I wish they'd get as excited about their fwd hatches as well. It'd be nice to see some real competition for the Mini. Even Ford won't bother to bring their hot hatches over, like the Fiesta and Focus RS's.

 

It was a win/win for Mini, marketing anyway, if they beat the Porsche or if they loose they can spin it like they did.
BUT, that dinky course was set-up for a Mini and a Porsche still beat it, and yes, 2 seconds is an eternity on a trakc, especially on a small one like this go kart track. If they'd done the full course the Porsche would have been 2 seconds ahead before getting to the chicane near the top of the hill after turn 1, slaughter.

 

I thought it was great, I love MINI's attitude ...it's all about having fun.
I think had this been a real course it would have been really bad for MINI. ...yet owning both a Porsche and MINI I loved this race.

 

I just want to add some FYI for the MINI team. The car they used against the Porsche was totally bone stock, even the runflat tires. But even more stock is they used a car that did NOT have sport suspension, or even LSD, those both would have benefited the MINI alot.

 

Yeah, I heard that. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, I understand not changing out the tires, but why not put $750 worth of options on there that would have made a BIG difference. Whether or not someone LIKES the E-LSD, it's better than open diff.

Either way, I got free track time, so I'm cool with it.

 

Hyundai is bringing a 3.8 R type manual Coupe

 

Problem is, most of the competition are either European, or manufactured in direct competition with the European hatches.

The Fiesta RS, the Alfa MiTo GTA, VW R32, Fiat Abarth 500, Renault Megane R26R, etc etc.

 

This Roker is a troll. This is the second thread Ive seen him (?) on where is he seems to be aiming at taunting MINI owners. Id say the best thing to do is ignore him until he gets himself banned.

 

The whole thing was silly... Guess that was the point...

 

No, I think it was just arranged so someone could get Mini to buy them a new Porsche and a new t-shirt for when he goes to hang out with his former co-workers...

 

As an owner of multiple Porsches (including two that I have raced on closed courses) and a '09 MCS, I was watching this with some interest. I thought it was a fairly ridiculous challenge by MINI, but in a fun way. No one ever said effective marketing had to be serious, and I think that it captured the MINI fairly well (a fun, slightly irreverent and reasonably practical car). Porsche's response was rather tepid, imo, and altho I guess I understand why they chose to basically ignore it, I can't help but long for the days when they chose to kick sand in Volvo's face after Volvo pulled a similar stunt. MINI is, in a lot of ways, what Porsche was back in the mid 70's to early 80's. I hope they stay that way.

FWIW, stock for stock, the MINI never stood a chance, but I think most of us knew that.