Delivery Stories

Sounds like waiting for a baby to be born without having previously performed an ultrasound to determine the sex.

 

LOL, that guy would have ADDED the hood scoop if his SE didn't already have one. I've ordered the MINI Cooper hood so my body shop can paint it and perform the hood-scoopectomy.

I hope he's not disappointed by his MINI losing power during vigorous track duty--his next swap may be for a JCW engine. A BMWblog article about taking an SE to the track says:
> However, what is surprising is just how often it limits power, or
> cuts it altogether, during heavy throttle applications.

 

My dealer has closed, but they were able to deliver one final new MINI. My MINI Cooper SE is in my driveway! I keep going back outside to look at it and pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.



After the interminable form-filling and introduction to my new SE, the first thing I did was head out to Huron River Drive to experience the SE's great cornering ability. Many years ago, before I started hypermiling in my gen-1 Insights, I drove sports cars. In cars such as my Austin-Healey 100-6, Fiat-Abarth OT-1000, Porsche 914, Mazda RX7 and Honda CRX Si, I would routinely risk my life, breaking Huron River Drive's 35 mph speed limit by 10 or even 20 mph. Today I drove mostly at 35 mph, but there were a few times when my right ankle flexed all on its own and it took a couple of seconds to get it back under control. Fortunately, none of those muscle spasms occurred where I've become accustomed to finding the sheriff's deputies lurking.

I spent the rest of the day driving around showing off my MINI Cooper SE to all my long-suffering friends who must have gotten very tired of hearing me blather on about how great my someday car will be. It's sad not to be able to offer rides to one and all due to social distancing rules.

One thing I was very worried about was that my wife would judge the SE's suspension to be too stiff. However, we both agreed it was more comfortable traveling over the worst Ann Arbor roads than my gen-1 Insights. I assume the improvement was due to the SE's more sophisticated suspension and the SE's significantly greater ratio of sprung-to-unspung weight. Also, she likes the seats.

Then my wife actually drove my car--my first in our 33 years of marriage that didn't have a manual transmission. Now I will encourage her to take the SE whenever she goes on an errand or to a socially-distanced gathering of a few of her friends. I will call it "our" car.

A few minutes ago I went outside to verify that it had fully charged. Evidently, my SE judged my driving style today to be a bit exuberant as it predicted the 100% charge will take me only 98 miles tomorrow. Maybe if I tape up my right ankle, I'll be able to prevent the spasms that led to this sub-EPA range estimate. On second thought, I'm going to postpone the taping for a few days.

The dark evening reminded me I had to check out the SE's often-praised LED headlights. OMG! They make our Honda Clarity's LED headlights look like candles in comparison! I briefly flipped on the brights and immediately regretted it, worried that our neighbor across the street would be bracing for a thunderclap following that flash of lightning. Are these things even legal?

My new MINI Cooper hood arrived Saturday. At the last minute, my expiring MINI dealer took pity on my hood-scoop phobia and cut me a deal; I'll be paying only $252 instead of the retail $640. The body shop scheduled the hood-scoopectomy for next week. After that, all I'll need is my personalized plate (no front plate in MI, thank goodness) and my SE will be perfect.



So it was a sad day for MINI of Ann Arbor, but a great day for this new MINI Cooper SE owner. This car was well worth the wait.