I work for a BMW/MINI dealership and today I hopped into a Cooper S Coupe. As I drove it I was amazed at how fast/quick it felt. I'm leasing a Roadster and I had just driven it a hr or so before I drove the Coupe, and I just felt like the Coupe pulled better than the Roadster. Has anyone else driven the two and found this to be true? I figured they would be equal in speed/feel...or does the weight of the convertible top factor?

 

How about total miles since the last carbon cleaning.....
make a big difference too....more likely more than a couple hundred pounds from the roof...sure the total weight matters, but these gen2 di motors loose SO much power due to carbon build-up on the valves, that is my bet!!

 

Well I've only put 7000 miles on the roadster. The coupe was close to 10000. My vehicle hasn't had any service done on it yet.

 

ZippyNH, not sure that the N18 engines are having the carbon trouble like the N14s do? There was a change in the way the air is channeled through, that keeps the N18 cleaner. My guess is that the Coupe might indeed be faster, I know that our Coupe is faster than my R56, by quite a bit. Same engine in both, but the Coupe is faster and also, of course, less flexible through the body, due to the stiffening behind the seats, which the Roadster also has.

 

I guess I did expect a small difference, but this felt like like the difference between a base Cooper and a Cooper S.