I'm going preface this by saying that the two factors that are most often mentioned by MINI owners in focus groups regarding why they purchased a MINI are: the handling and the appearance. As owners, we come to the table with near universal appreciation for those two MINI virtues that together make us smile whenever we drive or look at our MINIs.

With that in mind, there are some superiority complexes within the MINI community that I could do without.





MINI owners that hate on other MINI owners for driving a MINI that doesn't match their own narrow definition of what real motoring is about. Motoring doesn't need a clutch! You don't have to shift to enjoy an open twisty road and not everyone wants to play with a **** in traffic every day on the way to work. It doesn't make your MINI any more special or someone else's any less special based on what your left leg is doing. You each are happy with the way your MINI is. Let it be.



The COOPER is just as much of a MINI as the COOPER S is. The MINI made its name on handling and style and the COOPER has both in huge amounts. MINI's claim to fame hasn't been straight-line speed or making astronomical power. The COOPER driving experience and the S driving experience are different, but the COOPER isn't any less rewarding of a car to drive. Sure it forces the driver to be more cognoscente of the gear and rpm they are in and to manage momentum in corners more wisely, but is that really something we should hold up as a bad thing? One troubling aspect to some of the "just a COOPER" line of thinking is an underlying assertion that MC owners would be MCS owners if they just had the money. THAT isn't the motoring spirit.



Yet again we turn on our fellow motorers by somehow implying that the Cabrio isn't as good as the Hardtop. Not everyone has the same priorities. Not everyone wants to have a dark headliner over their head on a sunny day. The Cabrio is every bit a MINI. If you don't like it, don't buy it! Then again, maybe the cabrio haters would have purchased one themselves if they just had the money.


Basically this one holds that MINIs that are modified with performance in mind are superior to those that aren't and that stock MINIs are to be looked down upon. This, in spite of the fact that in stock form, the MINI is already a giant killer in the handling and looks departments. "Stock" MINIs are still for the most part custom ordered by their owners and just because they stay the way their owners fell in love with them the day they brought it home doesn't make stock MINIs any less special.

This one is a more recent development. MINI owners claiming that the Traveller isn't a real MINI. It's still going to be about 16" shorter than an Audi A3. It's still going to have driving dynamics tuned by the same people that brought us the MC and MCS, the fact that it's a little longer and makes a MINI approachable for people that previously had concerns about the utility of something as small as the MC and MCS really shouldn't scare us. Regardless of what cars they come from, Traveller owners will still be driving one of the smallest new cars on the road and one of the best handling and best looking ones to boot.


In Freakin Conclusion

These complexes shouldn't be part of a community that is brought together by a car as fun as the MINI. MC, MCa, MCS, MCSa, MCc, MCca, MCSc, MCSca, Ta, TSa, T, or TS, it’s still all MINI and we all have our reasons for picking the type and spec that we did. It’s all good. Embrace that already!

 

Well said, and I agree. After reading post after post about the MCS being a better car, I sold my MCC and bought an MCS because I felt the MCS was the Mini to have. Although I really like my "S", I miss the unique handling characteristics of the Cooper that I find missing in the "S". Both really are great cars in their own ways.

 

Isn't this what makes us all "different". I remember when going through the auto versus manual trans thing, it was a tough choice. In the end I chose it only because the LSD was available with the stick. Hense I got a stick.

It's been a hack of a time "relearning" but it was like picking up where I left off. Cabs are really fun, anyone who has not driven in a convertable is missing alot in life. I'm lucky to have a '90 mustang conv at home .

In the end, are we not all smiling while driving our minis? Looking at the speedo and seeing you doing like 70 around a turn that says 35mph only :impatient.

I'm sure I'll get heck for not doing the pulley just yet, but eh I don't need more power right now. I have a 350hp mustang that I can get my fun out of

 

it kinda sucks.... But where would we be without it!

You forgot two:

• that is that JCW sucks because it's expensive....
• that the world will end when the 07 comes out because it has a different motor!

We all have gone slightly different ways with out cars, and that's a good thing.... But the degree of self-imposed miopic (spelled massively wrong?) views that 'what I've done is the only way to go" is wayyyyyyyy to prevelent. Sad....

