It may not be the end-all, but it's the fastest car I've ever owned.

 

My best friend has a stock cooper s. Last week we went to a local 1/8th mile track. He'd never been to the track before, but he's been driving a stick all his live. When we've cat-n-moused around town, he didn't have much trouble keeping up with me. But at the track, I was pulling 9.6's and 9.5's, and his *best* was a 10.6. That's a difference of a full second in ET's, in an 8th mile no less. I was trapping high 74's and low 75's, and he was trapping high 66's to mid 67's.

For comparison, I let him drive me car one run. He had never been in my driver's seat. On that run, his time was my car's second best time of the night, so I don't doubt that he can drive.

Just because you pull on somebody at a roll, or whatever, doesn't mean anything. That takes into account reaction time, and doesn't figure which gear each car is in at the start of the run. To find out which car is faster, go to the track and compare ET's. To figure out who drives his car better, compare lengths at the finish line.

 

And thats fine, just trying to keep this in perspective.

 

my wife owns an '05 cooper s jcw.... and this ^^ is the proper weight. u must have been confused and looked at the tech sticker on your G by mistake.

 

Does the Works package make it a "G" slayer?? I've only driven the S. Definitely THE front-wheel-drive car to own.

 

I don't know if I agree if it's THE fwd car to own. While I love the little buggers, I really, REALLY like the SRT4. I considered one before my first g back in the spring. Then a buddy of mine at work got one about two months ago. That car is a blast.

It is the anti-g. FWD vs RWD/AWD. Turbo vs NA. Loud and obnoxious vs Infiniti refinement. But when I saw loud and obnoxious, I mean that in a good way. Those little cars a pure racers. The exhaust is crazy, and the induction noise and turbo are in-your-face. If I were to back to FWD, it would be SRT4 all the way.

 

You're right...that may have been a bit of a strong statement.

I drove the Cooper S and was smitten. Tales of torque steer from the SRT camp scare me away. I do love the raw HP (no muffler!!) and the fact that until the hemis, it was the second fastest dodge.......after the Viper!