R56 drive time with Herb Chambers MINI

Posted on by Ian C.

After Fridays meet the R56 at MINI of Peabody, I headed down to Gillette Stadium to join Herb Chambers MINI and their customers/friends for another R56 event – this time, driving was the theme! HC MINI had arranged two autocross tracks in a big parking lot – one was self-driven with a Skip Barber instructor to guide you, the other much more fun was travelling as a passenger with Skip Barber instructors driving! Wild 🙂

Being driven by Skip Barber was excellent! I tried to video the drive but it’s tough holding the camcorder steady while also trying to hold yourself steady, but maybe this will give you a feel for the event.

 

After a while it was just too cold so we headed in to the stadium to warm up, eat, drink & chat – lots of MINI friends again! When the door prizes were called, George won a Hammer & Coop lunchbox for longest drive; he immediately dressed up and it suited him perfectly!

Another great evening, demonstrating the good handling of the R56s … my own short R56 MCS drive left me with only one thought: where’s the clutch! Pressing the pedal down seems to have no feedback at all (although I guessed people will get used to it)

Here’s a heap of pictures from the evening:

Thanks Kerry, Rich and all at Herb Chambers MINI, and also the Skip Barber instructors!

MINI of Peabody R56 unveiling

Posted on by Ian C.

What a fabulous night! MINI of Peabody really know how to put on a great event 🙂

We began the evening with covered R56’s, old friends, and good food!

 

Later, Paul Taylor (General Sales Manager of MoP) did a welcome speech, and we watched the Fifth Gear R56 review, and both Hammer & Coop trailers before, finally, the covers came off the new MINIs … In time we were able to get closer to the cars and take some pictures; I also had a quick 1/2 mile as a passenger in an MCa, and finally saw Lucky, heavily covered in ducks!

 
OPINIONS:

As everyone else has reported, the R56 has been significantly re-engineered to reduce costs and it does show in some areas – the hood is surely much less expensive, thinner and lighter now it doesn’t have to carry the headlights, and less complex curves … Most obvious is the gap between hood and wheel arch trim … but it’s very obvious if you look for it, and almost un-noticeable when you don’t! Not so bad after all.

The plastic back of the center stack is really quite ugly and feels cheap.

I’m also quite disappointed in the looks of the MC now … back in 2002 the MC looked better than the MCS in many ways, with the wide “chrome bumpers” as a nod to the classic MINI, and the nicer shape of the hood. But now the R56 MC looks sad in some respects (especially the awful plastic side marker “grille”) … in turn however the styling cues on the R56 MCS really work well; the side marker is much less ugly in “S” guise and the front grille & hood shape looks good instead of sad.

Inside, the bigger speedometer looks pretty good – I like all the extra amber displays!

I can’t decide about the seats yet … they felt more cramped when I sat in them, yet GPMINIs seat felt uncomfortable on the way home!

In summary, the new MCS is nice and I need to stop thinking about it 🙂