Let's Start Motoring...And so I did.

I waved goodbye to GF Unit and headed across the freeways of SoCal to Ventura to meet up with a friend of mine. Sure the freeways is not the way to get to know your MINI (or any other vehicle for that matter) but that is all I had. Cypress just does not have any curved roads.

I fired up..and headed up the 605. Up to this point I had about 20 round town miles on it. The test drive which GF took for me (I had already driven two MINIs before) was on the freeway and some local streets near Long Beach MINI. I had not seen the freeway yet from this cockpit.

Now understand I was up until 2:30am last night reading all of my MINI manuals (which were not so MINI by the way) and leaving long messages here about LSD. Thankfully no police have arrived yet based on my inquires. I thank everyone for that.

So as I headed out to the 605 I was wondering. How will this thing feel. Will I immeidately miss my S2000? Sadly some of the answers were not going to be learned today because I wanted to stay under the 4K RPM rule. This is a cruel rule too--it seems like life begins after 4k on the tach. Yeah, okay.. so it slipt once past 4k. I was just testing to insure the tachometer was working proper.

I am now on the 605 and the car is not feeling so good. I am doing 70 MPH in 5th gear and the car feels like it is weeble. It is wobbling. It is just not feeling good at all. Actually it was sucking to be honest. I thought about it and even considered pulling off the road. Was one of my tires flat?

I looked at the flat tire indicator and it seemed to think everything was great. So I pressed on. It was then I realized that the issue must be the rain grooves they are somewhat massive on the 605. Perhaps these 17" run flats are harder than hell and they pick up the rain grooves like my old Dunlops did on my motorcycle.

I got onto the 105 finally and as I was going off the 105 the car suddently felt a lot better. Sure enough the rain grooves were not on the onramp. Phew. It is just the tires. Note to self--look on NAM and see what people say about tires.

Feeling more confident I blasted my way to the 405. I enjoyed that. The car feels good. I must say that the car is so much quieter than my S2000. I honestly did not feel a grand need to get out of 5th to 6th, but I did it. So at 70 mph I am turning 3k on the tach--with plenty of power left.

Then the 405.

Sigh. If I live to see the day they blow the 405 straight to hell that would be the happiest day of my life. That freeway simply sucks. The people on it suck. The world sucks. The 405 is the open maw of hell just waiting for you to creep and beep your way into it.

So what a great way to get to know your clutch. Creep, clutch, shift, brake -- rinse repeat all the way to the 101. I love SoCal.

Once I hit the 101 life was good. It got better once I passed Calabasas. The car felt good (despite the rain grooves) and all was well.

I made it to my firends house nearly 100 miles later. I felt good and my car was happy.

I showed the car to several people--the operative word everyone used -- especially the women--oh my that car is CUTE!

No one called my S2000 cute.

After a few cokes and lot of "wow.. that is cute" comments I left and headed to Simi Valley to see a dear friend. I hit the 101 and then the 23. The car is feeling better and better. I adjusted the seat down a bit when I was in Venture becuase at one point on the 405 I hit a dip and banged my head on the roof. The seat felt much better. I angled the steering wheel up a bit more and I could now see the tach. Funny -- how could BMW / Mini not notice that the wheel blocks the tach? It is very annoying. My seat adjustment helped.

Oh.. and let me say this--the rear view mirror is frickkin' huge. It is distracting and worse it blocks your view when you're doing the twisties. More on that in a minute.

I get to Simi and Dave jumps in. We go for a ride on the Santa Sousana Pass--a favorite short twisty mountain road that my R1150RT motorcycle just loves. Sadly the recent weather in SoCal along with some odd changes in the lane markings have messed up this road a bit.

With Dave at the wheel (he owns a BMW M3) we started through the pass. He is a spirited but safe driver. We did not break the 4k barrier nor did we set any land speed records. He just drove the car through the turns like a pro. The mirror is now annoying. If you try to look through a turn you see.. mirror. So like the old high school safety films--you gotta duck to see the road coming up. You can leave out the roll part they taught you. Never understood how that would save me from a nuclear burst. I show my age now.

The car is VERY different feeling than the S2000--note I said different and not worse. The car felt planted and was fun to drive. Very positive reponse was David's summary.

We headed home for a nice steak dinner. I came home just a few minutes ago and the beast went into the garage for the first time. It stayed at GF's house last night.

I tucked it in for the night and now here I am. All I need to do now is learn how to set the clock and plot how I will spend money on it.

Here is my summary. It is a great car. I think once I get past the 4k barrier and perhaps do something about the tires I am going to love this car like no other.

Thanks to all of you--and your kind words and encouragement I had an excellent day getting to know MINI.

-mark=

 

Ahhh. Felt like I was there with you. Thanks for the ride!

My 05 MCS came with the Dunlop SP9000 runflats, and omigod, do they feel squirrelly on grooved pavement!!! Scary as all getout the first time I felt it! Thought a wheel was falling off!

I don't know if they have gotten better as they've broken in, or I'm not noticing (read: "fighting") it as much, or maybe there just isn't much grooved pavement around here. But doesn't seem to be as much of a problem as before.

