Hello-

I'm a new member who ordered a cooper "s" for Tony @ prestege about 3 weeks ago...Its due in around 2nd week of april.

I will be going to London for vacation at the end of april & have arranged for a plant tour of the Mini factory in Oxford. Of course I have reserved a cooper "s" (rigth hand drive) to get around in while I'm there. I cant wait to shift with my left hand

Joe-

 

Awesome, I wish I could go, want to bring me?

 

I went to the factory back in September and it was great, very . Be sure to check out the "secret room" to the left of the tour meeting area . We also hit JCW (East Preston, southern England) which isn't anywhere near the factory.

Between 4 of us, we rented 2 Coopers for a week because they wouldn't let Americans rent Cooper S but they were fun anyway. I got to practice my shifting with the left hand - it was a first for me.

http://www.mini-rentals.co.uk/

Here are pictures from our trip:

The Shared Customer ID is: 665175
The Share Code is: JCW

Go directly to the shared album at

http://www.ezprints.com/PhotoSharedd...=JCW&ID=665175

Or use the Login page at http://www.ezprints.com/PhotoSharedlogin.asp and use the ID and Share Code to login!

 

Excellent Photo's i had to cancel my plant tour Family problems. I was on vacation visiting the Fam', but plan on going this Aug/Sep both Oxford and JC shop

 

[font=Verdana]I found a place to rent a cooper "s" from without a problem...Lets see if it’s a different story once I get there... The tour should be great. I currently drive a Hummer H1 and have been though AM Generals factory in South Bend, Indiana in sept of 01'.[/font][font=Arial][/font]

 

why won't they let Americans rent them?

oh, by the way -- LOOKS LIKE FUN!

Too bad they don't do European delivery

 

Awesome! Have a fantastic time... I'm jealous....some day we will get there....:smile:

Donna
05' Cool Blue MCSC

 

Shifting with your left hand isn't so bad. The shift pattern is the same and the pedals and still the same. You're sitting on the right and driving on the left side of the road.

Just forget all that you learned on driving in the US and start fresh.
The moment you go back to driving without thinking you will be driving on the wrong side.

Roundabouts are "fun" until you realize that if you keep going round and round you will get to your correct exit momentarily- just stay calm.

In the country areas the roads can be very narrow and bumpy so an MC with 15" wheels would be a good thing. On the highway the MCS would be better.

 

The biggest problem I had with driving on the left is where you look to turn left or right.

In the States, when you're turning left you're looking at the near lanes to see if anybody's coming. In England, nobody's coming in the near lanes from the left! You have to change your focus and look to the far lanes when looking to the left and the near lanes when looking to the right.

While this can be a "self correcting" learning experience , you only want to do this wrong once. Thankfully, I never actually bent anything and did figure it out right away.

Hunter

 

After reading lots of UK-published car mags over the years, I suspect it's because there's something to do with their insurance industry. Lots of UK owners interviewed in GoMINI, for instance- especially those under age 30- cite insurace premiums (not fuel costs!) as the reason they opted for a One instead of a Cooper, or a Cooper instead of an S.

 

I cant wait to go! It is going to be a blast-

 

For some reason, their insurance company wouldn't cover Americans with an MCS . The Cooper was lots of fun, but down almost 100 hp on my car . It was rather expensive as it was but we were given a discount which was nice :smile: and the Cooper S would have been significantly more expensive to rent.

The roundabouts were . Driving on the left side of the road was fine - no problems but the biggest concern for me was coming into a big intersection with like 8 connecting roads and A) figuring out which direction to go (we were using GPS) and B) how to maneuver without getting into an accident . You yield to all traffic in the roundabout. Getting the Cooper into reverse from the right seat SUCKS . You would think it would be easy but we were having trouble with both cars getting them into reverse - it was tough without grinding . Upshifting was a piece of cake, perfectly natural. Downshifting was different, not so natural, odd feeling.

The coolest thing was the English stoplight: instead of going straight from RED to GREEN, it went from RED to BLINKING YELLOW to GREEN in which you could begin accelerating with caution when the light was yellow, sort of F1/drag strip style .

 

Hey Mike, I couldn't see the pictures . what am I doing wrong?


We are planning to go to the MINI Plant either before or after MINI United in MISANO.

MD STREGA2