Speaking of my bachelor days, back around the same time I lusted over old MINIs, I drove an appropriately sporty single-guy car. As one might expect, I hung out with like-minded car enthusiasts, and from time to time we would travel to various places in little sports car convoys.
One evening, I was driving through Charleston behind my friend in the MINI. The weather was nice and everybody had their windows down. We were stopped at a red light, and my buddy was first in line in the right lane. Then, a big SUV full of good ol’ boys pulled up beside him in the left lane. The passenger leaned out and said, “Hey man, you wanna run that little Cooper?” My friend responded, “OK.”
I was watching this scene from behind the MINI and anticipating that hilarity was about to ensue. The traffic signal on the crossing street changed to yellow. My friend noticed this out of the corner of his eye, so he put his foot on the gas to get his RPMs up and prepared to drop the clutch. Redneck bro said, “Why are you revving your engine up, man? The light is still…”
The light turned green.
The MINI, thanks to its supercharger upgrade and the fact that it weighed one ton less than the SUV, shot forward. The driver of the SUV hit the gas but it was already too late. The race was brief, thanks to another red light just up the road, and the embarrassed SUV bros turned off on the next side street. It remains one of the funniest car-related incidents I’ve seen. And it’s also a perfect example of why power-to-weight ratio is more important than raw horsepower.