And, yeah, I know what you mean - that break-in period is cruel!

Glad to know your tach is working! (wink)

Happy Motoring!

 

Mark,

It has been a pleasure to read all of these updates. It reminds me a lot about where i was with my own MINI back in June 2002. Thanks for the memories. :smile:

One good thing about my break-in period was that since I purchased in NY and drove back to Colorado (where I lived at the time), my break-in was up at some point around the Nebraska border and by the time I was taking friends out in the car we could utilize the whole rpm range.

Dave

 

The break-in period is definately cruel, it is amazing what the car can do once you no longer have to worry about it. Just be patient, don't worry, it'll be worth the wait

 

Best write-up I've read on this site to date. I know that doesn't mean much since I've been here a grand total of like two weeks now, but still.

I have never set foot in California, let alone driven in it, and I felt like I was there, on the highways and twisties with you.

Just, excellent. :smile:

Make that commute a few more days in a row and your break-in period will be but an afterthought.

 

Great write-up Mark. And kudos to you for seeing something you liked and pulling the trigger without second-guessing yourself. I've been researching/fretting/contemplating the MINI thing for many, many months and finally ordered my car (Chili Red MCSC), which just finished production and should be hitting the boat soon. I have no doubt the MINI will be a fantastic car, probably my favorite ever, but I do have reservations about build quality/reliability. Oh well, you only live once.

I hear your 405 pain, though I hated the 5 even a hundred times worse (and the 91...well, let's just say my loathing of that freeway knows no limit). Frankly, getting on any freeway in SoCal filled me with dread, no matter the day or the time. It's a tribute to the "basically good" nature of human beings that people aren't intentionally ramming into each other on those freeways in an epic urban demolition derby every single day.

Though I loved many things about my near-decade in SoCal, it's nice to be out again and living somewhere you can breathe (and I'm not just talking about air quality) and drive! Everyone should do the SoCal thing once, then flee screaming and never look back.

Keep up the reviews. They get me stoked for my car.

 

P.S. Where are the pics?

 

I've traveled those freeways many times and my only suggestion would have been to travel on Pacific Coast Hwy from Santa Monica up to Ventura. You could also have gone over Kanan Road from Pacific Coast Hwy to the Ventura Fwy (101N). This would have eliminated a lot of stop and go. I travel every day over the canyon to Pacific Coast Hwy and even with a little traffic, you still have the Pacific Ocean to look at.

Enjoy your new MINI.

 

As far as the slippery tires - I think this is true of all new tires. It happened with my Jetta, and also with the MINI. You read your owner's manual thoroughly, so I'm sure you saw that there is a break-in period for the tires just like for the engine (but much shorter).

I think it's called "sizing" - something to do with a coating that helps pull the tires from the molds they are made in. You have to wear it off before the real rubber meets the road (couple hundred miles is all).

 

Mark,

Great post, had to read it a couple of times.

You might have nasty grooves out there, but in Michigan we have holes that will eat your car.

Motor on....

 

Make sure you do some cruizin at 4K RPM. Mix it up all the time,and keep checking your rev. counterI took a week to break-in mine

 

I loved reading your motoring story, makes me want to skip dinner and go out for a drive, not to many twisties close to my house either.

I am sure it was not easy going from and S2000 to a MINI, many of us have gone from nice cars, but I am one of the poeple that did say I loved driving an S2000 in your original thread...moving on....

Are you sure about the break in period? There is a lot of controversary on NAM about that, I'll post again if I can find a recent one that I recall being very good. Otherwise do a search for it.

MY advice (and what do I know I am just a chick that loves her MINI) Enjoy it and drive it how you want!

 

Thanks to all of you for the kind words about my story.

It is truly fun to write these and you all inspire me to continue. I am really enjoying the MINI and reading this board.

As to pictures? Soon! SOON! I admi though--my MINI looks just like any other chili red with white top and white mirror MINI that is out of the showroom. Now I am dreaming of doing a few things--like adding cool driving lights. I am even wanting to get the rear fog light installed. I have the fog lights on the front--wish the light was on the rear too.

I am hoping also to get the bluetooth phone module from MINI and have it connected. Either that or the iPod. I know they are mutually exclusive.

Anyway--you guys and gals are great.

 

Thanks to all of you for the kind words about my story.

It is truly fun to write these and you all inspire me to continue. I am really enjoying the MINI and reading this board.

As to pictures? Soon! SOON! I admi though--my MINI looks just like any other chili red with white top and white mirror MINI that is out of the showroom. Now I am dreaming of doing a few things--like adding cool driving lights. I am even wanting to get the rear fog light installed. I have the fog lights on the front--wish the light was on the rear too.

I am hoping also to get the bluetooth phone module from MINI and have it connected. Either that or the iPod. I know they are mutually exclusive.

Anyway--you guys and gals are great.

Love reading your posts too!

-mark=

 

iPod!!! An essential MINI accessory. In fact, it should come as standard equipment.