Well today I "tested" the braking capabilites of "Ar-too" on my way into work today.

I was traveling at at decent pace ~35mph and go around a small cargo truck and at a still green light is a small SUV (Rav4, I got REAL CLOSE to read it :evil:

I do not know why it was still sitting there but I pound the brakes and the Anti-lock kicks in, while I do a little 45degree turn all in about 20 feet. Stopped dead and about an inch from the Rav's bumper.

The MINI did not squeel the brakes at all, and performed beautifully! Traffic went on like nothing happened. Then I pulled over a little while later to clean my pants...

 

i think that happens to everyone... but yeah the mini has wonderful breaking power... i couldnt be happier with it.

 

Good to hear about the braking performance, and that your MINI is ok.
LOL, to clean you pants...LOL

 

Indeed a close call. Just be thankful you did not sustain any damage- it is such a hassle.
Check out the other posting-"This is a sad day"

Drive defensively. If it saves you even once it is worth it.

A word about ABS that I learned last week at a driving school. You want to stop quick. You jam on the brakes with the ABS feature. You feel the pulsating of the ABS. Now what? Don't stop pressing on the brake, it will futher depress a small amount and may pulsate again. If you let go you will not stop faster, you'll undo the benefits of ABS.

Stay safe. Driving is the most dangerous daily activity most of us do

 

A few weeks ago I was relaxing with the cruise control set at the usual 90mph as we made our way across the open desert late at night. Suddenly the pickup in front of me slams on his brakes HARD. I hit the brakes as hard as I can without invoking a collision from the car behind me and everything seems under control. Next thing I know, the pickup swerves VIOLENTLY off the road into the desert and fishtails into a massive cloud of dust. Turns out, there's a car, sideways, across and blocking the entire highway. With no lights facing us, the sideways car was apparently not visible to the pickup driver until the last second. The pickup did not leave me much time (oh, maybe a nanosecond) to assess the situation but I immediately followed his lead and took our new MINI on it's first high-speed zero-visibility off-road adventure through the thick dust cloud. The MINI made the transition as if it were on rails -- amazing! Of course, our off-road excitement was cut short as we had to swerve wildly back onto the road to avoid hitting the guy that was running in the median or his parked car. The whole while the car felt as if it were on pavement, I was doing some serious maneuvering on that dirt and there wasn't even a hint of slippage. I looked for the DSC light afterward but it was not lit -- how long does it stay on?

 

I think it is always on...you have to turn it off...?

 

The DSC light turns off immediately after it the wheel slippage stops.