German Car Zone

The Mini Cooper looks too much like a toy to me, the Scirocco has a more affluent appearance and has the potential to turn heads in the right colour and rims.

Easy, Mini Put on the Works kit and you're done.

That red is absolutely stunning on the Scirocco!

My vote goes to Cooper-S & the reason for that is the Bmw dna, that makes it a real driver's pocket-rocket!

Scirocco looks great but for some reasons, I think, she will start looking aged when new Gti gets common around!

Hehe, I know I know but I have fallen in love with the Scirocco. Damn you ,damn you, damn you VW

U getting old? come one all that purist talk about dynamics,handling and high rev engines must count for something

Well it's a damn good car,no shame in falling in love with it

Well as anyone here on the forum will appreciate my good neighbour, a MINI Cooper S, whilst a famously good drive, is far from the purist's driving experience. Its turbo'd engine, whilst peppy, isn't that much of a high-rev screamer and the torque steer is still a factor. So as far as dynamic behaviour goes, there's little to differentiate the Cooper S from the more attractive and sophisticated Scirocco as can be seen from clip.

The truest purist's car in this turbo'd FWD sector is the run-out, limited edition, Renaultsport Megane R26.R. And not even I would consider one for anything but the most limited of use.

I would hold the Civic Type R FD2 to be the best FWD drivers car but then again, that is not available. The Cooper S is pretty much as far as you get in its class. It has its flaws, no doubt, but the alternatives are worse.

The low rev of the engine is the main thing, just over 6,000 revs is not that much. Torque steer is not much of an issue with the mechanical LSD and JCW Sport Suspension.

The handling and driving dynamics are top notch. The Renault Megane Sports are great but it has to be the R26/R26.R to compete.

I like the MCS, right up to the point where my friend tried to coax the car around a tight bend way too fast and smack us into a kerb and into the back of a old rover metro! We gladly were fine, and the mini didnt look overly bad but it needed a full suspension rebuild, new panels, bumper and bonnets.

Anyway back on topic, I loved the car, the handling was tight, it handled like it was on rails and I loved how it would just scamper off as you prodded the accelerator. Its a seriously fun car. However what does let it down is the interior. Its just not appealing to a red blooded male to have the silly oversized speedometer in the middle of the dash. Also its slight size being a major advantage in dynamics its also its biggest disadvantage, along with price, in that its rivals actually have a boot to put stuff in, and as soon as you load the car up with 4 adult males, the handling and speed goes to pot!

So with this all in mind I would go with the VW!

Yeah, the speedo is rather silly and I guess that at moving four people the Scirocco would do a better job.