And 0-20 is equally bland in an S. I spend a lot of time driving in 0-30 city traffic and would have chosen an S if it gave a low end advantage over a Cooper, but it doesn't (maybe even slightly worse until the supercharger spools up). I got a 5-speed MCC and I'm happy with it. The 2007 S will be very interesting with its high torque starting at low revs.

While my MCC was having suspension mods installed, I had as a loaner the highly modified S project car of Bay Bridge Motors in Oakland. It was a lot of fun but the difference in driving experience is not as big as what you might expect from a car with about twice the horsepower.

 

I find myself doing similar things when I jump between my MCS and 914.

MCS
r-1-3-5
()2-4-6

914
r-2-4
1-3-5

Luckily, so far, this has only happened in my garage, but a couple of times, if I've been driving the 914 for a few days, when I get into the MINI and attempt to back out of my garage, I have mistakenly instead put it in first gear. But like I said, luckily this has just been in my garage

 

I almost did that the other evening trying to back out of the garage, and almost hit my hubby's new street bike , I thought he was going to have a heart attack

 

or maybe trade it already for a MCS