The funky, spunky Mini

Reborn, the stylish and frisky classic proves good things come in small packages

BY LAWRENCE ULRICH
DETROIT FREE PRESS AUTO CRITIC

HEALDSBURG, Calif. -- As the Mini Cooper takes a fast sip of the Sonoma wine country, it makes a powerful impression, like a tiny, hard-heeled foot flattening a vat of sauvignon grapes.

People go gaga over the Mini. College kids. Squealing children. Stoic California cowboys, reduced to squealing children.

The liquid pleasures of the roadside chateaus may be denied to us, but no one on this media drive is complaining. Alternately cruising and tearing through valleys upholstered in soft green suede, BMW's redesign of the fabled Mini is an absolute hoot to drive. And a pleasure to be seen in.

The Mini needs little introduction in Europe, where Turkish-born designer Sir Alec Issigonis' groundbreaking car debuted in England in 1959 as the Morris Mini Minor and Austin Seven. The thrifty front-drive car was Issigonis' answer to Britain's call for an economical car following the Suez crisis of 1956, when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and sparked a fuel crisis and gas rationing.

The Mini started slowly, but celebrity owners like Peter Sellers, who outfitted his Mini with wicker trim, helped give it a hip cachet. Mini enthusiasts grew to include John Lennon (the Beatle's Mini featured a psychedelic paint job), Twiggy, Steve McQueen and Princess Grace of Monaco.

Over 41 years, nearly 5.4 million sales made the Mini the most popular ride in British history.

Reviving a legend
For BMW, the Mini is the sole remaining piece of its disastrous 1994 acquisition of the Rover Group, which BMW finally dumped after pumping billions of dollars into the failing company. And at a modernized BMW plant in Oxford, England, three shifts are transforming the Mini from an obsolete and failure-prone British machine into, well, a mini-BMW.

The German automaker plans to dole 20,000 of an annual 100,000 Minis to the United States. That first-year supply alone doubles the number of Minis sold here during its brief U.S. appearance between 1960 and 1967.

It follows that Americans are less up on the Mini legend, from its racing heritage and go-kart handling to being the forefather to tens of millions of front-drive, engine-sideways cars. In other words, entire squalling broods of Hondas, Toyotas, Chevys, Fords, Volkswagens and the rest.

Gretchen Felciano certainly doesn't care about all that. The 27-year-old just wants the yellow Mini with the white roof parked outside the Tomales Bakery where she works.

"It's surprisingly roomy, just a great city car for San Francisco," Felciano says. "You see that parking spot that's not quite big enough for other cars, and squeeze right in."

BMW indeed sees urban markets as the big breeding ground for the Mini, with its hip design and ability to scoot through traffic. At a length of about 13 feet, the new model dwarfs the 10-foot-long, 4-foot-wide original. But in a nation of Gulliver-sized sport-utes, the Mini remains downright lilliputian, a foot shorter than a dinky Mazda Miata two-seater. The Mini's classic shape, however, with wheels stretched to the corners, creates enough room to squeeze in a back seat that's extremely snug but handy in a pinch.

Drawn by the Mini, Caroline Minero pulls into the Marin County fire station where we've taken a break. Minero says she'll be steering her 20-year-old, car-shopping daughter toward the road-hugging machine.

"She'll love it, it's so darling," Minero says of the Mini, which starts at $16,850, or $19,850 for the racy, 163-horsepower Cooper S model. "It reminds me of the MG I drove in college."

Richard Ambrosini, 55, roars up on a Kawasaki motorcycle and starts to reminisce about his childhood years in England, when his brother owned a Mini.

"It gave him fits! You'd turn the lights on and the engine would die," Ambrosini recalls of the notoriously balky original. "But we loved it. When I heard BMW was redesigning it, I said, 'This is it.' "

Looking over the new model, Ambrosini said BMW has captured the performance and British cachet that other retro-styled cars can't match.

"This is going to kill the Bug," he said, referring to the Volkswagen New Beetle. "This is a British racing car by BMW; which one would you rather drive?"

