September 2004 – Page 6

Touring Connecticut

Posted on September 4, 2004February 19, 2017 by Ian C.

As well as the US Open Tennis we did some touring around Connecticut, including Greenwich, and the PT Barnum museum in Bridgeport:

Minolta DSC

We also visited The Silver Sands public beach:

Minolta DSC

US Open Tennis

Posted on September 3, 2004February 19, 2017 by Ian C.

Last night, we drove to Greenwich, Connecticut, staying in a very nice Hyatt hotel:

Minolta DSC

Today we drove into New York and made our way to the Louis Armstrong Stadium, to watch a day of US OpenTennis; the weather was fabulous, and we watched a number of tennis matches – at least till we got too hot! I tried many times to take some action shots – but it is really hard …

Minolta DSC

Test drive: MCS convertible!

Posted on September 1, 2004February 10, 2017 by Ian C.

First, my great thanks to MINI Peabody (Martin especially) for allowing me the chance to test drive a ’05 MINI Cooper S convertible!
Quick conclusion: STUNNING!

MINI convertible test drive

Convertible Rear visibility

Convertible Rear visibility from rear view mirror

Convertible roof closed – interior

Things that impressed me:

In 1st and 2nd gear, the car seems to pull as quickly as my JCW equipped ’03 MCS!
The ride quality is massively better than my MCS, even though GBMINI is no longer on runflats!
Selecting reverse is much easier
The HK stereo had ample volume – it was nowhere near full volume at 70mph with the top down and windows open
There is negligible wind, even though I sit very high and straight
The car brakes better than GBMINI (but I have previously noticed that the Green Stuff brake pads are not as good as the stock pads)

Things that bothered me:

Very poor rear visibility, especially with the top up but even with the top down
The rearview mirror vibrated wildly on the ready-to-be-resurfaced route 1 near the dealership

I was particularly impressed with the power of the car off the line – it appears to pull away even better than GBMINI, which presumably is a result of the better gearing of the ’05 models. The ride comfort was also impressively better than GBMINI.
In 5th and 6th gears, the car had obviously less power than GBMINI, no doubt due to the JCW kit in GBMINI.
I did not notice any handling differences from what I am used to.

I would say if you have a high mileage ’02 or ’03, you should test drive an ’05 – they are so much better! And if you are considering a JCW upgrade of an ’02 or ’03, you should definitely consider an ’05 upgrade instead.

For fun, here’s a photo comparison with another cool convertible – the Audi TT (thanks to Scott at Ira Audi who recently sold an A4 convertible to my wife):