The MTTS’08 Boston events included a MINI merchandise sales booth, a number of “fun” things (hardly noticed by most folks), a big soundstage (which you couldn’t miss due to the volume emanating from it) and over the back, a great auto-cross track layout – with assorted MINI provided cars to try on it!
My first drive round the track was in an automatic Clubman S; it was HOPELESS! It would lag for unpleasantly too long before down shifting out of corners and was simply not enjoyable. So, I took it round a second time, in Sports Drive mode instead of standard Drive … much better! Now with the revs held higher, it could power out of corners with no shifting lag. Some will argue to try it in full manual, but what’s the point – if you want manual, buy a manual …
Next, I managed to get in the manual Clubman S. Wow, I wish I hadn’t! It brought back all the issues I had with the clutch on the R56 I owned for a short time 😦 The R56/R55 clutch simply has no feedback at all, somewhere near the top, the clutch connects but there’s just no indication that it happened … it’s so NOT like GPMINI and my convertible that I drive every day.
It was easy to get more laps, there were only about 10 people in the queue! But be careful who you’re behind: on another drive, the guy in front must have done the whole course at 5mph; even waiting till he’d done half way round, I caught him up before the end 😦
George was busy doing laps too – I jumped in the passenger seat of “his” convertible for one loop, so I could take a few pictures:
M&I / GBMINI 