what about the different size tires available on the cooper. I really dig the look of the l6 inch 5 star pattern, but then again I'm not a full throttle kind of guy, and am worried about road noise and rough ride with the 16's as opposed to stock 15 inch tires. Anyone have any experience yet with their coopers? (I did drive coopers with both l5 and l6 tires and the l5's seem to me to be somewhat smoother)

 

I'm on the 16''s and don't have any problem with them at all. Road noise doesn't seem excessive, and the ride is just fine--not as smooth as my old Volvo S80, but that was a boring plush highway cruiser. After all, I got the Mini for fun.

Mr. Toad

 

My current car rides on 205/50-16 Z rated Toyo T1-S's. Even being an Ultra High Performance tire it still is fairly comfortable. I think 16's are a good middle of the road tire. They offer fairly good handling while not taking away from straight line excelleration. 17's are as high as I would ever go.... Beyond that your just adding weight and killing any straight line excell.
Something you may consider is just getting a higher performance rated 15. I'm not sure what's available but I'm sure there are some good ones.

Side note:
Something I've been kicking around a while......
I plan on getting the S-Lite 17's..... I've tried finding pricing info on what it would cost to replace these run flat tires.
Finally I found a little hint at what it would cost......
It looks like most 16" run flats are going for about 150.00 a tire.
The 17" run flats are running around 200.00+ per tire!!
Something we all should consider when purchasing our MINI's.
SW

 

Another option other than having to purchase run flat tyres is to get the Mini mobility system. Which in reality is just one of those cans of foam that fills in the puncture and it pumps it up.

It would work out a lot more cost effective in the end other than having to pay double for tyres just becasue they are run flat.

Also with tyre technology now it is not that often that you get a flat these days. In the last 5 years I have only had one, and that was a slow leak.

 

And yet another option I've been reading about.....
Self sealing tires.
From what I've read they are a little cheaper than the Run Flats.
SW

 

My wife and her mother got a front flat in our Chili Red. Road Service was a no show - Easy to get to "spare" though...MANY people stopped to help. Tire was ruined - looked like she ran something over...