There is already a "JustaCooper" Badge established. Look at the first page under the "Team JustaCooper" thread.

 

I look forward to the day when any kind of cooper passes me, or even just follows...

 

Hi Go Kart Ride,

That's pretty much what swung me for the Justa: I wasn't in the market for one, only for an S. After years of road racing on small country roads like those single lane benders lined with stone walls in Sardinia... I wanted performance! Then I took a Justa for a spin and really, really liked the fact that you had to 'earn' its performance. It will do pretty much anything an S will do but it won't be handed to you on a platter, needing to use less engine braking between the bends because there'll be less go when they straighten up. Generally a well balanced car which is a lot of fun to drive hard in tight quarters.

Speaking of Justas, I just was Just in Fiat's auto headquarters in Torino, Italy last week to check out the latest 500 Abarth - see my thread about that ride here:

A second MINI or an Abarth 500 ?!?

Walking around the old city center with its magnificent architecture near the Roman Palatine Door to the city I am mesmerized by... a Mini barreling by at breakneck speed carving its passage through the narrow streets deserted during the holidays. By earshot it was running well above 5000 rpm, and sure, it was one crazy Italian driving in a town he knew like the back of his hand. But did that car rip up those cobblestone bends, giving me second thoughts about an Abarth. In disbelief and satisfaction I saw... it was a Justa - simply driven like it's supposed to be.

CB

 

That's pretty much what swung me for the Justa: I wasn't in the market for one, only for an S. After years of road racing on small country roads like those single lane benders lined with stone walls in Sardinia... I wanted performance! Then I took a Justa for a spin and really, really liked the fact that you had to 'earn' its performance. It will do pretty much anything an S will do but it won't be handed to you on a platter, needing to use less engine braking between the bends because there'll be less go when they straighten up. Generally a well balanced car which is a lot of fun to drive hard in tight quarters.

Very well put. The more I drive my Cooper the better it performs. It's a very rewarding car to learn to drive well.

 

Hi Danny Havok,

Something to this, beyond the natural melding of driver and car, is that today's car computers attune to the driver and learn how to respond depending on how they're driven. It would be nice to test drive somebody's rough housed car to see how it responds differently. I wouldn't be a fan of driving somebody's Supermarket run Mini which would in all likelihood be rather mushy and soft. However, once you've taught your car how to behave, it loses its memory if you either flash it with an upgrade or a tune, or if you disconnect the battery...

I really noticed this with a Hertz Rental Mustang. It was mushy the first week, but after giving it a fair pounding for half a day, it drove like an entirely different car. I guess I had to hammer out the extra mushy custom rental car tune to get it to morph into a road rage monster that was a blast to drive the whole second week.

CB