Mini Cooper S Convertible In Top Form

Mini gives its drop-top Cooper S a mid-cycle update. We head to Mallorca to see if the changes have made it any better.

- Matt Robinson

If you think about it, a convertible 2+2 with a 192hp turbocharged engine is about as far removed as possible from what the Mini was originally designed for. Way back in 1959, the British Motor Corporation (BMC) tasked Alec Issigonis, the man who’d designed the 1948Morris Minor, with a tough target. Create a small car, frugal enough to cope with the pain of post-Suez Crisis fuel costs, but still big enough to take a family of four and luggage. The Minor has been a major success for Issigonis; the Mini would be his most iconic creation.

But, it was designed to be cheap. Affordable to run. Simple, even if (back then) its front-drive mechanical layout was unusual. Today, the Mini isn’t really a Mini at all — it’s the same size as a conventional hatchback, has very small back seats (that effectively make it a coupe) and, depending on how you spec yours, it can cost as much as a decent luxury saloon.

Does any of that matter; does any of that make it a bad car? Nope — not when it’s this much fun to drive. For 2018, Mini (which, of course, since the 1990s, has been owned by BMW) is giving the core hatchback and convertible models a major update and upgrade that means new tech, improved performance and some seriously high-end options. Such as the new LEDMatrix headlights, which are not only incredibly bright, but which have an automatic high-beam function that can black out selected patches of the beam. That avoids dazzling other traffic, but keeps the widest possible amount of light on the road, improving your own vision. It’s not new tech (it’s been around for a while on various BMWmodels), but to have it on a Mini feels like a big tech step forward.