MINI Cooper S Mayfair 50 Review

As you can expect from all the talk about racing tracks, torque and stiff suspension, the Cooper S is not exactly wafting over speed bumps like a Rolls Royce, despite is British luxo-barge interior pieces. Just like on the Cabrio we last tested, the suspension has very limited travel, the shocks are as sporty as they get and on top of that the Mini comes in standard with run-flat tires. Everyone who has ever driven a car with run-flat tires can acknowledge the fact they are anything but comfortable in the shock-absorbing way.

After jumping like a gazelle over badly-paved roads or tram lines, the only surface area where a Mini Cooper S would be happy and actually comfy to drive on is a perfectly smooth road. Now, this may actually appear as the car is a hardcore racer in street clothes, so we should probably add some "exaggeration" inserts here and there.

As long as the road it's being driven on is at least in a decent state you should have no worries for the well-being of your kidneys or your spine, since the suspension is comfortable enough. As far as the other comfort areas go, apart from the visual aspect represented by the fabulous bits and pieces added with the "Mayfair 50" package, our test car was actually less equipped than the Cabrio we drove last summer.

We had no heated seats, no automatic climate control (only a manual, single zone air conditioning unit) and no electrically-foldable mirrors. Naturally, you can pretty much live without all these, but considering a Mayfair 50 special edition equipped just like this one has a price that is dangerously close to a Cooper S Cabrio with better features, one has to wonder.
Just like in the Mini Cooper S Cabrio, the puny engine under our test car's hood manages to get out-displaced by most of your average grocery-getters. Only 1.6 liters, right? The real impressive numbers come when we check the power figures. With a horsepower and torque ratio per liter that beats some real sports cars out there, this is where the magic happens.

Apart from the impressive performance figures, the tiny four-cylinder can also brag with the amount of modern technology features. Stuff like stratified direct injection, the start/stop system, the fully variable valve timing or the twin-scroll turbocharger with an over-boost function are quite yummy from an engineering point of view.

Its probably most-impressive feature is the gigantic rev band where the engine's maximum torque figures are available. You probably know this by now, since it's not exactly news, but this little engine is the fruit of the work done by BMW together with the PSA Group.

It can be found with various power levels on a number of cars, but we guess everyone agrees its best work is done under the hood of the Cooper S. That, if we don't take into account the John Cooper Works versions, which are even more impressive when it comes to the power levels.

The six speed manual transmission is also almost flawless, being transplanted from the car's bigger brothers from the BMW stable. The only quarrel we had with it was its tendency to a be a tad imprecise when shifting from second to third, but that could be just as well be blamed on the fact that this was a press car driven by many after all.
As far as the amount of gadgetry present on our test car is concerned, we couldn't have asked for more. Night time visibility was more than adequate thanks to the Xenon/HID headlights, aided by the light sensors. Windshield wipers were also aided by sensors. Unlike its soft top brother, the Cooper S Mayfair 50 also has a rear wiper, so visibility towards the rear during rain or when the window is dirty is much, much better.

On the other hand, this version didn't have the three-stage heated seats and a very capable single-zone climate control system. It did have the pretty good in-dash CD-player with MP3 capabilities and an auxiliary port for your iPod, on the other hand. Another feature which we could have found useful was the (missing) option of opening the rear windows in some way, to let some air in for the rear passengers.

Also, the leather-wrapped three spoke steering wheel was fitted with pretty helpful buttons to control some functions of the on-board computer, the audio system and the fully active automatic speed regulator. The keyless entry option missing, but the funky-looking Mini key was still there, as well as the "start" engine button, reminding us we were still in a sporty car.

Other than the "missing" features already named, the only truly useful gadget that could be expected from a car costing close to 30,000 euros was probably a satellite navigation system. Apart from the logical reason for wanting one, it would have also "moved" the speedometer behind the steering wheel, since the gigantic frying pan on the center console would have had to be turned into a "home" for the navigation display.

Fitting it with the Mayfair 50 special edition package didn't change anything in the Mini's crash safety credentials. It still has five stars out of five at the EuroNCAP and a "good" (aka "best") rating at the IIHS crash testing organization. Plus having a stiff roof over your head compared to the convertible version probably helps in curing some fears related to rollovers.

Obviously, like with any car, great crash ratings by independent organizations aren't good enough for everyone, so naturally we also have to state some of the safety features present on our test car. In standard, the Cooper S comes with anti-lock braking system, electronic stability control and cornering brake control. All these are courtesy of the BMW parts bin, naturally, but tuned for the Mini.

As far as the passive safety goes, our test car was also fitted with two frontal, dual stage airbags (for the front passengers, obviously), two side-thorax airbags and two head airbags that also protect the passengers in the rear.

Is it the funky retro design, the fabulous cozy interior, the exceptional handling or the beefy engine? Although this was a pretty different model than the Cooper S Cabrio we drove last year, I guess we have to choose the handling bit as its greatest strength again. Having had the chance to also experience its track prowess on a go-kart circuit, there's nothing that could change our opinion about the “corners like it's on rails” analogy. It really works. And we don't say this about a front-wheel driven car too often.

As far as the bad part goes, its comfort disadvantage remains at the same level as on the Cabrio, if not even lower because of the fact that the interior doesn't become “open” at a given time. The Cooper S is simply too much too handle for a person that's used to a "Buick" of a car. The suspension is not hardcore stiff, but its lack of travel can really become annoying on poorer roads. Moreover, albeit they had a higher road height since they were winter ones, the tires use the same run-flat technology, which is anything but shock-absorbing.

The ugly bit about the Mini Cooper S we drove is probably the fact that the "Mayfair 50" special edition package costs quite a lot of money. Sure, the bits and pieces it adds on a "Cooper S" really look cool and enhance the car's presence by a long shot. Too bad that for the same money you pay for it you could almost buy an old Mini.