Have you been touched by His Noodly Appendage?

Mini Cooper S. Took it for a test drive as a joke while we were out car-shopping for a friend. Her husband and I thought it would be hilarious to cram into a clown car. Almost bought it that day. Ended up buying a JCW a few months later.

All BMW Mini owner's manuals are a tad quirky... I'm not surprised something like that made it in.

Have you sat in a new one? The difference between the build quality of the interior in my buddy's '06 GT and his '12 GT500 is huge. The GT500 is much nicer inside.

On the 2012 at least, the stripes are vinyl. I assume they could be removed, but you never know what's under them.

Ever driven one? I've driven a 2012 quite hard on numerous occasions - not in a straight line either. The handling is numb, but by god that car can corner just as hard as my JCW Mini. And the braking is superb. The feeling of absolute power and the supercharger whine makes you forget about the numb steering feel…

All I know is, if they haven't figured out that they need to sell a turbo-having STI version by summer 2014 when the lease runs out on my JCW Mini, I'm just going to have to settle for the bigger 370z.

How is anyone else not flabbergasted by the fact that this puny car weighs 2,500 pounds?! My JCW Mini - which has 50 more HP! - weighs a whole 2,668 pounds! The Euro-spec 500 maxes out at 2,200 pounds according to Wikipedia. It's like the US-spec version found an obese person to stuff in the trunk. What gives?

1937 Airomobile Prototype. FWD, four cylinder, streamlined, economy car. Averaged 43.6 mpg... in 1937! The Prius is *not* ahead of it's time. This was.

This is EXACTLY what made the RX-8's body great for a sporty coupe. If you had to get in the back seat, it wasn't impossible. If you were trying to get out of the front seat parked within three feet of another car, it wasn't impossible. I have a standard Mini hatchback now, and the car is wider than it is long if…

Does GM want to capture the marketshare that's dominated by fast, fun imports? Talking Mazda Miata & RX-8, Subaru WRX & BRZ, Scion FR-S, Nissan 370z, Hyundai Genesis, Turbocharged Mini's, the new Fiat 500 Abarth, the new Veloster Turbo, etc? The Camaro is just too large for our tastes, even if we wanted to buy…

Not for nothing, but all of these prices are in addition to the price of the base car. Motor Trend's article is a bit more coherent: [wot.motortrend.com]

I own a standard JCW, and I have to disagree with you about the Clubman. I would never own one, but they're only slightly heavier than the standard two door coupe, but with gobs more rear legroom.

I have a JCW and I find it odd as well.

Top Gear tried this already, and they killed eco-Stig.

Ford makes the best glow in the dark anti-rape-trunk-release-handle I've ever seen. The little running guy gets me every time.

It's a death machine. I bought one once, and legitimately found a crack pipe in it. Then I rolled it.

A "new" Mini with one of these badges... 208 HP is just right for a little FWD car. And it's the nimblest factory car I've ever driven. Slalom and skidpad numbers just don't tell the whole story...

92-94 Tempo/Topaz 2dr V6 w/5-speed. Look for the V6 badge on the front quarter panels. The 3.0 V6 from the Taurus, Probe, and Ranger was shoehorned into the smaller Tempo/Topaz. Only about 1000 made per year from 92-94, and given that they were looked at as throw-away cars not many of them are still around. I…

The truck that the LMTV series of vehicles replaced, the M35 or "deuce and a half" (meaning 2.5 ton) has fantastic fording ability when properly equipped.