In this thread, https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=70163
I observed these quotes

and
My MCS is my first stick (I learned on it), so I have no basis for comparison. Those of you with multiple manual transmissions experience, please weigh in:

Is the MINI manual transmission tough to drive or not?

Oh, and if you will, please tell me what it means that 1st is a "tall" gear. I don't get it.

 

Believe me, the Transmition on it is beautiful. My last 2 Honda Prelude's were Manual and the transmitions on Honda's and Eclips and such, hell cavaliers are PURE garbage. you cant even feel where the hell the gear is.

 

^^^ +2

 

Prior to the '05 model year 1st gear was fairly tall. (In fact all the gears were taller.) That means that fewer engine RPMs resulted in more wheel RPMs. So you had the keep the engine RPMs up a bit more to avoid stalling when you started out in 1st gear. It also meant that you could reach a higher speed in 1st gear before having to shift to 2nd.

With the shorter gearing, its not as easy to stall in 1st gear, and you're able to creep along pretty slowly in traffic without disengaging the clutch. However, you just get rolling and suddenly, its time to shift into 2nd.

As far as being an easy or hard car to drive... I think the MCS is a little more difficult to drive smoothly than cars I've owned previously. But that may just be because I'm not used to such a small engine with a supercharger. The power 'comes on' in a way that's different from some of the large block cars I've had before and takes some getting used to. But that's probably just me. Otherwise I don't think its any more difficult than any other car with a manual transmission.

 

A tall first gear means the ratio between the driving gear (conected to engine) and the driven gear (connected to wheel) is higher than some unspecified standard. Imagine if somehow you start from 2nd gear, thinking it was first, then you would say to yourself, man, that's a tall first gear!

 

you might want to just get an auto if you think ur 2nd is ur 1st. 3rd to 1st I understand a little more....

 

I think he was simply using that scenario to explain what a tall first gear would feel like..............

 

I'd say that the shift quality, meaning the feel and precision of the gear selection are above average in general, and way above average for front wheel drive cars. Similarly the clutch has good feel and decently progressive engagement.

However the engine doesn't have much torque torque at low rpm, leading to a slightly delicate balance between aggressive take-off and bogging down.

Mine's an '05, so it has the shorter gearing (more engine rpm for any given road speed) in the low gears, which helps when pulling away from a stop. It's a while since I drove an earlier model year though, so I really don't recall how they compare.

On the other iside of the coin is my M3, which has bags of torque. You can take a slow city turn in 3rd gear at idle speed and accelerate smoothly away. But its engine is, after all, twice as large (3.2 litre vs. 1.6) and has half as many again cylinders.

Neil
05 MCS
96 M3

 

My quote up there came from experience learning to drive on a Saturn, then a Honda Insight, the MCS, and a friend's MR2. I can't say much for the Saturn as it was several years ago but the Insight, MINI, and MR2 are current.

The Insight's gearbox is nice and very easy to shift. While it's not very good for quick shifts, it's smooth and the light clutch grabs very even. The MR2 ('89 mkII) is the best transmission I've ever driven. It does have a SS kit installed but the action is amazingly smooth with no notchyness. The clutch action is perfect and letting it out became almost 2nd nature even after a couple minutes of driving. While the MINI's gearbox is nice, it is a bit notchy even with a Whalen ****. The reason I don't think it's easy to drive is more to do with the clutch action...it's just not linear. It will slip for a little (or not depending on launch rpm and throttle) and then grab abruptly. It might be due to the e-throttle but I'm not sure. We do have an '02 with the taller ratio's but it's still hard to find a happy medium between slipping the clutch and bogging. That's all I meant in my statement above,

 

The torque on the M3 (at least the current E46) isn't all that impressive relative to the curb weight i.e. 262 lb/ft at 4900 RPM per 3415 lbs. It's not that much better than the torque-to-weight ratio for a JCW equipped MCS (181 lb/ft at 4500 PRM per 2678 lbs)........now the power-to-weight ratio is a different matter

 

My dad who has been driving a manuals for 40 years now commented that my MCS has the best shifter he's ever used in a FWD. RWD tends to have a better feel as the shifter is usually mounted directly to the tranny.

I also just taught somebody to drive a manual using my MCS. It was by far the easiest time I've had teaching it. The clutch is probably one of the better ones out there for ease of use. Definitely not like an old truck where you need a good strong leg to press it all the way!

 

I think the stick and clutch in the MCS are quite nice. I find the car easier to launch than my '97 Integra GSR was. One just needs to be smooth and not manhandle the stick. The toughest shift for me is going from fifth to sixth as it seems awkward but perhaps that is because I never had a sixth gear before. I had an '88 Grand Am with the Quad4 engine that had a lousy clutch and was very tough to launch on a hill. I feel in love with the MCS stick on my test drive and had a grin from ear to ear.

