14 days, 2800km, 11 Mini Cooper S (new models) and a new BMW X5 3lt turbo diesel.
Picked up the X5 from BMW Australia
Melbourne with just over 4000km on the clock. From there a short drive to the Spirit of Tasmania and the over night trip to
Devonport.
Friday afternoon in
Melbourne is not the place to try out a $82000, 150Kw, 480Nm, 6 speed auto, loan vehicle.
Once off the ferry and on the open road to
Launceston was a different matter. I was told by the salesman at BMW not to touch a switch which turns off the vehicle stability control and to only put it in drive. The VSC I thought was a good idea, stops wheel spin and does a lot of other stuff.(just like my Troopie), but to change gear on a 6 speed auto box was just too much.
From drive it is very easy to knock the leaver to the left and this put the gear box into 5th gear. From there forward to go down through the gears and back to go up. A eye on the tacho to know when to change as the motor is very quite and smooth, (just like the Troopie). 1800 rpm and it was cruising at 100 kph in 6th gear.
So smooth and quick, into a corner down a gear or two and power out (just like the Troopie). The X5 would do it quick, but not as quick as the 11 Minis that I was back up for. Even though they could easily travel at twice the speed limit, it was the corners that they would take at the road speed and pull away from any other vehicle on the road. The windy roads is what the Mini want and Tasmania has a lot of them.
14 days was only just enough time to have a quick look around the island but with a good itinerary most of the must see
places were covered. Tasmania is also in the grip of a drought in some
places with fires burning. We went to a Berry
farm that had only been going for a couple of years and was hoping to break even this year when a fire came through and wiped out most of his crop. Just like many others that have had set backs because of the fires, he will keep the doors open and battle through.
Every where we went we seemed to draw a few looks. We also came across a few other same model conveys. A Mini Moke club from Victoria were at the
Pub in the Paddock when we were there and couple of MG's were following us around.
Three EO stickers were also spotted. A Defender 110, just outside "Do" town, a Prado around
St Helens and a Troopie at
Port Arthur.
Minis don't carry a spare tyre and that was the reason that I was following them around. BMW make the Mini now and that is why I had the X5, to carry two spare tyres. There were no flats on the trip so my main task for the trip was to make sure nobody got lost. This was made easy as most of the vehicles had on board navigation or a after market unit. The X5 didn't have the navigation built in but it did have a TV, that I did watch only to see New Zealand beat Australia in the cricket.
Speaking of New Zealand, that is where we are hoping to go next year with the Mini club.
The X5 was good and did return a average of 10l/100km but I still like the Troopie better.
Wayne