Saturday 12 July 2014

Gilding the lily?

The MINI Cooper S is a great car, but can it be improved? We borrowed two tuned versions to find out, as Andrew English reports

Power to the people's car 

More than 20 months after its launch, people still stare at the new MINI. BMW's new baby might lack the original's innovative charm, but a combination of sound design, cheeky good looks and an affordable price means the novelty hasn't worn off. It's always worth a quick peek anyway, as with potentially 50,000 different MINI derivatives and just 56,500 on Britain's roads, it's possible you might never see the same MINI twice.

BMW's clever attempts to keep the pot boiling means different colour schemes, trim packs, engine outputs and interior specifications. The latest £365 bespoke MINI luggage, for instance, will keep you feeling slightly supercilious should an identical MINI turn up in the hotel car park. Oh, and last week, there was the launch of the Cooper S "Works"...

If you are old enough to have survived the 1960s and remember anything at all, you'll recall Mini Coopers. Twice world champion Formula One constructor, John Cooper was a friend of Alec Issigonis and had driven the earliest prototypes of his brilliant little car. Even so, Cooper had to go over his friend's head to secure a trial production run of 1,000 cars, which were specially tuned and launched as the 997cc Mini Cooper in 1961 - the hotter Cooper S came two years later. John Cooper earned £2 for each car that bore his name until, after 150,000 cars had been sold, the lucrative arrangement was ended by BL Chairman Lord Stokes in 1971, unfairly claiming that the Cooper name bumped up insurance premiums.

Not that Cooper was the only firm breathing on Minis. Right from the start of its life, rivals proved equally adept at making the Mini go faster. If Cooper stole the limelight, it was the meticulous engineering of Daniel Richmond at Downton Engineering, Arden Engineering, Broadspeed and many others who made the old Mini sing its heart out.

Fast forward 40 years to BMW's new MINI Project. In the face of much criticism from former Mini leading lights, BMW desperately wanted John Cooper on board. Just as well, then, that the late John Cooper liked the new car and its makers - his name had been re-adopted by the old Mini in 1990. With the exception of the MINI One, all new MINIs carry the Cooper moniker, and, from next month, under the steady hand of John's son, Mike, Cooper "Works" tuning kits will provide additional urge for the naturally aspirated Cooper and, more explosively, the supercharged MINI Cooper S.

Wait a minute though, aren't other tuning kits available? Well, yes, they are. In Germany, the new MINI is seen as just another BMW, which brings it to the attention of formidable battalions of specialist tuners who couldn't give tuppence for Cooper or its history. Hartge, from Beckingen, near Saarbruken, is one such and with our usual tact and diplomacy, we borrowed an example of its MINI tuning and turned up at the launch of the Cooper S Works.

It's worth recalling here the genesis of the MINI and in particular its engine. When BMW and Rover announced the new MINI Project in 1998, the world's press was shocked to find the new car would not use Rover's innovative, all-aluminium, twin-cam K-series engine, but instead a Brazilian-built, iron-block, single-cam 1.6-litre motor, based on a Chrysler Neon unit. Gadzooks! It looked like this new wunderkind would have more in common with the old A-series-powered Mini than anyone had first thought.

Telegraph Motoring spoke to former BMW deputy head Wolfgang Reitzle shortly after he had signed off the MINI engine and after he had left BMW for Ford. "It's OK," he said nonchalantly after inquiries about how nice the engine was to drive. "No, really, it's all right. And it's cheap, it really is cheap."

The fact that the engine has surpassed all expectations (particularly in the Cooper S) has been a pleasant surprise, but tuning often exposes weaknesses and harshness: would these souped-up MINIs drive like concrete mixers?

Standard Cooper S

Starting with the £14,600 standard car, we drove a route of mixed, good and bad roads and all came to the same conclusion: why would you want more power? Out of the box, the Cooper S beguiles you with a dizzying mix of razor-sharp steering, precision handling and outrageous throw-around appeal that always makes the long way home the best choice.