Matt

 

I agree with most of that. However, I take exception here:
While I agree that a driver doesn't necessarily need to have to fiddle with shifting and gearing, it should an imperative inside the automotive industry to move toward pedalless clutch systems and away from torque convertors. I don't think the efficiency and utility of a solid connection between wheels and engine will ever be matched by a fluid dynamic interface and we're now at a point in the development of automobile technology that an automatic transmission could realistically use a clutch. And I'm honetsly curious what could be possible with a clutch-fed CVT. The clutch could conceivable last longer than the engine if it's programmed well and the car would probably accelerate like an electric. It would be interesting, that's for sure.

 

Go with a hybrid drivetrain with dual clutches and have the motor stop, and have continuous power output as gears are changed!

Change the original post to "Motoring TODAY doesn't need a clutch"

Matt

 

Amen DID! Can't find anything in your post that I have seen or experienced myself. My MCS is still bone stock and I feel that some folks here and in my local club look down upon me because my MINI(s) is still tuned the way BMW wanted it in the first place. I don't care about pulleys, intakes, etc, etc. I think MINI tuned this car to perfection at the assembly line, thank you very much!

 

I have another one to add:

MC superiority complex. I love my MC and having driven a bone stock MCS and a pullied MSC I just do not get it. More power sure, but at what point does the extra power take away from the experience? While I respect that everybody is doing their own thing I look at the MCS and think 1. Waste of the extra cash and 2. Dear god why put a hole in the best looking bonnet in the world?

 

All of those complexes exist for a reason, and quite frankly, some of them make me sleep better at night 'cause I know I'm better than a lot of you.

mb

please laugh.

 

Done. Nice one.

DiD - I agree with your rant. I've seen them played out here on NAM, especially the manual-shifting superiority complex, but I can thankfully say that I haven't felt effects from any of them--I'm really happy with my MINI, regardless of what anyone else thinks might make it better!

I think most people feel that way, but it's just the nature of online forums for people to disagree, and the nature of car guys and gals to think their cars are better than anybody else's! Out in the real world, I think we're all motoring together.

Like Chip Foose said on some TV show - everyone at a car show is a potential best friend. Some may like hot rods, some may like monster trucks, and we may like MINIs, but we're all alike deep down in our motoring cores.

(Except for MINI owners who don't wave. They're out of it.)

 

he he he...

Very Good Rant, DiD!

Truthfully though, the ones I most frequently encounter on NAM are:

MY WHEELS ARE LIGHTER THAN YOURS...MY WHEELS ARE LIGHTER THAN AIR!

RUNFLATS HURT YOUR TUSHIE...GET NON-RUNFLATS NOW!

"REAL" DRIVER'S DON'T USE CUPHOLDERS...

MOD--AND SCREAM "MOSS MAGNUSSON"

DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLED IT vs. BREAK IT IN PROPER

and of course:

JCW IS CRAP vs. JCW IS CRAP-TACULAR, CRAP-TASTIC, CRAP-TABULOUS, and Super CRAP-AFRAGALISTIC EXPIALIDOCIOUS!

 

Did someone say CRAP?

Funny to see the subcultures within the Culture of the MINI. Sometimes MINI owners also trash other, non-sporting vehicles lacking to understand that everyone has different needs and not everyone (in fact percentage wise, probably very few) cares about "performance".

To each, their own...

 

mine's still better.

 

Well done DiD. I also love the "my tires are lighter than yours" that Tarzan said, part of a wheel superiority complex that sometimes keeps me out of the "show me your wheels thread". I would like to add one if I may:

"Traditional MINI Values" Superiority Complex...

Those who think that they are better because their MINI upholds some unwritten "Mini Cooper traditions and norms", whatever those are, and who hate on MINI owners whose MINI's do not follow these norms, as in bigger wheels, chrome ( OH NO!), lambo doors, extreme body kits, or anything not conservative and eurostyle. I'm tired of hearing it. If I want to put neon under my car and blinking LED's on my valve stems then I will and that doesnt make me any less of a person. (not that I do, but go for it if thats you) If it is not on your car then keep your mouth shut!

