Mini Cooper rental-Chicago

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
#1

anyone know of any rental companies that has Mini Coopers at ORD?

#2

Not sure about ORD, but National often has them in their fleet, so you may want to call them.

If you’re a zipcar member, they’re widely available t various locations all over the city (if that works for your purposes).

#3

You are going to the Midwest, Jordan. The only place other than the south where American cars outnumber foreign makes

#4

But aren’t they gonna be automatic transmissions? If so, you eliminate the fun factor.

#5

Unless they have Tiptronic (which sucks) or paddle shifters as well (which ROCK). I got upgraded to a Mini and it had Tiptronic but also paddle shifters. Paddles are a LOT of fun.

#6

true. which is why every car i have owned has been a manual (unlike PMC) then again, any mini is better than a sonata.

#7

Nothing better than a manual trans in Chicago traffic. newhere

George

#8

Paddle shifters, unless on a true manual transmission, are just tiptronics, which have all the drivetrain loss of a standard automatic transmission. The only time they are truly effective is when you have well over 400hp to play with, where the drivetrain loss is meaningless.

#9

drove in long island, NYC metro, baltimore, and DC traffic, all with stick.

#10

That doesn’t make it right… neener neener [snort.gif]

George

#11

You’re asking this question here? [scratch.gif]

I could think of a better bulletin board to ask such a question. [pillow-fight.gif]

#12

you think i didn’t ask? haven’t gotten a response over there

#13

Doesn’t look good. The one Chicago place mentioned on this site went belly-up last year.

http://www.minicooperrentalportal.com/

Zipcar is probably the only option. The only time National O’Hare might have one is if there is a one-way drop-off. Doesn’t happen often, according to the person at the desk that I asked.

#14

Kinda confused by this, but I do know that paddle shifters reach their zenith in dual clutch systems, such as Porsche’s (PDK), Audi’s (DCG), BMW’s (DKG), or Mitsubishi’s (Twin Clutch SST). They shift way faster than a true manual, and in the EVO X MR I drive often, the Sport mode auto is amazingly aggressive with the shifts, too.

#15

Yes, PDK and DCG are different - those are double clutch, and there is no transmission/drivetrain loss. With 95% of paddle shifters, they are simply modified automatic transmissions.

#16

There is ALWAYS drivetrain loss. A paddle-shifted front driver with 115 bhp will show less drivetrain loss than a manually-shifted, 500 bhp AWDer. It’s meaningless to speak of drivetrain loss generally – e.g. auto vs. manual-- as there are many variables, and even more meaningless (if that’s possible) once the discussion diverges from the theoretical to achieving real goals; efficacy is nothing without defining the objective; are you talking shift times, lap times, drag racing, autoXing, etc.

A manual can be fun to drive, but it’s not necessarily the fastest, best performing trans type for a car; that depends on the application.

Oh, and a quick thought on horsepower from Mark Donohue, who piloted the famous, 12cyl, 1500hp Porsche 917/30:
“If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower.”

Well north of 400hp? Yeah, I’d say so!