February 21, 2004:

MINI statistics from Road & Track

I was recently sent a spreadsheet of data compiled from Road & Track Magazine by Charlie Thompson. He says I am so bored, and it is so cold, that I typed in the Road and Track statistics. I cannot touch type so it took three days. If it amuses you, then good …
There are more than 120 entries in the table - out of those the MINI comes 6th fastest at the slalom (69.5mph) behind Chrysler Crossfire, Saleen S7, Porsche Boxter S, Ferrari Enzo and Dodge Viper SRT-10 - not bad company!
They position the MINI Cooper S at 106th 0-60 (7.7s) with the MINI Cooper S Works at 80th (6.7s) and the base MINI Cooper at 115th (8.5s). On their tests more than 30 cars achieve sub 5 seconds for 0-60 (including the Subaru Impreza WRX Sti).
For the quarter mile the put the MINI Cooper 115th again (16.6s @ 83.5mph), the MINI Cooper S 106th again (15.9s @ 89.3mph) and the MINI Cooper S Works at 70th (14.7s @ 95mph). One car in the list, the Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S, breaks 10 seconds for the quarter mile!
For braking for 60mph, both the MINI Cooper S and MINI Cooper S Works (unsurprisingly) brake in the same 121ft distance, placing them 50th; curiously the MINI Cooper takes 143ft for 110th place - perhaps it was running on 15″ tires?
On the skipad the MINI Cooper S & Works pulled the same 0.87g, placing them 50th again, with the MINI Cooper pulling only 0.79g and placing 95th. The Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S placed best here too, at over 1.5g!
However, the Panoz costs $650,000 - that is a lot of MINIs!
If we discard all vehicles costing $30,000 or more, the MINI Cooper S Works now places 9th 0-60, 7th on the quarter mile, 5th on braking, 6th on the skidpad and 1st on the slalom.
For a statistics game, I ranked the sub $30,000 cars on these five points, giving 1 to 15 for the top fifteen in each rank … the results are:
1st place (11 points): Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
2nd place (24 points): Mazda RX-8
3rd place (28 points): Mini Cooper S Works
4th place (34 points): Dodge SRT-4
5th place (39 points): Infiniti G35
6th place (56 points): Lexus IS 300
… what does that mean? If you want a sub $30,000 car that has the best chance of beating other sub $30,000 cars on speed & handling, get the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, the Mazda RX-8 or our favourite, the MINI Cooper S Works!