Actually, this evening I had a guy in a PT try to race me up an on-ramp. It was only a single lane, but he kept edging over to pass me. I was just cruising and enjoying the warm spring air. Once we got to the top of the ramp he jumped over to the left lane and roared passed me. Several cars already in the left lane had to slow when he jumped over without a signal. I said to my wife that he must have MINI Envy...

I really enjoyed the PT thread. Sounds like feel they have something to prove.

 

>>Actually, this evening I had a guy in a PT try to race me up an on-ramp. It was only a single lane, but he kept edging over to pass me. I was just cruising and enjoying the warm spring air. Once we got to the top of the ramp he jumped over to the left lane and roared passed me. Several cars already in the left lane had to slow when he jumped over without a signal. I said to my wife that he must have MINI Envy...
>>
>>I really enjoyed the PT thread. Sounds like feel they have something to prove.

I generally give the slow stuff lots of room ahead of me, so when they hit the brakes for the curves on the on-ramps I don't have to also hit the brakes.

Once I get a clear line to the freeway I can naiil it. A lot of people really hate this.

We had a PT Cruiser GT on one of our runs. It definitely kept up with the MINIs, but it doesn't have as "settled" of an appearance doing so. The body leans in curves much more, and it just looks harder to control. The horsepower is definitely there if you have a manual transmission. I drove the automatic PT/GT once, and the turbo makes up for the automatic, but not much more. It didn't make me want to pry $25k out of my wallet.

 

Uh oh, the PT's are on to us! They've found our thread!

Street racing is just plain dumb. Who buys a MINI for street racing anyway? Obviously the MINI owner in question was a fat-headed moron to begin with, and instigated the PT owner. But I have to agree that it DOES sound like the PT's have something to prove.

The two cars are totally different. An S probably COULD smoke him in the twisties, but that is every MINI owner's claim to fame. I was smoking Porches and Ferrarris in the twisties at my first ever track experience (with only one month of stick shift driving under my belt). These cars really are go-karts. The twisties are where they excell, regardless of the driver or the mod. I wouldn't even try to race a Focus or Neon on the straightaways. It's just plain dumb and HP isn't the main attraction for this car. What's the point?

So why are we trying to compare, as someone else pointed out, apples and oranges? This reminds me of the 350Z thread awhile back. hehehe.

 

At the end of the day, PT's are ugly. Nuff said.

 

The PT Cruiser GT (no that's not an awkward name at all -- almost as awkward as MINI Cooper) has definitely got the juice with 220 hp and 245 lb-ft. of torque. But it also has quite a bit more weight to haul around. According to Chrysler's web site, the GT ranges from about 3100 - 3200 lbs. depending on equipment.

I think that one could definitely give an S a run for its money in acceleration and would of course out-accelerate a Cooper, but if course handling is no contest. I'm willing to bet that the MINI that the one fellow played with in the twisties and said it was probably "leaned on" was in fact probably bone stock.

The standard engine for the PT Cruiser has only 150 hp and is pulling around anywhere from 3000 to 3300 lbs depending on equipment. I recall from reading road tests that the standard PT Cruiser is about 3 seconds slower to 60 than the Cooper S but I haven't gone to look that up just now or anything.

But hey, nothing wrong with a little friendly competition. Though I was a little worried about that one guy who got freaked out when his wife said the MINI was faster than his PT. Got so upset he made a dangerous maneuver just to get in front. To that dude I say "just get the surgery already if you're that insecure about your size."

 

I saw a PT cruiser soft top with the top up ,made a clunky looking car look ugly

 

I looked at 'em too. The shake 'n bake run of the mill base PT model is cheap and it looked it too. The base 4 cylinder/auto weezer model had no power and the inside trim was cheesy looking. If you threw it into a corner it felt like you were going to scrape the door handles on the pavement. Besides they are all over the place and I think the retro look that they started with hasn't aged all that well. Now if you want to spend $$ and get the turbo model with all the upgrades it goes pretty good but still doesn't handle all that well because of the basic tall top heavy design and they turn into a pretty expensive small car . And talk about poor reliability, when it was first introduced it was one of the worst, just look at the past model year rated offered up by CR! They are just now sorting it out. I think what we have here is a bit like trying to explain jazz style music to people who say they don't like it. There is a saying "If I have to explain it to you, you don't or won't get it any way". And that is the basic issue our friends with the PT's seem to have in the thread referenced above. I say let 'em be, I'll keep my MCS. I'm too smart to get tangled up in street racing anyway. And let's see which car retains it resale value better in the long run the PT or the MINI........mgg

 

Has anyone seen a PT run at an autocross? Or for that matter, at a real track event? Aren't they really just nun's cars, for getting groceries? Doubt if they could keep up with a seriously driven Cooper except in acceleration, let alone an 'S'. Straight line speed is too difficult to carry into and out of a corner for those PTs, compared to a MINI. Most of the ones I've seen are "dress-up" poseurs. Sorry, they must have secret MINI envy, IMHO, and claiming to keep up with MINIs in the twisties is overcompensation.

