BackMini Cooper S, the uber Cooper
If you thought the Mini Cooper D was showy, wait till you meet its even more expensive, rip-snorting petrol sister, the Mini Cooper S
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In last month’s Indulge, your car writer described the Mini Cooper D as what Delhi-ites would call a “tashan" car. Or a car with attitude, if you were to go by this writer’s best English approximation. But now the good people at Mini India have launched the Mini Cooper S, a car where they have shoehorned a two-litre, 198 HP turbocharged petrol engine into the cute bonnet. So the only way to describe such car is to call it “tashan pe tashan". Attitude on attitude. It doesn’t make sense in English, but believe me it does in Hindi.
But does the car make any sense?
The Mini Cooper S excelled on a Gymkhana course. It is a hoot to drive and happily lifts a rear tyre when cornering hard, a term engine-nuts call “dog-legging" for obvious reasons. It is also very well equipped especially with optional extras. But much like its sibling, it is extremely expensive at ₹ 34.65 lakh ex-showroom, New Delhi, for the base model. With options, it comes dangerously close to the ₹ 40 lakh mark. This is an expensive car and other than the slinky “S" on the front grille and rear, as well as the paired double exhaust in the middle of the rear fender, there isn’t much to tell this car apart from the new Mini Cooper D.
But BMW Group India’s president Philipp von Sahr agreed with our contention that this is the most inexpensive car (in relative terms) that will turn heads. It is also the most inexpensive way to buy a small car that will leave you with a smile on your face every single time you drive it. That is not an indictment of the Mini’s pricing, it is an indictment of India’s mass-manufacturer obsession with fuel economy over selling a fun car.
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