On the standard 16in wheels and Dunlop tyres, road grip is prodigious and there's a fine balance of engine power and safety so that you aren't continually driving the car with the traction control or dynamic stability control activated, or wrestling with the steering wheel under full power. That said, the ride is only just on the right side of the orthopaedic surgeon's waiting room, and, on badly rutted roads, the suspension lacks the sophistication of rivals such as the Ford Focus.

Raw numbers don't really convey the visceral eagerness of the engine, which is force-fed air and fuel at the times you really need it, such as when overtaking. Its mid-range punch is wonderful and you often find there's no need to change down to accelerate hard: just push the throttle. Which is just as well, as at the top end of the rev range the power tails off markedly and the engine voices its complaint with a gruff mechanical clatter. Some drivers will love the throaty exhaust and whining supercharger, but it can be intrusive when pressing on.

So why spend extra money on a tuning kit when the Cooper S is such fun in the first place?

"That's exactly what my wife said," commented James Williams, owner of the Hartge-converted MINI we tried. "Then, when the car came back, she climbed behind the wheel and it was a very different story."

Hartge Cooper S

James's wife was right, although only when the car is under way. Until then, the Hartge conversion is virtually indistinguishable from the standard car. Indistinguishable, that is, except for the optional smoked glass windows, 17in wheels and tyres, clear rear-light lenses and shark-fin GPS aerial on the roof - this all-black Mini is in full Colombian import/export agent trim and all of it came from the official MINI options list, not Hartge.

Inside, the satellite navigation system takes over the central speedo binnacle and the velocity meter sits above the steering column alongside the rev counter. The sat nav screen looks uncomfortably like a square peg in a round hole and you lose some of the interior's retro charm in the process, but the repositioned speedometer is a lot easier to read.

At idle, there is nothing in the engine note to indicate the car is modified in any way. Engage first gear, pull out of the car park on the Sussex Downs and the throttle action gives nothing away either. But floor the throttle at about 20mph and you start to understand where all the money has gone. It's not that all hell breaks loose, or that the engine comes over all noisy and untidy, it's just that the acceleration is shockingly quick compared with the unmodified car.

You can feel the big Pirelli tyres just fighting off the tendency to spin, the traction control warning lamp flickers and before you know it, the rev counter has hit the limiter and you need to change gear. This feels like a serious performance car, but what's so surprising isn't so much the sheer power of the conversion, but the refinement it brings at high revs, almost as though in the two days' fitting time, Hartge sneakily dropped in a different engine.

The big wheels and low-profile tyres didn't really do much for the experience. On a track, the extra grip would be worthwhile, but on the road they make the car feel edgy and darty, and the ride is even harder. We also noticed the Hartge exhaust system had an unfortunate boom at certain speeds. Birds Garage said that it was the first full Hartge system it had fitted, as most owners opt for their own side-exit, four-tailpipe exhaust system, which doesn't suffer those problems.

Cooper S Works

First impressions of the Cooper conversion is of an engine more eager and more visceral than the standard car. Even on ordinary urban roads, the Cooper S Works is champing at the bit, not with a shunting driveline but more like a terrier bred with a whippet. The huge amount of mid-range torque just waits to be unleashed and you need to keep a very close eye on the speedometer until the road opens up.

Although it was shod with exactly the same wheels and tyres as the standard car, the Cooper Works had a problem with high-speed bends, where it would lurch uncomfortably into the corner as if the front dampers were shot and convey a strange yawing sensation as though the back end was about to break away sharply. However, it felt fine at lower speeds, or sharper corners, where the car could be thrown in with abandon. Like the Hartge, the extra power would activate the traction control system coming out of roundabouts and junctions, but the Cooper Works car felt less edgy on its standard 16in wheels and tyres.