 

not the smoothest and easiest to drive because there's a big play
between throttle on and off (herky jerky some people call it), but
if you get the hang of it, it can be a very smooth ride. my wife
does her eye liner while i drive MT, so it's a seamless shift.

the only complaint is the clutch pedal position. too low to the floor
and no, im not referring to the engagement point.

i still prefer the traditional throttle pedals over these organ pedals.

 

I agree. I found this a little vexing until I got used to it. I find that at a given amount of gas (i.e. right foot on gas pedal with a constant pressure), I have to let up un the clutch quickly for the first half (from the floor to the mid point) and then more slowly from midpoint to fully engaged.

 

I have only had sticks, most recently in 3 Saabs, but also had BMW's, one alfa romeo etc. Now I drive a co car which is american and I'm thankful I don't have a manual in that thing.
Anyway, I think my new '06 MCS is pretty easy to drive. I only drive it weekends when my fiance lets me , but after reading the thread, my shifting while very functional, is not very smooth, so the comment about not being "linear" kind of rings true.

 

The MINI Is one of the Easiest and best transmissions to drive and the clutch is also one of the best i have ever driven.

I drive my mini for 6 days, hop in the Roadrunner on Saturday and go for a drive, and i forget how firm and tight the MINI actually is!

 

i still cant get a perfet shift on the mini. to me the clutch has one of the smallest engagement bands of any vehicle i have owned (rx7s, supras, hondas), i think this makes it harder to drive smooth. but i do like it because it has great feel.. especially compared to the boxter i drove last week.

 

'73 BMW 2002tii - My first car and the car I learned on. Shift action was a little cluncky but clutch takeup was pretty linear. Easy to drive smoothly.

'88 Scirroco - VW clutches are great but shifting is not so good. Long throws and kinda rubbery felling. Easy to drive, though.

'78 Toyota FJ40 Land Crusier - Shifting was similar to a UPS truck with a long stick and a very mechanical shift action. Clutch was easy to use and driving was easy; could idle along at 2-3mph w/o pushing on clutch or gas.

'88 VW GTi VR6 - same rubbery vague shift action, but this is by far the easiest stick to drive. Like the Land Cruiser, i could just gently let out the clutch and it would drive away. Clutch takeup was very linear and engagement was obvious and easy to modulate. Precision driving was a snap. I loved this transmission (except for the shift action!) and it lasted for close to 100K miles.

'06 MCS JCW - Shifter is great with great weight, feel and travel length. Having a bit of time getting used to the clutch, though. Clutch lacks feel or feedback and gas seems weak when engaging the clutch and pulling away. I've almost stalled a couple of times (learned to drive on a standard and have driven nothing else 19 years) and a smooth 1-2 shift can be difficult.

For now I am blaming this on an incompetant driver and hope that I get used to it and build my skills.

 

On a flat, I was able to s l o w l y let out the clutch with no gas and my MCS rolled along at 5 mph.

I, too, find the 1-2 shift a little jerky unless I baby the clutch a bit. When I' alone I don't bother. All the other gears are butter smooth, sometimes it feels like the stick is getting pulled into gear.

I drove my sister-in-law's 13 year old Saturn. Shifting was rubbery, and clutch engagement was so vague I thought for sure it was slipping.

 

You should never be releasing the clutch without simultaneously applying the gas.....

I think the MINI's clutch/tranny is one of the best combos I've ever driven (29 years of driving "manual" cars).

 

You can do something about it if you aren't thoroughly satisfied with the shifting. A short shifter and a Whalen shift **** would help to make things noticably better. My '95 Integra GSR was very smooth, but there is no comparison with the power generated by my '06 MCS especially 3rd gear and above. I also noticed a qualitative improvement after just over 2,000 miles of driving.

 

my '03 MCS is my first manual car and I learned to drive manual in it. i still have that exact problem with 1st gear - and alot of people that have driven it that know how to drive stick much better than me still have that bogginess here and there

makes me feel a little better hearing it here on NAM though - maybe I dont suck quite as bad as I think I do

 

I was just curious to see if the car had enough power to do it.

 

My older E36 M3 weighs a couple of hundred pounds less than that, but then again doesn't have as much torque either. However the real thing isn't the max torque number, it's that the variable valve timing provides a lot of torque at low rpm and the six is smooth enough to make all of it usable.

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, the first car I drove with any regularity was our family's 1960's Fiat 500, whose 2-cylinder air-cooled 22 HP engine had no torque at all to speak of. And the 4-speed gearbox was completely unsynchronized! So you'd either just stuff it into gear and ignore any resulting nasty noises (hi Mom!), or double-clutch properly. After I learned how to do that it became possible to change gear smoothly, up or down, without using the clutch at all. Of course if you screwed it up the pavement-ripping torque of this lawnmower-class engine wasn't exactly likely to strip the gears...

Neil
05 MCS
96 M3

 

Before going with the MINI, the E46 was gonna be my M3 of choice. such an amazing car it is.