Review of the year - July 09
We celebrate 50 years of legendary model in style, before crowning a new performance champ
As most UK drivers were getting ready for their summer holidays, our testers were busy working on a 24-page MINI special.
To mark 50 years of the brand, we picked from 12 of its greatest models in Issue 1,071. Our line-up included a mint original Mini and the latest Clubman, plus an ex-works Mini Cooper with a genuine Monte Carlo racing pedigree.
Senior road tester Owen Mildenhall even drove a competition-spec MINI in the JCW Championship at Silverstone. And he was amazed by the similarities between the racer and the roadgoing JCW he was running as a long-term car.
The MINI JCW was back for one of the most closely fought tests of the year – where it lost out narrowly to VW’s Golf GTI.
We also ran the rule over Toyota’s new Prius in July. For the first time, the hybrid had a genuine rival, in the form of the latest Honda Insight. Which was our petrol-electric pick?
Click any of the links below to catch up with all the rest of the year's most exciting stories.
December
Verdict
Tester's notes
I always jump at the chance to get into a racing car, so an invite to take part in two rounds of the German MINI Challenge was a highlight of 2009 – especially as they were on the Silverstone GP circuit used by Jenson Button and the F1 crowd!
Racing against the regular contenders in a competitive series is never easy, especially in a cut-and-thrust professional one such as the MINI Challenge.
So I was under no illusions as to how tough a weekend I faced, especially once I discovered the guest cars had to carry 25kg of ballast to slow them down!
That doesn’t sound like much, but in a stripped-out racer it could be the difference between winning and losing. To make matters worse, the other guest
car was being driven by the 2008 British MINI Cooper S Series champion.
But after a couple of practice sessions I’d found my feet – and qualified three places ahead of the UK champ for the first race…!
Owen Mildenhall
Senior road tester
