I am ruined!

I have two cars- my MINI and my family hauling Altima. I had gone from an Xterra to the Altima, and the Ollie-mutt (That is the Altima's name) always felt quite sporty to me, coming from the Xterra I drove prior to the Ollie. When I was picking up my MINI my MA said something about getting stuck with a rental Altima not long ago while traveling, and how it was so loose and floaty and horrible. At the time, my thoughts were .

I drove the cars alternately for a while, driving the Mini very gently during its breakin period.

Then I drove the MINI for a week solid, culminating with a verrrrrrry spirited drive with the local MINI group on some twisty roads.

Monday it was raining, so I left my clean MINI in the garage and drove the Altima. Something is wrong with my Altima!!! During the week I drove my MINI, it turned into a mushy old lady car!!

I love my MINI!!!

 

Ah, youv'e just discovered what all the fuss is about! You are truly now spoiled, once you drive a car like a MINI or a BMW everything else seems mushy.

 

I sold my '97 Altima when I bought the MINI. I loved that car (my first new car) and it was pristine! It had some 80k miles on it, but looked fresh from the showroom. I always thought that it handled pretty well until I had the MINI for a few months!

Now that I've tuned the suspension, upgraded the brakes and gotten a slightly more agressive alignment, even the '07 MCS loaners they give me when I go in for service feel floaty and slugish! :D

You are right... we are spoiled forever!

 

After going on the drive with the AMOKs (Arkansas MNI Owner's Klub) I decided that I might need suspension bits myself...

 

On my '06, I put on the TSW springs (stiffer, linear rate springs that are slightly lower), lower rear control arms, front camber plates and got an alignment that is a bit more agressive than stock (more camber all around and a few more minor adjustments). A change in tires to ditch the runflats helped as well.

Every morning I drive a wide U-turn at 35 MPH... it's got plenty of run-off room, is isolated and it's easy to see if anyone is around, so I have some fun there (still under the speed limit for the area). I tried it in the stock '07 MCS and almost lost the back end. The whole car shifted weight in the middle of the turn and it was harry for a second or two. Luckily I had a bit of track time recently and I fought the instinct to lift and got on the throttle to get back in control of things.

 

Yep- Sounds just about like what I am seeing here. I do ok as long as the road has little sharp turns that I can apex (watch out for oncoming traffic ) but in a big sweeper she starts to feel really squirrelly and weird. I'm sure that with a better setup the little sharpies would be better too...

 

Now that we have snow on the streets pretty much all the time I've been practicing my bootlegger turns and checking out the DSC and LSD. The Mini handles and grips so well, on dry streets I never get to do that.

 

Do you have the sport suspension? I don't , and am wondering now if I should have...

The car does handle better now that the tires are nicely scuffed in. I haven't ever really had the MINI out when the temperature was within the optimal range for these tires, either. That might figure in as well. Still, when the warranty is off I have a list of mods to make, I think.

 

I love the "direct" feel when driving the Mini. You feel everything the car does. That's why I can't wait to get poly engine & gearbox bushings.

 

When I got the Powerflex bushings, I suddenly started feeling a wheel vibration at 90mph that I never felt before. Turns out I have a slow leak in my right front tire. Everything is more precise now, but be prepared for even more road feel! The fixed camber plates made a world of difference for steering feel and traction.

It's funny though--the same speed bumps and road imperfections near my house that doesn't even phase my wife's Nissan Murano feel like huge drop offs in my "high road feel" MCS, lol.

Still I wouldn't have it any other way--I love driving my MINI, and I get 100 miles of fun every day.

 

Hahahahahahahahaha!! I used to own an olds alero and when I test drove a mini before I bought mine I didn't want to ever drive a different car again, then I got into my alero and I wanted to cry. Now that I own a mini, my husband sometimes has me drive his car and I just wanna puke when I get in it and wish I had my mini, but I dont want to get him dirty, so I will continue to drive the yucky taurus to pick him up from work.

 

Spoiled indeed. My first car was a MINI. That spoiled me right off the bat, it was the benchmark.

I think a taurus would be yucky no matter what car you drove first. That is the kind of car you buy if you've given up and consider cars transportation devices.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha! !! That's great. I totally agree with you!!!

 

Yeah, MINIs are great no matter how they're tuned. I will say that I truly appreciate the "less nervous" ride of the R56 and, for a daily driver, love feeling the road without being overly jolted and jarred like I did in my R50. But that's for a daily driver...you can definitely dial it in from there to suit. Anyway, there aren't any cars with this level of practicality that actually do what you'd like to think cars should do...drive well. Duh!!!

As I side note, yesterday I saw an MGB-GT at a traffic light surrounded my SUVs and an Altima. It's sad how far we've slipped in up-sizing out cars.

 

I went from a 1998 240SX to a 2004 Altima to my 2006 MINI.

I'm not why I had a practical period there for two years but I'm glad I'm back to having a fun car !!

 

I think there is a good chance I added 8 psi better feel to the MINI this morning. Hubby is usually the one who checks air pressure and he had not been checking the MINI since it has a TPM system. I gave him a quick run-down on how the system works (and how it doesn't) and we checked the tire pressures. We were low all the way around. Now for all the grodieness to go away after the little ice mess we had the other day and I will get her out and see....

Oh, a Taurus... Doesn't sound too thrilling to me either... My grandmother has a Park Avenue that she wants me to shuffle her around in from time to time. I told her it was a no go. We go in the Altima or we don't go. Compared to the Park Ave., the Altima is sport city!

It's all relative I guess, but Minerva is somewhere very close to the top of the scale for me.

 

I saw a 1984 VW Jetta GLI the other day, same feeling. That looked dinky, even next to the Mini - and I used to drive one! The only feeling I've had that's close to the Mini was a Koni-equipped GTI I once had, or the 16v 1984 VW Cabrio that we modified, and in both cases those were so crude compared to our Minis. It gets a bit tiring to hear about "all the groans and rattles" some folks complain about in the Minis. Yeah, I've heard one or two, but think of how far we've come just in the last decade as far as NVH.

OT: Have you seen the new Smart? A Mini friend gave one an extensive testdrive and thought they come close to the Mini, but are SOOO small.

(NVH = Noise, Vibration, and Harshness)

Oh - poly engine mounts and bushings may improve road and drivetrain feel, but can be an extreme tradeoff. Every time I've gone that route I've switched back due to excessive drivetrain vibration and noise - but that's a balance point YOU have to reach, mine was a commuter as well as a roadtrip car; the compromise was balanced too far on the performance side - for me.