[thstone]

Drove the car around LA the past two days. Overall, very fun to drive with good power and quick handling that has very little body roll in corners. The ride is a bit jumpy due to the short wheelbase and the freeway expansion joints can occasionally be a little hard but its not bothersome and by the second day I never even noticed it. The clutch and 6-spd trans are smooth and silky as butter.

With comparable power and weight to a Boxster, is it faster or better handling? No. The Boxster's normally aspirated power delivery is more linear and the flat-6 likes to rev better than the JCW supercharged four and (as expected) the FWD Mini ultimately has terminal understeer (even with the JCW suspension) as compared to the almost perfect balance of the Boxster.