Simply by pure coincidence, in the past couple of weeks, i've had the opportunity to drive a somewhat varied trio of 998 minis..
1 x Rover 998 Auto
1 x Rover 998 Manual
1 x Rover 998 Supercharged
I have to say the differences between them are interesting.
998 Auto
The auto was the first one I drove and, having just had a spin in a 1275 EFi with a race cam, the review may be a little biased.
It was slow. If given enough time, and a steep enough hill, you may just overtake a glacier. Several times I pulled out into traffic, thinking that I had enough room to get up to speed. Yet, each time i found myself "Going for the Whip" and cringing behind the steering wheel as the traffic barrelled down on me. The folks at <<insert 80 company names here>> had obviously decided that 1500 rpm was enough revs to make the change to the next gear up.
For the rest of my journey, i took the backstreets and found that it makes a nice little cruiser, once you get it up to the speed limit.
The next part of the journey gave me the opportunity to tackle some hills. When I say tackle, i'm being a little misleading, unless you imagine Andrew Johns trying to bring down a cow.
A cow the size of a house.
Poor is the only word to describe it. Deciding to take the back road up to the hills (avoiding the 7% gradient freeway) i found myself, regularly, in 1st gear flat out at 10-20 kph going for the whip again.
There were moments where i needed to re-enter the freeway to get to the next back road and, even with a bit of run-up, 60kph was all the little guy could muster. The next short stint had a much larger run up and i was able to get up to 100kph, but more importantly, i was able to get the revs up into the "power" band. Once there, even with a slight incline, I could keep it at the speed limit until I exited half a kilometre later.
But once we got back onto the flat and downhills, the cruising nature of "The little engine that almost could" came back and everything was nice and relaxed again. Until I ran out of petrol. But that's irrelevant.
Recomendation? A 1 litre auto is nice little runabout engine, suitable for areas without main roads, other cars or hills that go up.
998 Supercharged
The next car I had a spin in was Nathan Filkenegger's A+, SC12 supercharged, Clubman.
Two out of three aint bad
Having not driven a 998 manual with all 4 gears working (sorry Stuwey), i was keen to enjoy nice and slick changes from cog to cog. It was not to be. Nathan (bless him) has a KAD quickshit installed. So my anticipated Zorro-esque swings of the gear lever were replaced by short
, abrupt jerks of the wrist not seen since George Michael forgot the difference between public and private.
Getting back to the (SW5 camed) engine, the difference is, obviously, enourmous. Being able to select the gear you want and more importantly WHEN you want, makes all the difference compared to the auto. Limited to flat back streets, the SC12'd 998 shifted along exactly like i had heard. Something felt missing up until around 2500-3000 rpm where you definitley feel the effects of the Toyota air blender kick in. And it was fun, smooth and consistant. Exactly how the short shifter wasn't.
I can only speculate on the performance up hills, but I can't imagine being dissapointed. As long and you kept the rpm up. Poor clutch.
998 Manual
To the last engine of this, now, grossly wordy review. We have the 998 Manual. I've left it until last for two reasons.
1. It was the last one I drove, and
2. I liked it the most.
For starters, the gearchange was nice and smooth and wholey Un-George Michael. I was confident pulling out into (and weaving about in) traffic at my usual distances. This drive i did get to head up into the hills. And the experience over the auto was far more pleasurable. I took a different, but similarly steep and windy, road up the hill and the 60/80 speed limit was no trouble at all to keep to.
Again, being a 998 it was a little lacking in low-rpm grunt. But that was easily solved by a down change. But what i found interesting was that the behaviour of this engine across the rev range was very much similar to the supercharged version, but on a reduced scale. The supercharged 998, while amplifying the "RPM for power" nature of the 998, it's seems to emphasise the lack of torque below that 2500-3000 rpm point. Where as the auto, well it just stopped you from getting anywhere near those lofty revs.
Being a boy, i would've predicted that i would've enjoyed the SC998 more. However, for a reason, i can't really put my finger on, the NA 998 manual was my favorite. Perhaps it was the simplicity of it all, and the feeling that you're the one controlling things. Perhaps, and most likely, i'm just a dribbling idiot.
So, to conclude.
Get a 1275.
