Was at the post office the other day and met an elderly gent who had just stepped out of his bright yellow Cooper (S?). Anyway, I had to say" hey nice car how do you like it?" He said something like" Oh pretty good" Then I mentioned I had just bought a Turbo Neon and did he know what that was. He then says" ya wanna run it?" I said "absolutey." Then he says" what kind of horsepower?" I say" 230". He says "I got 200." Then he says" watchya weigh?" I said "28-2900." Then he says "I'm at 1900, I win." I just smiled and we parted ways. Then I'm thinking look at this ol fart talkin big smack. Of course what am I driving? (And I am a diehard, rabid mopar man mind you) but my ol POS 2wd 86 Chevy lwb w/a weezy 305 and rust everywhere. I would not own it and damn sure would not have paid money for it but it was given to me. Crap! Caught without my SRT on! Oh well, I'll be watchin for him. Kalamazoo aint that big and how many ol gray haired dudes in sunflower yellow Coopers can there be? Should I watch out? Do they really have that much hp and that low of weight? Somehow I think he's fudgin the numbers but if he's right they should be damn quick cars and I would think I'd be more aware. Still, I aint skeered. I got many years street and strip and couple of gray hairs of my own. ;-)
It's funny, but I've only had the car a month and I already have a nemesis. Of course the old dude dont know it yet but I'm his. LOL
Infact, this is a great topic for a new thread and will be so. "Who's your Nemsis" Should be fun reading.

 

you should have said no i win im a second faster. the S's run a blistering 15.3

 

I have driven mini cooper s's and s works.

Note that a standard s is around 160 hp.

If he is pushing 200 hp it is a john cooper s works edition, and a pretty potent little vehicle. That being said, if he says it weighs 1900 lbs he is full of sh**. The car is right around 2500 lbs. (what does he think he's driving, an elise?). It is fast, but not srt-4 fast. It will run 6.5 seconds or so to 60 and mid 14's in the quarter if you can get it to hook. It runs dead even-neck and neck with a VW R32.

In a straight line, it would be a closer race than you would expect from a mini, but you should handle him pretty well.

Now - put that into a handling comparison, and without a lot of work, the srt-4 will not be able to take turns quite like a S works. The car handles like a little go-kart.

Also the stage III works package is out there - it has 250hp - and is definitely quick. Probably even to an SRT-4 in a straight line. But you'll spend 36,000+.

Another note is that the cooper s goes for around 25000. The works pkg is around 5000 plus dealer labor. We are talking 32,000$ for a John Cooper S works.

Now - tell him that you cut 10,000$+ off the price of his car before you beat him stock. Then after you beat him, inform him what your car would do if you threw in 10,000+ dollars on top of the 22,000 you spent. He will not be as cocky.

 

I had never heard of the J.C. S works but even so, if they were all that fast I would have guessed there'd be a lot more hoohaa about it. That's one reason I wasn't too worried. Also I wasn't sure about the 1900 lbs claim. I thought it HAD to be more than that. The car he described would be supercar fast. I did also search and found a recent Car and Driver article online last night and read about the standard S. I was not impressed, though I did notice this guys car had substantially larger meats than the standard S I saw in the pics online. So maybe it is a "works car". Whatever, Bring it on ol man! I say. :-D

 

bs on the 1900lbs weight no chance.

 

I ran a Mini Cooper "S" on a twisty mtn. road, up in the Berkshires,..........i had soo much more Hp. than him , that i actually had to wait-up for him after every straight away, but in the sharper, turns it was pretty hard to shake em_________5TOEZ________

 

That Cooper I saw had some fat little tires on it. I imagine it to be awesome in the really tight stuff.

 

the JCWS R56 will have a newly designed turbocharger system, and will produce a great deal more performance than the current supercharged models, somewhere in the 230hp area...

R56 MINI info

 

i know of one mini cooper that would kick most srt's butts. but that's a rare one. normally, they're not all that impressive.