The exhaust system is certainly more rorty than the standard car's, although the major contributor to cabin noise is the supercharger, which whines like a four-year old near an ice-cream stall. Some owners will love this racket, which sounds like a Jack Knight straight-cut gearbox, but it would be very tiresome on a long journey.


Engine conversions such as these eat into a manufacturer's natural caution as well as its safety and durability margins. Extra power and torque eat gearboxes and put additional strain on the rest of the driveline components, while forced induction and the extra cylinder pressure it creates pollutes the engine oil quickly. If you boost an engine and then disregard basic oil change services, you're a fool.

As far as the warranty is concerned, the Cooper Works has BMW's official backing and every clause stays in place. The Hartge is unauthorised, but that doesn't mean the warranty is worthless. The engine and driveline are covered by Hartge and the rest of the car will be covered by BMW. The official £100 TLC five-year service and maintenance package is more circumspect, but numerous BMW dealers will honour its letter even with an unauthorised but well-known engine conversion. In nearly 14 years of dealing with Hartge and its agent, Birds Garage, we have never once heard of a disgruntled owner left high and dry by BMW or Hartge.

Before you decide your Cooper S needs more power, however, drive it in standard form for a few months - its 161bhp is more than enough to make it a very fast car with a virtually unburstable feel. And do remember that pushing 200-plus horsepower through the front wheels is asking a lot of the car's roadholding, not to mention its driver. At no time was the standard Cooper S unable to keep up; the driver just had to work (a lot) harder.

Of the two conversions, the Works car is more expensive, with a bigger mid-range punch, and that Cooper name will sway more than a few to make the choice. We preferred the more subtle Hartge, with its brilliant engine management tweaks that reduce the harshness of the Brazilian engine and a stunning top end, which mean you can drive your MINI as a normal Cooper S until you want to grow horns and extend that needle up the dial. With the standard, 16in wheels, we suspect it would be even better.

Standard MINI Cooper S

Prices/availability: £14,600. On sale now.

Engine/transmission: 1, 598cc, four cylinder petrol with SOHC and four valves per cylinder. Roots-type supercharger with inlet-charge cooler. 161bhp at 6,000rpm, 155lb ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. Six speed manual gearbox, front-wheel drive.

Performance: 125mph, 0-60 in 7.7 sec, 0-100mph in 22 sec, 40-60mph in 4th gear in 6.7 sec, 50-70mph in 5th gear in 8.8 sec, EC Urban fuel consumption 20.4mpg, CO2 emissions 202g/km.

John Cooper Works conversion

Prices: to fit modified cyliner head and larger Roots supercharger, reprogramme Siemens engine management and fit new exhaust increasing power to 200bhp at 6,950rpm and torque to 177lb ft at 4,000rpm: £3,010 including VAT, but not including 8-9 hours fitting at BMW main dealer labour rates.

Performance (claimed): top speed 140mph, 0-62mph in 6.7sec, 50-75mph through the gears in 5.6sec.

Contact: John Cooper Garages, Easr Preston, West Sussex; tel 01903 504455 or visit their website.

Hartge conversion

Price: to modify and increase the speed of rotation of the supercharger and reprogramme the Siemens EMS 2000 engine management system, increasing power to 212bhp at 7,000rpm and torque to 184lb ft at 3,600rpm: £1,761 including VAT (two days off the road, loan car available). Hartge exhaust (as fitted to test car) £926 including VAT and fitting.

Performance (claimed): top speed 144mph, 0-60mph in 6.6sec, 0-100mph in 16.1 sec, 40-60mph in fourth 4.6sec, 50-70mph in fifth 6.1sec.

Contact: Bird Garage, Uxbridge, Middlesex; tel 01895 810850.

Worth Considering: Smart Roadster, from £12,495, Mazda MX-5, from £14,995. Westfield 1800, from £14,999. Classic 1960s/70s roadster (about £5,000 for a very good Sprite/Midget/Spitfire).

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