Observations from the Driver’s Seat – 2014 MINI Cooper S Roadster

I have to confess that I felt some anxiety about my first drive in the 2014 MINI Cooper S Roadster because it has been literally years since I drove a car with a stick shift.  Was I going to make a fool of myself and drive it bucking and jerking like the kid in the ‘just learning to drive’ commercial on TV?  Or would decade’s worth of driving sports cars around the world come back to me… like the skill of riding a bicycle?

Fortunately it turned out to be the latter.  And it came back very quickly indeed.  About half a mile down the road to the I-95 on-ramp, I was driving it like a race car… an easy thing to do in this car.  MINI has two convertibles among the six body styles in the line, but this is the only one that goes the full minimalist route and gets rid of everything behind the front seats.

Once you reduce a car down that far, the driving experience becomes something different, something like driving a motorcycle with four wheels, all sensations immediate and visceral.  It feels like the car is rotating around the spot where your butt meets the driver’s seat — an exhilarating feeling indeed.

Given that the Palm Beach environment isn’t particularly well-suited to driving like a madman, the MINI Roadster still feels like it was designed with this town in mind.  This is largely because the tiny convertible top is so easy to put up and down that with the flick of a wrist, the push of a button, and suddenly you’re driving a tanning booth that goes like a bat and handles like a go-kart. And there’s even a gauge on the dashboard, called the ‘Openometer‘ that measures how much time you spend driving with the top down!

The 181 horsepower produced by the turbocharged four-cylinder under the hood seems like a small number, but pair it with the six-speed manual, taut suspension and great brakes… and the result is pure joy of driving.  Zero to sixty in under seven seconds, a top speed of 140 mph, and, if such things matter, you still get 35 mpg on the highway and 26 mpg around town.

I’m of the opinion, based on experience with a lot of different cars over the years, that there is no finer experience that driving a small, fast car with the top down and a face full of wind and sunshine.  And the MINI Roadster provides all of it.  Visit Braman MINI and see what I mean.

Summary

I’m of the opinion, based on experience with a lot of different cars over the years, that there is no finer experience that driving a small, fast car with the top down and a face full of wind and sunshine.  And the MINI Roadster provides all of it.  The 181 horsepower produced by the turbocharged four-cylinder under the hood seems like a small number, but pair it with the six-speed manual, taut suspension great brakes, zero to sixty in under seven seconds, a top speed of 140 mph…… and the result is pure joy of driving.

To find out more about the 2014 MINI Cooper S Roadster, or any other MINI vehicle, visit the Braman MINI website or stop and see us in person in West Palm Beach.