BCNU,
Rob in Dago

 

>>At the end of the day, PT's are ugly. Nuff said.

AMEN!

 

I've driven a PT GT and it is a pretty fast car. I think in a straight line it would give my slightly modded S a pretty good run. Obviously I could out corner it. All that being said...I think it is kind of refreshing to see PT owners that are just as obsessed with their cars as we are with ours. To each their own!

 

>> Who buys a MINI for street racing anyway?

I certainly didn't buy my mini for getting groceries or for long drives in the country! You all know you guys have street raced at one time or another...admit it.

 

>>PT Turbo GT w/HO engine does 0-60 in 7.0 sec. It's a bit faster than the S but not much. I actually think driver skill has a lot to do with it. The S is definitely quick but it's strength is obvioulsy the handling. There is no way a PT will keep up with an S in the twisties. The neon srt4 is another matter. It posted skidpad numbers equal to or better than the S and is faster.

its fast but its a dodge so it will probably fall apart

 

Not that MINI owners have a lot of room to talk, but did anyone notice that very very few of the people posting to the PT forum actually had stock GT's? Now if they are talking stock MCS against stock GT, then thats apples to apples. Modded GT vs stock MCS....yeah.....thats about right....takes a modded GT to whup up on a stock MCS


T

 

>>>>At the end of the day, PT's are ugly. Nuff said.
>>
>>AMEN!

I agree.... they are nothing but a spiffed up mini van.

 

PT VS MCS.
It sounds like a joke.
Two cars has almost nothing in common.
MINI 2 doors. PT? Even they have it now!
MCS, a cornering master. PT???
MCS Cool looking with all tech gadgets in the car. PT????
I love my MCS big sunroof. PT?????
I love my NAV in my MCS(stock). PT?????
I Love my MCS unique interior look with no other car look a like. PT??? (i can dig out a dozen)
I Love my MCS sporty design based on old fashsion MINI was famous in Mont C Race. PT??? Old beach car!!

 

Yeah my mom has a PT GT...Her generation seems to like it a lot. Personally I like my S better, but they are very different cars. The mini feels like a sports car, fast and nimble in the twisities. The PT feels like an over powered station wagon. Still fun though.

I think people who rank their cars on speed and HP alone are either thinking 2D or have some sort of power envy. They say the larger and more powerful a car is, the smaller the...well, anyway thats why I bought a MINI!

 

It's interesting that they marketed the PT cruiser to an entirely different market segment then the one that buys them now. On the other hand, MINIS are owned by every generation.

 

Interesting stats:

>>They are taking their top of the line model from Chrysler.
>>Our top of the line model is the Cooper Works.
>>According to Road and Track,
>>the PT Cruiser Turbo does 0-60 in 7.2 s and quarter mile in 15.7 s
>>The JCW does 0-60 in 6.4 seconds and the quarter mile in 14.7 s
>>the JCW will beat the PT Cruiser in handling through the slalom by 3mph +
>>the JCW will beat the PT Cruiser in braking by 10+ feet
>>the JCW will beat the PT Cruiser in gas mileage by 6 MPG

 

enuff said...............

 

>>At the end of the day, PT's are ugly. Nuff said.

I've heard the same said about our MINI's. It's all subjective, isn't it?

How about we give the PT its due - much like our cars at least they don't look like the other 95% of the cars out there.

The PT isn't my style either but at least it's different.

 

>>I've "toyed" with bad boys in Z-28s & Mach-1s and they can blow your doors off on a straightaway. But One guy in a TransAm tried to keep up with me on a curvy road and spun out, ended up in the front yard of a house. I went back to check on him and his rims looked like waded up aluminum foil. Then the other night I was behind a Z-28 with a kid in it ... loud pipes. I squeeled my tires behind him to get him to go. Curvy roads of course .... he over corrected in the first turn and damn near lost controll of the rear end on the second ... that;s when I said heck with it. No need for him to kill himself .... they can't take cornering. Stright line drag racing is boring ... who wants a car that is only fun going straight short distances?

I love our Mini to death but your going to be unhappily surprised one day when you find a Z-28 driver who can drive in front of you. Don't get me wrong I love the go-kart abilities of our cars but the truth is any of the cars listed above with a compitent driver behind the wheel will still hand us our asses on a road course or straightaway.

 

>>Uh oh, the PT's are on to us! They've found our thread!

Who, me? I drive a "lightly modded" MINI Cooper S that's good for about 200 BHP. No Chrysler envy here.

Here's Randy Webb putting my pulley in: