Originally posted by pschlute I had three MINI Coopers. A Cooper, then a Cooper S, then a JCW S. The latter i specced up with "super-sports" suspension. It handled superbly, but with the run-flats was a very hard ride.
I had my suspicions that "super-sports" suspension meant they welded the wheels to the body
Back around 1970 I got a ride with a guy who was an ice racer, which is popular in my part of Canada during the long winters. Take a tractor with plow and the track itself can be made with whatever amount of tight corners, horseshoe bends, short straights that can be desired. No deeply cambered corners will be carved into the frozen surface though...as you may break through the ice.
The track is usually made on a frozen lake...which out here...the home of the TV show 'Ice Road Truckers' is in abundance during our long, hard winters.
The driver in question back then, was driving an Austin Mini Cooper 1275cc and I recall flying around the corners at breakneck speed. I've never been so low in a car and I recall thinking the Cooper was not much higher than a go cart and it seemed to me to exhibit no discernible body roll, in even the hardest of corners.
It was the only car where I found my hand involuntarily slam the dashboard...a response triggered by the impending doom I felt as he barreled into the first corner without lifting off the gas pedal.
It was certainly not the same in my father's Oldsmobile.