Please note before I get flamed that this was not a race!

I was following a biskly driven Cooper S on the dual carriage way and as an experiment I just wondered how my Jabba remapped Furby would compare.

We both slowed for traffic ahead and when it was clear we both nailed it from approx. 50-100 (km/h ) and the gap stayed neck and neck. We did this twice and results were the same. I assume he was a little suprised that I kept up but to be honest, I thought my car would have been marginally faster but now I know.

I am making the assumption it was a standard Cooper S as it had the coke can exhausts and wasn't a Works model. I guess it could also have had a remap though??

sweet, nice to get a real life comparison of how your car performs.... another reason I find myself hankering after a re-map

I expect he was hoping there would be a few bends ahead. Then he would leave you trailing well behind!!

My mate has a john cooper works, 210 bhp, quater mile in 14.5 secs. It is quite fast but no top end grunt.

I found my cars performance is the same as a cooper s too in a similar test.

Would seem to figure, as a std Cooper-S has 170bhp and 160-ish lb/ft. It's a little lighter though, maybe by about 150kg ?

So against a re-mapped vRS it should be quite close, in a straight line. In 50-70 type situations, I'd imagine the Fabia would gain, or overtake, given the extra torque?

Steve

I found performance to be similar also, although I feel I did pull away a bit 100+. I posted a thread some time ago I believe...

Trick to think of though is how much is a brand new Cooper s ????? compared to a brand new Vrs ??????? I would feel sick if i was that Cooper s driver

I have JUST about managed to out accelerate Briskly driven Cooper S in my standard furby VRS. It was a long road mind, straight uphill dual carriageway. I will admit he was a lot quicker than me around a roundabout but i just had him on the straight bits. And only just!

My Furby has never been quite the same ever since tho!

was drivin briskly with 1 last year kept with him in an octy 170bph [twice the weight]

was drivin briskly with 1 last year kept with him in an octy 170bph [twice the weight']

If your car was twice the weight of a Cooper S it wouldn't move with 170bhp, and if the Cooper S was half the weight of your car, a proper mod for it would be wings.

well said mil.

at std mk1 octy is similar weight to a cooper s. bmw doesnt build em light.

its not surprising a remapped fab will keep up with one.. Fabia is better value but most who own a Cooper S have other priorities. "Feel" is a personal pref but Cooper S has buckets full more as std. Yes you can mod the Fabia but then you close the price gap.

I remember driving a std'ish works in the past and then questioning why i had spent xxxK making an Octy that handled like a mini.....

Just checked and a Cooper-S with std equipment is 1150kg. How much does a std Octy vRS weigh? Thought it would be more than that. The Fabia vRS is 1310kg or thereabouts isn't it?

Steve

1,315 to be precise. And the Octi vRS MK1 is lighter than that by 10 kilos

An Octy Mk1 handling like a MINI would be ace - loads of room for passengers + luggage (in the nicest possible way) and it must be a real joy going round bends etc in that case

The Furby needs a LOT of tweaking before it will come anywhere near a MINI during bends etc, even with the rear ARB + Eibach springs/dampers I reckon I'd have a VERY hard time staying near one. Mine's still standard (apart from FMIC at the moment, hybrid turbo to go on soon ) so the cooper S would drive away from me anyway

I have no problem with MINIs being faster/better/whatever, they're fun cars, targeted at a different market, I personally wouldnt buy one but then most who do buy one probably wouldnt buy any skuds either.

Don't forget the Octy is well nippy at higher speeds, I'd imagine it pulling away when the NSL is left behind

I had neck & neck acceleration with an Almera GTI at the Pod, for about 50 yards.

Not had the pleasure of a test with a Cooper S - I look forward to it though.

A standard Cooper S is about 1% slower than a remapped furby. A slightly unfair comparison though because if the Cooper S had also been tuned i.e. Works version then it would simply pull away in the same way a standard Cooper S would leave a standard Furby.

My Mondeo kept up and edged away from a briskly driven Cooper S and weighs a few 100kg more than a Fabia! :confused: He caught up and overtook me at the roundabout though as he didn't bother stopping for traffic!

Chris

Chris, what mods have you got on your Mondeo?

My ex one had 170 bhp with dragon tuning box and a k&n panel filter.

Chris' date=' what mods have you got on your Mondeo?

My ex one had 170 bhp with dragon tuning box and a k&n panel filter.[/quote']

I'll PM you

Chris

A standard Cooper S is about 1% slower than a remapped furby. A slightly unfair comparison though because if the Cooper S had also been tuned i.e. Works version then it would simply pull away in the same way a standard Cooper S would leave a standard Furby.

I appreciate that a tuned Copper S would be faster and I didn't want one of those "My tuned car X is faster than a std. car Y" threads.

I know that after my remap, how impressed I was with the performance hike but in reality, I didn't know how it compared to other performance cars!

I know with all that torque, the car feels mighty fast in gear but I always thought the remapped Furby felt faster than it really was! Hence the test.

I personally think that a car that feels faster than it is subjectively, is a good thing. My BMW M3 was a case in point that for it to feel fast, you had to rev it between 5-8k revs and before you know it I was at silly speeds without knowing it and on todays policed public roads, not such a good idea!

We all know that the Cooper S is a great handling car but since fitting Eibachs and Jabba rear ARB, I'm still curious how one would compare?? I know subjectively, my Furby handles fantastic IMO but until a situ arises, I won't know. Problem is with going round bends is that driver skill plays a bigger part than in a straight line!

All said and done, I'm still very pleased with the car and from a value for money point of view

Without taring them all with the same brush, I'd take into account the people that drive Minis - round here anyway. I'm not sure they'd feel comfortable pushing their car along a decent A-road, through the twisties etc. They just seem to use them for posing in town

Which is a shame for cars like the Cooper-S that I really rate as a cracking drive. I blagged a drive in one before I eventually bought the Fabia. I could only stretch to a Cooper, but wanted to see how different it's bigger brother was! I was impressed, I found the supercharged 1.6 flexible and the handling was very planted. Surefooted without much roll. I just don't think many of them get driven properly

Didn't really get on with the interior - good quality but a bit too retro for me. I though the interior space was a joke though, considering the overall dimensions. And the size of the boot is slightly rediculous....

Steve

What is it about these cooper drivers? One tried to out accellerate my 3.2 Gsi vectra the other day:

.................He lost, and he made a very rude signat me afterwards too.

Reckon the Fabia (bog-standard) would've given him a good run for his money too!

I find it hard to believe a floored MCS would be beaten/equalled by a standard Furby vRS.

A standard cooper on the other hand wouldn't be a problem in a straight line.

Cue the TopGear video links