comptetent and durable.

According to the tourism Web site for Newfoundland and Labrador, the Black Spruce "is the most common tree in the province. It is the favored tree in the pulp and paper industry and is widely used for lumber, wharf piers, and firewood." And, as I discovered on the first day of the 2006 Targa Newfoundland rally race, it also can deftly cleft the chin of an overzealous Mini Cooper S.

Of course, it wasn't exactly the car that was so overzealous, as much as it was me, the driver. A month prior, Mini USA asked if I'd like to pilot a rally-prepped Cooper S John Cooper Works in the six-day, 60-car, 1400-mile event in which I could drive as fast as I dared on closed public roads in the open Targa Class. I'd also have a co-driver giving me precise directions down to the hundredth of a kilometer. Were they kidding? "Yeah, I'll do it!"