Brilliant. The girlfriend and i watched it this morning. My cinq sporting used to be her car and she loves them, she is glad Clarkson gave it the "seal of approval". Thought the Cinq really showed itself up though on that "Italian job" skitt. See the way it really lost the back end in the wet?! Thought he was gonna hit that mini lol.
Like GhostWKD i am a mini cooper fan and im not surprised the 1.3i outperforms the Cinq on handling and speed. As a kid ( now 28 ) i always wanted to buy a mini and tune it up. When i was looking around for a new car few months ago i had a crazy idea of buying a mini but like ghost said, a half decent one was stupid money, plus im 6"2 and my legs are a tad long. Also, the 1275GT (the one i always wanted) is a total rust bucket and all you do is spend your spare time fighting back the rust.
Still pleased i picked the Cinq though. Laughed when Clarkson said that it sounds noisy so you feel like your going quicker than what you are, thats all part of the fun of driving a stock Cinq lol. Also like Jeremy, i am always amazed at the leg room at the front.
It does share one common characteristic with the mini, and thats the certain something that draws people to it. I'm very soon going to be buying the GSR induction and Tricker TB, i also have the McKrich chip waiting to go in when all the gear is delivered.
All my mates have done really well for themselves (im still at freakin' Uni) and all drive Golf Gti's, Audi A1's, Vectra GSi's, etc. However, they all have taken a ride in the Cinq, and they all love it! They all want to help me do it up! I suddenly have a whole pool of eager labour to help me lol and its all down to this fun factor that the mini and Cinq share.
