When I leased my first I would push the pedal to the floor on just about every take off, even on cold starts. I would do e-brake turns, and when I parked the car I would find an empty spot and cut the wheels very sharp to break them loose and kind of "slide" into the parking spot. I drove it this way because I never planned on keeping the car from the get go. Now I have financed another MINI and don't feel the urge to drive that way even though i went through an upgrade going from a justa to a jcw. Anyone else drive theirs hard and want to share?

 

i always get suspicious of threads like this.......i cant help but shake the feeling its acutally BPD trying to get me to say something potentially incriminating

 

Lol I could see why you might think that.

 

I have a "justa", but it has 120,000 so it's at that stage where whatever happens, happens, so I drive hard haha

 

I'm not hard on mine at all. I bought a JCW back in '05 and paid a ton of money for it. It's never seen more than 2500 rpm until it warms up, and it's had the oil changed every 2K miles. It still runs, drives, and looks like a new car even though it has 98K miles.

Once it is warmed up, it is usually driven in a sporting manner through the twisty roads the mountains of NW Georgia are noted for. There have been instances where the "I love driving so slowly that I hold up kids on a Schwinn and worship the speed limit" crowd would get their undergarments into an uncomfortable wad.

It is entirely possible to drive a sporty car in a sporty manner without damaging or destroying it. I'm a mechanical engineer and I've done all of my own mechanic work for over 25 years, so I just don't get why people try to destroy these cars. Even a soulless Honda doesn't deserve that sort of abuse.

 

And we wonder why MINIs have a less than stellar reliablilty rating.

 

I drive mine hard, but not all the time. I usually chirp the tires into second at least once a day thou, prolly should stop that...

 

oil change every 2K!....

you do know that modern synthetic has an effective service life of up to 7-10K right?

i mean, i doubt its going to hurt anything.....however it seems just plain wasteful.

hell, at 2K you could probably rebottle the oil and sell it as new.

 

doing anything like that COLD start is a bad idea. But once the car is hot, unless you are grinding gears, over revving, etc. there's really not that much harm you can do to the car. your five-ten second WOT pull is nothing to the car.

autox, track, slightly different story. i autox'ed my 2008 a LOT. I'm babying my 2013 for the break in, but once that's done it'll be good to go for autoxing in 2014

 

I've never had anything go wrong with my car that isn't a normal wearing part either, I replaced my struts and added lowering springs at 115,000 miles, and that was from stock. I change my oil every 6-8,000 miles, even though my onboard computer says 15,000 miles

 

I know the oil will last longer than 2000 miles, but I change it to get rid of particles and combustion blowby. My engine is very clean inside.

I do reuse the oil as chain saw bar oil and lawnmower engine oil, so it's not totally wasteful.

 

 

i go 3-5k on mine, but this is legit

 

I drive like my grandmother.
I don't view having a Mini Cooper as having to drive it like a hormone overloaded adolescent.

 

I'm not very hard on the engine and brakes. I am kind of hard on the tires, though. I figure that, if I don't have to slow down for a turn, I don't have to speed up again afterward. Besides, I love lateral G's....

 

If I wanted to drive like a normal person I would have bought a Corolla or Civic. Minis are made to be driven!!

 

 

Nothing wrong with driving your car like you paid for it!!
More $$ to mod...less for repairs!! I still have had fun...and have a reliable ride!!

 

Know the feeling...I'm on my THIRD set of tires...but still on factory front pads/rotors!!
Pick the right speed and carve the curves!!!

 

Sounds about right!

 

When I was doing a MINI HPDE day and everyone was beating the living **** out of the demo models on a track, the instructors and reps all assured us that the cars were designed to be driven hard. If that's not true, they shouldn't market them as such.

As for the OP's question, I drive my R50 pretty hard, but only when it's warmed up, and I don't slam gears or miss shifts. I just rev high and get my swerve on, no big deal.

I hope my SA isn't monitoring this thread.

 

Remember the BMW films? In a 'behind the scenes' clip the stunt people said they usually have to brace/reinforce cars before using them for stunt scenes but they didn't have to do anything to a BMW to strengthen it. So 'over-engineering' makes these cars pretty sturdy.

 

I drive my '14 Roadster S moderately, just like I drove my three MG's during the 1970's. I'm not a natural born racer. Just a guy who likes to manually shift gears, drive with the top down, and occasionally hit the gas to amaze myself.

 

Wow I'm impressed with all of the responses. I went to a MINI owners clinic shortly after I got the justa and they told us that the engines were meant to be driven for long intervals at higher rpms to help keep the engine free of deposits. That and using pure premium gas with added techron detergent

 

I like driving any car to the fullest extent of its abilities, but I try not to abuse them. I'll usually wait until the car is warmed up before flooring it, or finding the redline. I've never done handbrake turns, I like to drive efficiently.

We do do track days and autocross, they don't put that much strain on the cars except for the tires and brake pads. Tires and pads are wear items and cheap.