Box car?

 

Is your car an S? If so then all you have to do is show him what boost is all about. If not, then just take him around a few corners at a ridiculous speed.

 

I've never heard that driving around on a couch was "breathtaking". Sounds like your friend's standards for excitement are quite low.

 

He's not a driving enthusiast but rather a 'plush' enthusiast. The two cars are in different worlds. Yours is a drivers car.

 

I suspect a minis aerodynamics is better than some May think. It is very box like in the back where it doesn't matter ver much. In the front, the grille / bonnet / windshield are really quite sloped and smooth.

 

Coefficient of Drag is the number you look at to determine how aerodynamic a car's shape is.

The Mini Cooper comes in at 0.35 cd.

The Accord comes in at 0.33 cd.

Not a big difference, and many of the cars and trucks on the list will surprise you with their numbers--it's not as intuitive as thinking, "oh, that car is shaped like a wedge, so it's gotta have great aerodynamics."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_drag_coefficient

 

Does your friend even know what VTEC is? There doesn't seem to be much to compare between the Accord and a MINI

 

If you haven't figured it out yet most Honda enthusiasts hate MINIs. I met a MINI dealer parts guy that owned Hondas and swore by them to the point that he "would not be caught in a MINI" and did not think they were fun, fast or worth driving. Well his girlfriends car was wrecked and she needed a new car. She bought a MINI S and now he "likes" the MINI, but they drive it instead of the Hondas when they go anywhere. The majority of the cars that want to challenge me on the street are Hondas. I don't give them the satisfaction of accepting.

 

Driving an Accord is a high drag endeavor. MINI's are bricks, but damned fast ones.

 

Guess the op was not getting the responses he wanted...
Post was edited....hmm...

 

What was the "box car" thing all about anyway? My little box is pretty dang quick. And looks good doing it. Yours?

 

More of the drag on a car happens at the rear than anywhere else. A teardrop-shape would be pretty close to ideal (or close to one ideal, there are other low-drag shapes too!). As long as the flow isn't too badly beat-up by the front of the car, the rear is where the real gains are. And a Cd of 0.35 is not exactly stellar these days.

But Cd is only one component of aero drag: Frontal area is the other. Cd and A are multiplied together to get the total aero drag (from the body shape, at least).

And, BTW, I come here from the Honda world. I had a CRX, which was an indecently-fun little pocket rocket of a car! I have also owned an Accord, much longer ago. The MINI is about four orders of magnitude more fun than the Accord (which, to be fair, was intended to be a boring transportation appliance) and is even a little bit more fun than the CRX was! True, the "base" MINI is large and heavy and powerful compared to the CRX, but the folks who designed the suspension for our cars really knew how where to put all the bits for maximum fun.

Oh well, just my two cents worth. (Maybe less.)