So my dad has an '02 base Cooper and I recently purchased an '03 S a few weeks ago. I've driven both quite a bit since the S's purchase and have some brief thoughts I'd like to share on driving characteristics.

The first thing I noticed between the two is the transmission feel. Both the cars are manual and I find the Cooper's tranny to be much smoother and easier to work with. The clutch is far lighter and the shifter is far smoother in the Cooper than the S. Is this the way it's supposed to be? I'd guess the clutch and flywheel are much lighter in the Cooper than the S. In normal driving, the Cooper is quite a bit easier to drive simply because the transmission is smoother and the clutch doesn't grab as hard, plus the clutch pedal is very light and linear. The Cooper revs quite a bit faster as well, making it much easier to rev match downshift.

Standard cloth seats are much more comfortable than leather bucket seats to me. My S has the leather buckets, and while they are much more gripping in curves, for daily driving my back gets sore and sweaty. There's way too much lumbar support in the S even with it dialed all the way out, so I end up supporting my entire upper body with my lower back while I drive since my upper back doesn't even touch the seat. The Cooper has cloth seats, which look worse but breathe much better, so my back doesn't sweat while I drive. The back is also much straighter so I don't have to expend so much energy just keeping my back straight while I drive.

The steering is heavier in the Cooper than in the S and I prefer that lighter steering.

Besides the power and steering, I find the Cooper to be much more accommodating for normal daily driving. The standard cloth seats are more comfortable to me than the leather buckets and the transmission is much smoother and lighter.

What are your thoughts on these two cars?

 

I have both also, 03 R50 and an 05 R53. I agree with the clutch differences and also the seats. Power-wise, no comparison especially with the a/c on

 

Yeah, definitely not. If it weren't for the extra 50hp and that lovely supercharger-enhanced note, I'd probably rather daily a base model.

 

Interesting, I've never driven a base and sometimes wonder if the s is worth having for a daily driver.

Leather seats are ok for me most of the time. Sometimes they're really hot or really cold
and hard in the winter. Way more comfortable at the right temperature though.

As for the clutch, I recently put in a Valeo and its a huge difference over stock. The pedal is so light it took me more than a few days to get used to it. Makes for a much better daily driver

 

I'll keep that in mind!

 

Not sure if you realize, or if its the same for all of them. But my r53 has a lumbar adjustment. You can increase or decrease it pretty significantly.

 

Not sure if you read the rest of that paragraph, but I said that I dialed the lumbar all the way out and it's still too much.

 

Nope I totally missed that part.

 

PS SHOULD BE THE SAME on both cars...same PS pump, rack, etc...
You might have an issue of some type, or maybe have dramatically different rims and tires?
wider and/or heavier rims can make the steering less playful...
And for the seats...
The "sport seats" could be in either...depends on the option package when you got the car...mine had the cloth seats you like....was one of the reasons WHY I ordered the combo packages I did.

 

Neither of my cars has any mods. Perhaps I was just fooling myself into thinking the Cooper's is heavier, but it seemed to be that way.

I'd love to have gotten the cloth seats, but I didn't have much of a choice. It was a used car after all! There was one '03 MCS we saw when we were looking to buy that was absolutely gorgeous with the cloth buckets. Gray exterior, white R85 wheels, white top w/ sunroof. Beautiful car, but the supercharger was shot. It was pretty much exactly like the base model in terms of performance

 

I drove a base Cooper a year ago. The only real difference I noticed was how much down it was on power compared to my S. When you stomped the gas....it just sat there, where my S will light up the tires in 1st and still slip them a little bit in 2nd.

The "justa" cooper is ok.....but having the extra power and torque of the S makes driving a lot more fun....

 

Yeah, I honestly think the R50 is still the slowest car I've ever driven

 

I've just bought another Mini Cooper (justa) having owned and enjoyed one a few years ago. I had got rid of last one to get something faster and bought a ford St which I also enjoyed and was much faster, but lacked character so I have just bought a cooper again.
I looked at a couple of r53 but noticed the clutch very heavy in them and to be honest although much faster than a cooper I didn't find them much more fun to drive.
Minis by nature are more about being nimble yet feeling well built and for me most of the fun in driving them is their handling and no so much about red light drag strips.
As said I looked at quite a few coopers and cooper s and settled for the cooper and can't say I'm sorry, who wants to keep having to revi cause your addicted to that lovely whine, I'd only spend more on tyres and speeding tickets.