Ok, Im sure this has been addressed before, but here goes..I have a 2010 Clubman automatic Justa, but when I use the SPORT button, holy cow, WHAT A DIFFERENCE in handling.

Someone please explain to me in "laywomans" terms EXACTLY what it does to make my MINI so much more responsive!!!!!!!

I don't use it often, but, holy cow, it sure could get me into some....um ....trouble....

 

I have a first gen so I don't have one, but as I understand it tightens up the steering and changes the throttle map to be a little more responsive. I think on the auto it also changes shift points.

Personally I don't get why you wouldn't just have it "ON" all the time.

 

It's Magic........

 

Well, due to increase in gas prices, try not to press it much, ya know??? But , I understand why you'd say that!! Thank you!

 

I like this answer.

 

the mini has electronic throttle control so they can program the pedal to "feel" any way you want. The sport button just opens up the throttle sooner

 

It also tightens up the electric steering.

 

does this mean i can take my car to the dealer and have them take the slop out of my pedal to make it crisper?

 

The Sport button should be the way the MINI runs all the time. Having to push it is kind of ridiculous. I would rather have the engine run "sport" all the time and use the button to just change the power steering from "light" to "tight". And as far as I can tell, the mileage doesn't change when in sport mode. I never drive mine without pushing the button because it is too aggravating.

 

The biggest difference I've noticed is the shift points. it's great if you're in traffic and need to accelerate fast and don't need the hassle of the automatic transmission taking its time to downshift. It also eliminates 6th gear so if you do a lot of highway driving it will reduce your mpg a bit.

For most of my driving which consists of bumper to bumper metropolitan traffic, I use either sport mode or manual/steptronic mode. For longer trips (or when I'm feeling lazy...which can happen...) I'll just leave it in regular auto mode.

 

I use the Sport Button when I'm making a "spirited" left hand turn from an off ramp to an inclined street, or when I have a somewhat open road and I just want to "play", forget about the few mpg's you may lose, this thing is way to much FUN to worry about those few pennies you may have left on the asphalt!!

Besides I just put New Wheels on Molly so I have to test them out...for say the next year or so, to see if I like them of course!!

 

Once you drive a tuned mini you'll find the sport button useless.

I actually can't even drive with sport mode on, its TOO responsive

And as far as the steering goes, i hate the artificially weighted feeling the sport button gives. If you want to feel good steering on a MINI....drive an R53. That's how they should be....

 

Among the other things mentioned by the other posters - you should observe that the Sport driving mode locks out 6th gear on the automatic transmission cars. This keeps your RPMs up for the fun response and torque but may limit your high-speed / highway experience.

 

Thanks so much for all the posts!! I think I understand. I test drove both the automatic S and the Justa, and foound I rurally couldn't handle the S, but I find the Sport button really fun and quite adequate for the extra responsiveness when I "need" it , or just for fun on the twisties.

Does any other car maker put this feature in their cars, or is this exclusive to the MINI? Just curious...

 

 

I know this won't be a popular post....but my father's Prius has a similar button. It puts it into 'Power mode" so that it only takes 10 seconds to accelerate from 0 - 60 instead of 2 days

 

Thats funny....

 

It eats up gas bigtime,especially the MCSa.At least it does on mine.Although I like using it alot.

 

So does the new Fiat 500.

 

Throttle should always be responsive, the seemingly 2 inches of throttle peddle dead zone play is dangerous in non-sport mode. Poor throttle response design IMHO.

 

With the Sport Button engaged you can put the automatic in 6th gear by putting the transmission in manual mode. You will then get the good mpg's.

 

I test drove an 08 with the Sport Button for a few days. The few times I forgot to hit it, I stalled it. Throttle should always be responsive.

I'm quite used to my R50 throttle lag now, but I have a Sprint Booster arriving in the mail any day now. Looking forward to it.

 

this! about a week after i got my 08 justa i was stuck in traffic,and about to make a 'quick' jump out my lane to the next but the lag blew my chance. by the time it caught up. it was used to get back out of the way in my original lane


never again! sport button 4the win!

 

I thought that the Sport button in Auto mode essentially simulated the switch to manual mode (on the Auto transmissions)? But it sounds like you can use both and they both create independent changes to the driving of the car?

 

Funny, didn't do that to mine. Brought it down a couple mpg for the first couple days while I was getting used to the responsiveness, but I'm back right where I started at around 30.5-31mpg. Not sure if that's an aberration and my car is just different or what, but all the sport button seems to have done is remap the throttle to make it more responsive, tighten up the steering, and allow me to access "overboost" at WOT, out of these overboost is the only thing that would affect mileage really and even that is only a temporary thing, so I wouldn't think it would affect it too badly. Then again, my idea of "good" gas mileage is somewhat skewed since with my previous car getting 27+ mpg on the freeway was considered good (3.0L v6's with open exhaust systems and drivers aflicted with leadfootitis tend not get the best mileage), so this may be a YMMV situation.