IgloONotes

After months of waiting, looking down at my watch and scratching off the days on the calendar, the day had finally arrived. My Girlfriend was going to be arriving in Germany for a wondrous holiday together. We would be flying, taking the train, and of course, driving to cities all across Europe.

Let me highlight driving.

I had to pick up my Girlfriend from Frankfurt airport. I wanted to use the company car but policy doesn't allow the car to stay with me overnight. The company cars available to me are simple. Either a green Ford Focus which is falling apart or a Blue Opel Astra. I've honed my Manual driving skills in both cars and each has their own characteristics. The Focus for example is easy to drive smooth, but once you're on the road it starts to complain that you didn't service it yesterday.

The Steering is vague with enough side-to-side play to steer a yacht . The clutch is light but the other connection to the drivetrain, the shifter, is not exactly a masterpiece in engineering.

If you try shifting quickly from second to third you'll more likely than not hit the metal in between 1st and 3rd gear. Imagine catching up to traffic on the autobahn, gunning it on the on-ramp when you shift gear and instead of grabbing 3rd, you hit a wall of metal. A fumble of clutch and accelerator ensues and before you know it, a Porsche has just tucked up behind, flashing their headlights.

It irritates me to no end, which is why whenever I can, I ask for the trusty Opel Astra. Trusty in the fact that it usually gets me to where I'm going. Don't get me wrong, the Astra does not score straight A's. For instance, when the engine senses something wrong, it will go into safe mode and not let you shift above 3000 RPM. In Canada, that would be fine. But in Germany, trying to merge onto the Autobahn is just downright dangerous.

So instead of the Focus, I'm in the Astra, speeding up the on-ramp. Instead of hitting a wall of metal after shifting,  I hit an electronic wall of the in-car computer. It thinks its going to explode any minute but I know if I don't get enough speed, there's going to be some angry Germans riding my back bumper. In the worst case, they'd be riding on top of it...

The only thing you can do is shift up and hope for the best. Keep in mind, my foot is planted on the floor and it accelerates like a van. Um...scratch that. It accelerates like a van loaded with 7 people. With each of them holding a bag of sand. Wet Sand.

On days when the Astra isn't feeling so blue, its a rather good car. The diesel engine gives you more than enough power to max out at 220 km/h on the Autobahn, all while keeping an S-class Mercedes' in my wake. It feels secure on the road with little to really scare you about going so fast. Other than the increased wind noise, or the vibration from the tires, or the world seemingly going backwards, its not that bad. At least for me.

I think I've been pretty well versed in the feeling two drastically different cars. One put together by Monkeys, and another put together by Monkeys wielding wrenches.   I was now going to step into a car made by the Bavarian Motor Works, or BMW.

Not everyone would associate it with BMW since its quite a British car. But the fact is, its quintessentially German. The Mini Cooper.

I went over to SiXt rent-a-car and picked up a blue and white Mini Cooper. It was a base model with no bells and whistles except simply, a good car. I have to point out that the first reason why I rented a Mini was that my Girlfriend had always liked the Mini. It was appropriate then, that I would be picking her up in one.

The car was good as new, with just over 3000 kms on the Odo. The first cool touch with the Mini is the key. Instead of a usual fancy Metal stick with notches, this is a Plastic UFO-like thing that slots into the dash. A neat touch for a neat little car.

It took a couple minutes to get used to everything. For example, the window switches are on the dash, not on the door. I soon came to realize that every control you want is in the main dash cluster, surrounding the huge central Speedometer. I really don't understand why more cars don't have this. Its a seriously cool piece of kit. Sort of like walking around with a large faced watch, the Mini cruises around with a large, white-faced Speedometer.

Then there's what Mini have become famous for, the Drive.

Two words usually come with mentioning the car, Go-Kart Handling. You'd be wrong not to describe it like that but its been used so much that its synonymous with the term. Why not just call a Mini a go-kart for four people? Or better yet, I just like to describe the Mini's handling, like a Mini.

The gearbox is a jewel to use. Like a precision instrument, I could immediately tell that this gearbox had some real thought in its engineering. Rowing up from 1st to second feels like you're physically moving the gears by hand, which of course you are. I mean, its so fluid and natural, it becomes an extension of your arm, requiring no though to move it in the right gear. The clutch is light with just the right amount of resistance. The pedals, as I found out quickly, are perfectly spaced for heel-toe downshifts. Even with my inexperience of heel-toe, I was able to downshift almost seamlessly.

Going onto an on-ramp, I felt the car coming into my hands. The steering told me where I was going and I knew this was it. I dropped a gear and stretched the Mini's legs.

Despite not having that much power, the Mini propelled itself with ease, the Variable valve timed 1.6L engine maximizing its 120 horses of power. All too soon, I had to lift or face going too fast into the back of a moving chicane. You can call it go-kart handling, or cornering on rails. In my eyes, this was just Mini Handling.

On the Autobahn, I didn't want to max out the car because I knew I would be disappointed. The engine wouldn't give me all the speed I wanted. Besides, I had already experienced unlimited Autobahn speeds more than enough times. My goal while on the way to the airport was to maximize fuel economy. Or as everyone else calls it, Hypermiling.

With the Mini's tiny engine, it was easy to get the onboard computer to read a consistent 65 mpg. I found that setting the cruise control to about 127 would keep the speed and economy right where I wanted. I was in no rush because I had left a good 5 hours before my Girlfriend's flight was to arrive. It only takes 2 hours to get there...

Cruising on the highway in a Mini couldn't get much better. I stuck my just-burned CD into the player and rocked on. The ride was comfortable, but being on the Autobahn, I rarely encountered any significant bumps. driving in a Mini feels extremely refreshing. The big Speedo keeping you in check and the giant glass sunroof opening your view to the heavens. I don't know how they did it, but the engineers managed to carve out an entertaining aura inside of what would usually be a drab car interior.

At night, lights above and under the dash cast a glow which, at first, I found kind of tacky. I had always associated blue and red lights on cars with the Tuner crowd. Guys with their seat lying almost flat, one hand on the wheel, crashing over bumps on their sleds with blue lights glowing from underneath. The Mini manages to make it all cool again. You can even change the color to whatever you want, but I never figured out how.

Driving a Mini really is more than just driving a car. It is a Mini experience. Today, I needed the perfect car to transport a precious arrival direct from Hong Kong. I needed a perfect car, and the Mini, in all its coolness, delivered.

Tags: autobahn, Mini, Mini Cooper, Sixt