Being noticed in the street is easy. You don't have to become a film star, or a pop singer, or a notorious criminal. All you have to do is walk into a BMW showroom, say "I'll have a MINI, please," hand over the cash and drive off into the world. Everyone will become your friend.I found this the first time I drove a MINI, and I found it again when I spent a week in the car tested here. The effect on the general public obviously hasn't worn off yet.What nobody ever said on this occasion, though, was "oh, look, it's got a bonnet scoop - that must be the Cooper S, then - the supercharged one." The visual differences between this car and the naturally-aspirated ones are too small to have much impact on the population at large.But the driver will know all about it. This is by a long way the most powerful MINI, and it covers the ground very quickly. Surprisingly, though, you need to rev it quite hard to get the best performance out of it. The mid-range is good, but not brilliant. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by driving so many turbo diesels recently.When the Cooper S was launched there were several press reports complaining about understeer. That wasn't the CARkeys opinion then, and it isn't now. I suspect this is yet another case of people applying too much throttle at the wrong time, which is a good way of making any car understeer, especially a powerful front-wheel drive one.My own opinion is that the Cooper S handles quite brilliantly. It shows every sign of having spent a lot of time being track tested by people who really know what they are doing. The turn-in is excellent, and the car very quickly settles into a stance which allows you to rocket through the bends.It's intriguing - if you like this sort of thing, anyway - that the MINI people have not felt the need to follow current trends towards very low-profile tyres in order to achieve good handling. All the work has been done by tuning the suspension, and although the ride is undoubtedly on the firm side, the tyres are supple enough to soak up the worst of the bumps.There are only two problems, the first being fairly trivial and perhaps personal to me. The steering wheel is adjustable for height but not for reach, and I couldn't get close enough to it without at the same time being too close to the pedals. My best compromise was a seating position which didn't make me feel I was in full control of the steering, which wasn't a happy feeling.The other problem is that all the excellent suspension work has turned the MINI into a track car, ideal for belting round a super-smooth race circuit but not so clever for normal road use.An example: how do you achieve balanced handling in a car whose front tyres are coping with all the power and most of the weight? You stiffen up the back end so that it loses grip - or, rather, so that the balance of grip moves forwards. Result, in this particular case: a car whose handling is beautifully neutral on smooth roads (and once which is also pretty good at doing handbrake turns).That's all well and good until you find an interesting road in the real world, complete with crests and dips. If one of those crests happens to occur in the middle of a corner, the MINI's already loose back end virtually loses contact with the surface entirely, and you're dangerously close to a spin.It caught me out. Just once, and fortunately the car straightened out before losing control completely. But it was an anxious moment, one of the worst I've had on the road in a very long time, and it made me think that maybe the Cooper S should be tamed slightly; send some of the grip to the rear, and live with the resulting imbalance on the grounds that safety on the public road is more important than ultimate lap times on a race circuit.I also couldn't help thinking rather bitterly about all those press reports saying how the car understeers. At that moment I rather wished that it did.I think it's reasonable to suggest that people buy MINIs because they are cute, not because they are quick (and certainly not because they can carry four people - legroom for rear seat passengers is almost non-existent). They are toys, which in itself is fine. There has always been a market for fun cars.But people who want a car with this much performance are probably going to buy something else, and people who want a MINI are likely to be drivers who may not be prepared for what the Cooper S does when you reach the limit. I like the car, in small doses at least, but some sort of re-think does seem to be in order.Second opinion: Yes, well - there's a limit you can't over-step with a car which has the wheelbase and track measurements of a Cooper S and the small matter of 163bhp being fired through the front wheels. Basically, though, the Cooper S is a riot, and if you want performance one stage down the standard Cooper should do nicely. The Cooper S is a magnificent hillclimber, and you can't help smiling at all the whimsical design details. That driving position - with the steering wheel at its lowest, on a day when the sun's shining from the front of the car, you see your reflection in both the revcounter glass and the shiny steering wheel centre, where the image is a little like one of those in-car shots of Gilles Panizzi or Colin McRae. If only. A small car with all that power, next to no rear seat space, hardly any room for luggage, an unexpectedly ponderous gearchange and the most upright A pillars since George V's Royal Daimlers - ludicrous. I'd love one. Ross Finlay. Engine 1598cc, 4 cylinders Power 163bhp Fuel/CO2 33.6mpg / 202g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 7.4 seconds Top speed 135mph Price £14,500 Details correct at publication date
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