WIND THERAPY

It is convertible season, and the refreshed Mini Cooper S Convertible is ready to take you places

- By Yash Sunil Photographs Mini

As winter begins to settle over most of India, Mini couldn't have chosen a better moment to bring one of its most iconic cars back to our market, the Cooper S Convertible.

If there's one thing a drop-top should always deliver, it's a sense of fun, and this one nails it. It's quick, it corners with that familiar overgrown go-kart attitude, and it carries itself with the same playful charm the Mini badge has always promised.

This mildly refreshed Mini is genuinely gorgeous. The classic Mini face, the redesigned bug-eye headlights and the softened edges give it the right dose of nostalgia and attitude. Drop the soft-top, and it gets even better, shifting from cute to cheeky in one move. Roof down, it carries a sportier, more carefree stance that fits perfectly with the way it drives. What this really tells you is that, much like the hatchback, the foundations underneath haven't been reinvented, even if the face is all-new.

The soft top itself works in two stages, sliding back halfway like a sunroof or folding all the way down into the space behind the rear seats. Mini claims it can be operated at up to 30 kph in 18 seconds, though in our runs it refused to budge past 24 kph. In true Mini fashion, there's even a top-down counter that logs how long you've been driving with the roof open. Utterly unnecessary, completely delightful.