Swiftune, the company responsible for providing all the tuned Minis for the annual hill climb race in Goodwood, has provided the YouTube team of Collecting Cars with their very first hot hatch for some testing. The 61-year-old car was raced against the formidable Toyota GR Yaris.
It’s a Mini Cooper S that was built in 1963 and certified according to that era’s FIA standards. It packs a compact 1.3-liter engine that makes something like 130 PS (128 hp / 96 kW). The modern Yaris easily outclasses it with a 1.6-liter turbo mill and 261 PS (257 hp / 192 kW).
The Mini does have one big advantage, though, and that’s its 600-kg curb weight (1,322 lbs). Its track rival is more than twice as heavy with 1,310 kg (2,888 lbs).
Having raced both cars, the YouTubers concluded that the elderly Mini is still a perfectly capable track toy that handles well and is plenty of fun to drive. It did lose to the Yaris, but, according to the host, it was largely because of wet track. In rainy weather, having a lower curb weight may actually mean less road grip, so it’s unsurprising the test went how it did.