Yesterday I drove from Albuquerque NM to Woodland Park Co, about 800 miles round trip to look at a Teardrop/Camper trailer for my new MCS. Just thought I'd share my long drive/lousy weather observations (and a little about the trailer).

Comfort: Compared with the Saabs, Audis, and Prius I've owned over the years, this car is right up with the best of them (Saab 9-5). I was comfortable the whole trip and, at the end, suffered no long drive fatigue. Nice surprise.

Weather: I was surprised at how easy this car is to drive in wind and heavy rain (and a little snow too). The wind didn't push me around, the car tracked really well in heavy rain, the windows were easy to keep clear, and I always felt comfortable and in control.

Elevation: This is where the turbo shines. With naturally aspirated cars as you climb in elevation power drops off due to the thinner air. With this turbo, even at ~8,500 feet there was no noticable power loss. It just drove like it always does (and that's definitely a good thing).

Trailer: I recently learned that there are tent trailers available at less than 300 lbs. One I seriously researched is the Lees-ure Lite that opens to full tent status in less than 10 seconds. Then there are teardrop camping trailers that come in at less than 800 lbs (I'm getting the 4 wide Little Guy). I decided to go this route; I like the idea of a nice thick matress and full insulated protection from the weather (I also bought the interfacing tent .. you can sit and read in a teardrop but you'll suffer serious head damage if you try to stand up). Also, when not camping I'm hoping it'll be good for hauling stuff (I've found that there's not a lot of room in my MCS for that). While I'm here let me put in a pitch for Jon at Alpine Auto in Woodland Park Colorado. It was nice dealing with folks who don't add on fees of any kind. Also, I was able to negotiate a good price with these guys. Finally, I should definitely mention Brent at Minidomore who has just finished developing trailer fittings and connections for the R56 MCS (Yes, you can install one regardless of our centered twin exhaust outlets).

Anyhow, just wanted to share. I keep developing ever more respect for this car as I drive it in different conditions. And heck, I hadn't even realized there are viable trailers out there for cars like ours.

P.S. I'll post pictures once I take delivery and have everything set up.

 

Gotta see pics of your setup, trailer and all!

Mark

 

http://golittleguy.com/options.htm

 

Yup!

 

Wow. Thats a nice neat little setup for the Mini. Are they expensive?

 

Here's basically the one I'm getting:

http://golittleguy.com/flyers/4-WidePlatformFlyer.pdf

 

Welcome to the (Little guy) teardrop fraternity.

http://user.mc.net/~jdewey/MINI/tear...D_delivery.jpg

and other brands.
Most of these photos were copied off of Nam, some were sent to me.
http://user.mc.net/~jdewey/MINI/teardroptrailers/
John

 

Thanks! I feel honored to join such a distinguished looking group of teardrop entheusiasts.

 

That's great Ken, can't wait to see pics!