Whew, that felt good. I cant believe that anyone would actually make arguments against the complexes that DiD wrote, that's bascially admitting to having the complex. Thats funny.

 

Oh yeah, I think that this thread was long over due.

 

Perhaps it is natural to make comparisons when explaining why one chose a certain model/options or when we are asked for an evaluation of particular MINI features or mods, but there is a line that gets crossed, isn't there...and that's where the problems tend to happen.

Fortunately enough of us have been around MINIs long enough to know the real unique benefits offered by different models...too bad the superiority-thing has crept into other discussions.

I have a few Mini/MINI friends around these parts...one drives an MCS, one drives a JCW, I drive a Cooper, and another friend (who has restored many classic Minis) drives a Cooper CVT. It's impossible to argue w/ the choices made by these venerable, long-time enthusiasts.

Personally, I love it when experienced owners give unsolicited kudos to other MINI models and how those express various facets of the motoring spirit...that's a much better vibe than the whole superiority thing.

 

Thanks DiD, I thought it was just me.
What about the I-take-better-pictures-than-you superiority complex syndrome?
I hope nobody suggests we all get the same thing, and think the same way, and listen to the same music, and...

 

I agree that it gets tiresome when people want to force their un asked for opinion on you as if it were more then just their POV and/or they come off as of they have a superior attitude. When people start a thread asking for opinions, though, it can open a can of worms. Generally, considering the nature of a messageboards, people will engage in discussing the whys and wherefores of their preferences, the most you can do is add to it or click off I guess.

Oh, and my wheels are lighter then air and Indi Blue is not nicer then Hyper

 

Nicely done.

How often can you go to an event like AMVIV and see over 200 of the same kind of car, and not have 2 exactly a like.

That to me makes the Mini so special. If they weren't all different, they would be just another car. ( well maybe not ) they would still be a Mini.

 

they did a spot on universal hd at the detroit auto show highlighting
the mini traveller detroit. it resembled a mini but the winter
theme was just plain ugly.

hopefully the real thing will be better.

 

But we still get to make fun of the SUV's, right!?

 

I don't know, this is a touchy issue. NAM is a public forum, and as such, if you post something, be prepared for criticism, constructive or not. Now there are different ways of telling someone what they've done may not be such a good idea (and I'm not talking about cosmetic mods). Like remember the guy who put wider wheels in the back of his MINI? That's just plain stupid, and he was called out on it. He proceeded to fabricate some story about how his car (a bone stock MCS) fishtails a lot to justify his decision, this only furthered the amount of ridicule from the educated members of the forum.

Nobody's going to stop anyone on this forum from making their car look ridiculous and perform worst than stock, but if it's possible to disuade somebody from chroming their intercooler or installing a neon strobe light in their steering wheel, I'll be damned if I'm going to sit back and pretend "it's cool, do what you want".

 

OK, well maybe I was giving extreme examples, as was the example in your response. But if toned down, I'm just tired of the "traditional/conservative" (not sure what to call them) MINI owners who look down at different styles that aren't there own. Like the MINI owner who hates on chrome or big wheels because it is "not appropriate" for the MINI (which I have been told). The beauty of the MINI, as well as other cars, is that you can buy it stock and then add your own style if you like. And you add it to your car, not anyone elses, so why should they care and and act superior? That's what I don't get.

I am all for someone leaving there car stock, blacking it out, having small wheels, or doing whatever they want to their car because it is their car and their style, not my car and variety is good. It is those who try to impose that their style is superior that really erk me, and especially the ones who frown on the "untradtional" MINI styles. Its all good. To each his own, I've said enough. Now I better go install those spinners. (I would too)

 

No you weren't. If anyone wants to do something different, its your car, your money .... what do you care about what an anonymous identity in a virtual world cares about what you did with your money? The ONLY one it should matter to is YOU ... who paid it for it. If your happy, that is all that matters

I never understood those threads .... Come see my new bling. The ONLY one it should matter to is YOU ... who paid for it. If you want to brag about it ... looking for validation in the virtual world ... then you pay your money and take your chances because everyone idea of what is "cool" is different. Looking for validation can lead to serious disappointment.

To each their own

 

How about....