Performance matters
Already, there's no doubt that the Mini is this year's cult car, the big-buzz retro successor to the Beetle, Chrysler PT Cruiser and Ford Thunderbird. But the Mini promises more than a pretty, nostalgic face. Serious performance is part of the deal, especially for the 163-horsepower Cooper S model that will make up roughly 40 percent of production.

Only the coldest-hearted observer could fail to be moved by the Mini's unique styling and bravura interior, whose detailing includes a center-mounted speedometer, a tachometer on the steering column and a door pull and armrest that look like something from an amusement park ride. But Rob Mitchell, Mini spokesman for the BMW Group, notes the car's quality -- and performance -- is based on what's under the skin.

"It all starts with rigidity," Mitchell says. "For BMW, handling and athleticism are the keys."

Each Mini features 3,800 spot welds, compared to maybe 2,400 in rival small cars. It's one reason the Mini is two to three times as rigid as other cars in its class. It's also 50 percent more rigid than a BMW 3-Series, whose chassis dynamics and handling are considered best-in-class.

Driving though the northern California hills, skirting the Skywalker Ranch where director George Lucas conjures his movie magic, the Mini feels like nothing so much as a baby BMW: Fortress-solid, with flat handling, outstanding brakes and a light yet direct-feeling clutch.

At first I'm disappointed that the hot Cooper S model is still a few months away, unavailable for our test. But while the 115-horsepower base Cooper works to squeeze out an 8.5-second time from 0-60 m.p.h., this little terrier is more fun to drive than many cars with twice the horsepower.

You're reminded how little stoplight speed matters when you're driving a feather-light, 2,500-pound car whose steering, clutch and brakes transform you (in your own mind) into Michael Schumacher. The engine revs happily, with the wide stance and extremely low center of gravity creating a sense of balance that belies the car's front-drive layout. The car gets so comfortable and intimate with fast turns that the term "road-hugging" doesn't do it justice -- road-cuddling is more like it.

Driving naughty
Up ahead, Paddy Hopkirk is doing some impressive cuddling of his own. The Irish-born British race driver drove the Mini Cooper -- named in 1961 for engineer and race constructor John Cooper -- to a win over mighty Mercedes in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally, starting in Minsk, Russia. It was the first of three consecutive Monte Carlo wins for the Mini, putting it on the world map as a competitor to be reckoned with.

I ask Hopkirk, 68, what the new car makes him think of. I brace for a technical dissertation. But Hopkirk cuts to the chase.

"Pretty girls, because they all turn and look at it," Hopkirk says in a soft Irish burr. "And it makes you drive naughty. What I'm wondering, though, is if Americans will change their culture and accept this car."

With a waiting list standing at 6 to 8 months at many dealers, that doesn't seem a problem. In fact, whispers of potential price gouging are swirling around the Cooper S. With 163 horsepower and 17-inch performance wheels and tires, nearly double the size of the 10-inch doughnuts on the original Mini, the S may stand for salivating sports-car buyers who recognize how fun and collectible the S may be.

Mitchell says BMW is actively encouraging the 70 U.S. BMW dealers chosen to sell the Mini to resist profiteering on the car.

"We're the ones who get the letters saying, 'The dealer wants $5,000 over list, this is robbery, can't you stop him,' " Mitchell says.

For BMW, the more important mission is this: Having retained the Mini's British character, it must ensure the Bavarian quality expected from Munich, Germany's Bayerische Motoren Werke.

"The plant is still in Britain, but this is a BMW factory," Mitchell says. "If customers raise questions about quality, that reflects on the British automobile industry."

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin into San Francisco, the tollbooth operator takes our $3, but she's not lifting the gate. She peppers us with questions about the Mini, oblivious to the long strand of cars piling up behind us.

My co-driver and I start to cringe, awaiting the inevitable angry blast from the automotive horn section behind us.

Nothing. Not a sound. I swing around in my seat, expecting waving arms and angry faces.

The carload of people behind us has their hands raised, all right, but there's not a bird in sight. Instead, they're pointing at the Mini. And smiling, as if we had all the time in the world.

Contact LAWRENCE ULRICH at 313-222-5394 or ulrich@freepress.com.

March 21, 2002
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