It’s been a few days now since we got the Mini Cooper S. And we are still playing with it. It took us a while to get used to its firm steering/clutch/shifter setup before we could enjoy it (which, thankfully, we could due to BMW’s long four-day test policy). But what surprised us most is that we actually matched the company-quoted 0-100 kph time of 7.1 seconds. And that too with the a/c on in the middle of the summer. Our previous BMW X5 tester took more than a second longer than what BMW said it would take, with the a/c off too.

Now, admittedly the Mini is not a very fast car — as the tailgating retard in some BMW M5 made us understand — but it feels fast, and is a frighteningly entertaining car. It is even more temperamental since our stability control isn’t working — we are spinning tyres everytime we get mildly excited in 1st and 2nd gear. All with a growl from the 1.6-litre turbo that no ghetto-modified Civic can match.

Too bad the car costs as much as a midsize 4WD.