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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

Top Gear's First Drive Review Of the 2016 JCW Convertible

Tom Harrison writes a first drive review of the 2016 MINI John Cooper Works Convertible for Top Gear. He states, in part:
. . . the ride isn’t great anyway – ours didn’t have the adaptive suspension, which would improve matters – but when you thump over a pothole or expansion joint, you can just about feel the whole thing twist and flex, especially through the seatback, steering column and if you happen to be looking through the rearview mirror, the view through which very subtly betrays the different ways the front and rear ends are moving about.

This is not a deal-breaker for the JCW soft-top – it was always going to be less stiff than the hard-top – but the degree of flex makes us wonder if an open-Mini is better enjoyed as a more softly sprung Cooper… . . .