Tackling the Nurburgring in a MINI Cooper S sounds like a dream that's as safe as this kind of adventure can be. After all, the British icon allows you to enjoy the go-kart feeling (sorry for the cliche) while its front-wheel-drive layout means things can be kept under control through all the twists and turns of the infamous German track. Nevertheless, the Ring always packs traps for unsuspecting drivers, as you're about to see.
The Nordschleife stunt we're here to discuss shows the hot hatch stumbling while blitzing the circuit.
To be more precise, we can see the Cooper S sliding as it enters a right-hander, with the Mini ending up spinning in the middle of the track.
The bend that sees the driver losing control is Kallenhard and while this isn't difficult to negotiate in the dry, rain makes the grip over there reach absurdly low levels.
Fortunately, the relatively low entry speed of the spicy compact meant the spin didn't result in a crash, but things did go pretty far.
So, what can we learn from here? Well, we have to keep in mind that the uber-capricious Ring weather can be one's greatest enemy. As such, a driver needs to know each and every corner in all sorts of driving conditions before attempting to go all out on the circuit.
Then there's the good old lift-off oversteer lesson - it does seem plausible that this driver lost the back end due to panicking and suddenly taking the foot off the gas upon noticing the grip loss. Such a maneuver will make the weight of the car shift to the front axle and making the rear lighter can easily bring a slide.
Oh, and the fact that no other car was present at the time of the spin shouldn't be taken lightly - remember when a Civic took out a Porsche 911 while trying to tackle Kallenhard?
To be more precise, we can see the Cooper S sliding as it enters a right-hander, with the Mini ending up spinning in the middle of the track.
The bend that sees the driver losing control is Kallenhard and while this isn't difficult to negotiate in the dry, rain makes the grip over there reach absurdly low levels.
Fortunately, the relatively low entry speed of the spicy compact meant the spin didn't result in a crash, but things did go pretty far.
So, what can we learn from here? Well, we have to keep in mind that the uber-capricious Ring weather can be one's greatest enemy. As such, a driver needs to know each and every corner in all sorts of driving conditions before attempting to go all out on the circuit.
Then there's the good old lift-off oversteer lesson - it does seem plausible that this driver lost the back end due to panicking and suddenly taking the foot off the gas upon noticing the grip loss. Such a maneuver will make the weight of the car shift to the front axle and making the rear lighter can easily bring a slide.
Oh, and the fact that no other car was present at the time of the spin shouldn't be taken lightly - remember when a Civic took out a Porsche 911 while trying to tackle Kallenhard?