Hi All,

I never owned a Mini, but a dealer nearby had one immediately available and I thought better buy it and think about later than be sorry for not getting one later. I plan to daily drive it - 25 miles each way to/from work. I don't mind the stiffness since I am in my second Abarth with modded suspension. if I may, here are a couple of questions for the experienced crowd here
- how are the Hankook Evo Z's in the rain (coupled with FWD) - I have a 25 mile commute, and despite being in Southern California, where it rarely rains, when it does, road conditions become quite dangerous (especially because of other drivers)
- this is not my idea, but the wife's - is it possible to hook 2 child seats (not toddlers anymore) in the back using the hooks that are there? I would assume that I would need to get seatbelts installed in the back. I don't like the idea, but happy life, happy wife...

I just picked the car up this past weekend, but haven't been able to drive it for more than 2 miles - apparently my wife liked it so this will likely be one more case like I buy the car and lose it immediately, but all good.

thank you in advance

br911

PS - any other info that you might find useful would be greatly appreciated

 

It might be possible to put two child seats in the back but it would most likely be illegal since it's a 2 seater. I wouldn't recommend it and I would hope your wife cares more about the safety of the kids.

Good luck with the car.

 

There was a GP2 here that had full back seats, I ran across it one day while in the rabbit hole. From what I’ve seen, the luggage bar would have to come out, then you would have to source the seat backs and bottoms, belts, probably the side plastic panels for the seat belts slits, etc and that’s if mini even has the mounting locations for all of this in there. Wrong car to put 2 kids in, hell I won’t even let anyone other than my 50 lbs dog ride in the back of mine. The wife and I had a talk before we picked her up, test drive and lunch, and we have the family car, 2018 Escape, so we didn’t need another one.

 

The GP3 is a wonderful little beastie, but it is definitely not a family car. Good luck.

 

Nobody in the back. 2 seater only. You knew the deal when you bought the car. If you'd wanted a 4 seater should've bought what I have for the same price. Same car with 4 wheel drive and bigger.

 

I have a clubby and I run that rule

 

thanks guys - I think I have enough support now to my argument that this car is for 2 people only, and other cars to use, to rule out that idea.

any takes on the question on how the GP3 + Hankkook's perform under heavy rain?

thanks again.

 

As long as it isn't bucketing and cold, I have had no issues in the rain so far. I havent driven through anything I would call torrential yet.

 

I don't have a GP3, but I am pretty sure the tires are unique to that car in that they are a little wider (hence the big plastic fender/wheel arch things) and meant more for a racetrack, which is what the car was designed for what with the roll cage and no back seat. And like most Minis it is FWD (vs All4 like the similar Clubman/Countryman JCW models) which was to save a couple hundred pounds of weight. So I'd guess the tires won't be quite as rain friendly as typical all season tires on many other Mini models.

 

Kind of, tire technology has progressed far enough that summer performance tires are decent in the rain unless they are pure slicks. As long as they have some tread you don't have much to worry about as long as you be careful.

 

I have no issues with rain. I drove it home from Cincinnati the day that we picked it up, some 80 miles in a torrential downpour on the interstates and backroads with no issues. The OEM Hankooks are good tires.

 

I don't have anything to add for the child seats or the tires in the rain, but, you'll want to do this, trust me:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-your-gp3.html

 

thank you - very useful.

 

Congrats what a first MINI to get We have several customers that got GP3s. I have a GP1 and GP2 currently and someday will likely get the 3.

 

If you had to pick only one (I know I know) which would it be GP1 or GP2?

 

I'm going to use these instructions to remove the visor and install GP3 blanks, actually. Since my F56 came with a sunroof (unfortunately unavoidable with the special edition we wanted) which eats into headroom, my head is constantly touching the visor if I sit up straight.

 

What a delightful, well balanced, nice car. I finally found the time to drive it - took it to Angeles Crest Highway, in the outskirts of Los Angeles. I could experience the torque steer, which was interesting, to say the least, but was impressed with the grip and and right amount of stiffness of the GP3. I had no problem in closely following a friend with an R8 V10, and he was actually impressed to see how that little car could keep up with him on the way up. this is a true driver's car, with little electronics, no adjustments to throttle, interior light color options,, suspension settings, etc. Engineers did a very good job, and they knew that out there there are 3 thousand people willing to forego some amenities for a good driving experience. There is one focus in this car - the driver - take it or leave it.