MINI Cooper Convertible India review: Bling Thing!

Engine & Gearbox

Under the bonnet the Convertible houses a rather humble 1.6 liter engine with 122 bhp of peak power and 160 Nm of peak torque at 4250 rpm. Those figures translate into a 0-100 km/h sprint time of about 12 seconds and a top speed of 190km/h. As you would reckon, those are not very impressive numbers for such a sporty car. The S Convertible gets the kind of power that befits this machine, but is unfortunately not available in India.

The Convertible is short by more than 60 bhp as compared with the turbo powered S variants. The Torque shortfall is even bigger. The engine makes all the right sounds, but doesn’t quite have the addictive shove of the S variants. The sonorous whoosh of the engine, audible even more clearly with the roof down doesn’t quite translate into the heady acceleration you’d expect from such a sexy looking machine. Kickdowns are required at regular intervals if you wish to pass a swift machine ahead of you with confidence.

The four-cylinder engine on the MINI Convertible features a fully variable valve management developed on the basis of the BMW Group’s VALVETRONIC technology. The intake valve lift and the valve opening period are adjusted to the driver’s respective power and performance requirements rather quickly. A further point is that valve timing is varied on both the intake and exhaust side as a function of engine speed. The feature lends the Convertible a reasonably good lower to mid-rev grunt and the car is comfortable ambling around the city on soft throttle with higher gears engaged.

Transmission duty is taken care of by a 6 speed Steptronic automatic transmission and the power is laid down on the tar via front wheels. The automatic transmission featuring electronic management can be handled manually also by shifting the selector lever in Manual mode. Gearshifts on the MINI Convertible are reasonably good and the system works well at slow to moderate speeds. While driving the car enthusiastically, however, there is a perceptible lag especially during kickdowns. The problem gets more pronounced while negotiating sharp uphill curves where there’s a pressing need to shift down quickly owing a sudden change in gradient, and when that doesn’t happen, you momentarily feel powerless. Even shifting down manually takes a wee bit of time if you wish to shift up the rev range by a big margin. The MINI Convertible could well have done with a quicker shifting tranny. There are no flappy pedal shifters available as standard, however, if you so wish, you can order them as an optional extra for a price. (See options list in the features section)

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