Saturday, October 3, 2009

Those MINI/BMW Engineers Are Drivers


Let me thank the engineers behind the MINI E for keeping it a drivers car. The MINI Cooper is a slot car and the MINI E is not that far off. Yes, it is heavier and if you really flog it you can feel that battery mass get a tad top heavy and want to come up front to see what all the excitement is about, but you really have to push it to get there. It still has that quick steering and razor sharp handling, but, one other item that might not be noticed when the brake lights pop on when regeneration kicks in. The brake lights only come on when you are really getting into a hard regen, not just when regen starts or during a coast regen as I call it (not really slowing down). Therefore, you can regen down a hill casually and not look like a clod who rides his brakes all the way down a hill or worse, up a hill. Yes, I do believe the engineers thought about that one.

Of course the brake light comes one under hard regenning but only then.

Thank you MINI/BMW engineers for not making me look like a clod while regen braking.

1 comment:

  1. I was concerned about that also. I hate when you're driving behind someone that's riding the brakes all the time. I originally thought everyone was going to be looking at me that way so I tested it out with a friend behind me and found out that the lights only come on with two bars of regen on the meter, and not the first. It really does allow you to gradually slow down without the lights coming on but if you are slowing down quickly as if you ware braking, the lights do come on. Good job Mini! Tom M #250

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