Years ago, when one talked about the British car brand MINI, the image that conjured up was that of a small, basic car. Oh, but how times have changed!
MINI was voted second most influential car of the 20th century in 1999. Since BMW rejuvenated the MINI brand in 2000, its company direction was to revive the car’s classic, funky and iconic identity.
In the past, the MINI brand has always been associated with creativity. It even became a cool car in the 1950s, so much so that many famous persons wanted to be seen in one. Steve McQueen, all four of the Beetles had one, Twiggy (1960s supermodel) and even Enzo Anselmo Ferrari had one.
MINI has been growing at a fast pace since 2011. The brand is now known as a premium brand for someone who want to be different. The car industry has changed. Means and wants are different. So the brand that follows the creative class has to move and evolve to be relevant.
In order for MINI to stand out, the brand has gone back to its original DNA, maintaining its iconic, classic, funky and creative identity, and diversifying with different ‘characters’. Characters, such as the gentleman for its Clubman, the adventurer for the Countryman and the challenger for John Cooper Works, are some examples.
Recently, BWM Malaysia organised a two-day MINIscape drive to Johor Baru, and we are one of the 20 fortunate medias to participate in it. The company arranged 10 variants of MINIs for the media, two lead cars, two sweeper cars and a photo car.
We had the chance to try out five of the variants. On the way to Johor Bahru, we drove the MINI Cooper Clubman, the MINI Countryman Parklane and the MINI Cooper S five-door “The Stealth Edition”, fine-tuned by John Cooper Works (JCW). We managed to cover over 750km throughout the whole drive.
The MINI Cooper Clubman is very comfortable, its interior luxurious and elegant. On high-speed corners, it grips the road well, tackling sharp corners with ease. It absorbs most rough road conditions easily but the bigger holes can be felt.
MINI was very generous with space in the Clubman. It has plenty of head and legroom, as well as 360-litres of boot space. While it is not a Sport or S version, it has no problem with acceleration or cruising at high speed.
As for the MINI Countryman Parklane, it is very powerful, grips well in corners, has go-kart-like handling and steering. It is spacious in terms of legroom and headroom, and also has 350-litres of boot space. However, we feel that the handling is too stiff for comfort.
The MINI Cooper S five-door “The Stealth Edition”, fine-tuned by JCW, is the best performer among the three. The power produced is simply tremendous.
It comes with a JCW Valve Silencer System and a JCW Carbon Tailpipe Finisher. With a click of its Bluetooth button, the car transforms itself from a quiet commuter to a loud track car. It is spacious as well with ample headroom and legroom, and even has a reasonable 278-litres of boot space. The Stealth Edition is a beast and was the perfect car to end the day.
We had the MINI Cooper S three-door, to kick off the day. We drove it from our hotel in Johor Baru to the Melaka International Motorsports Circuit (MIMC). It is comfortable and powerful, and handles well on high-speed corners. However, we felt that it lacks headroom for an adult of 183cm of height.
When we arrived at MIMC, we had a chance to put it through its paces on the track. We drove two laps each in the Cooper S three-door and the Cooper five-door. Driving on track was a different experience as it demands proper handling to tackle the twists and turns of the circuit. Top speed was not a factor on the track as there was only one straight to achieve it. It was all about handling and acceleration, and the MINI, well-known for its go-kart like responsiveness, certainly didn’t fail to prove itself on track.
The MINI Cooper five-door felt similar to the Stealth Edition, but it's slightly short on power and, of course, lacked the acoustics of the JWC Valve Silencer System and the carbon tailpipe.
The faster journalists took slightly more than two minutes to complete both laps, but we managed to finish it right in the middle, about 10 to 20 seconds behind them. After the short race, we departed in the MINI Cooper five-door and made our way to BMW headquarters in Cyberjaya.