I think we should all blame Adolf Hitler for everything wrong in Malaysia today. We can blame him for the high price of petrol, cooking oil, rice, cockroach infested mamak stalls, ugly looking flower horn fishes, badly designed cars and the volkwagen beetle owning Malaysians who love that car, not that there’s anything wrong about the car but the fact that is was Hitler who actually gave the green light for the Beetle project in the first place. This is because Hitler is the universal villain whether he likes it or not. And also for the fact that everyone who’s a politician with the rulling party is pointing fingers at everyone else or trying to be a hypocrite and saying nothing about it whatsoever even though he can do something about it. So, the best thing I would suggest all people who are into politics in Malaysia is to blame a dead dictator for any wrongdoings in the country. You have also Mussolini, Idi Amin, Rasputin and a few other famous people to choose from if you don’t want to blame Hitler for it.
On another note, have you noticed that nowdays there are no interesting slow cars to own? Why do I say that? It’s simple. Tell me off the tip of your tongue any interesting car costing less than RM55,000 that’s really and absolutely a corker to drive and own? There are none. The Proton Satria Neo and the Gen2 you may say? No. Both cars aren’t a joy to own and to drive because they have bad seating position and they have suspect build quality. Once you can’t get a proper driving position, how can you drive it? I suppose the current management at Proton can blame Tenku Mahaleel for approving the cars in the first place. Or they could blame Hitler.
If it were in the 70s this sort of thing wouldn’t be a problem. Almost all cars were entertaining. Why? Again I go back to the concept of the driven wheels. In those days, the cars were mostly RWD or Rear Wheel Drive. Nowdays, its mostly Front Wheel Drive or FWD in short. It was actually easy for a person to learn the correct and fun way of driving due to the fact that in most RWD cars of those days, you’d have little power yet a total lack of grip from the cars. For an example, I used to be amazed that it was actually possible to lose control of my father’s Fiat 131 1600CC (bought in 1978 and which we owned till circa 1998 when it was an uneconomical wreck!) which had only 75bhp stock to play with. On wet roads I had to be careful as the slightest provocation would cause the tail to go crazy. I hated driving it in the wet. Those that thought it was actually fun to drift I can tell you ‘drifting’ is something you don’t want to do when there are road dividers around. Heck, I didn’t want to destroy a lower arm and have to spend some money repairing that Italian heap of moving scrap metal.
In the early days of motoring, there were fast and powerful cars. In the 50s, 60s and 70s things got faster. But you also noticed that the normal family man on the street could own cars that were actually fun to drive! I remember writing earlier comparing 70s to the current batch of cars. Yes, cars nowadays are faster. But the price you have to pay for thrills have actually gone up by a whole lot. There aren’t cheap Mini 850 Clubmans around, for example. My dad owned one and I remember having so much fun asking him to floor it. The noise that little car made was fantastic. The transmission whine was characterful. Even barreling down the roads at 60km/h felt like 200km/h because it felt so much fun and lively. The package was fantastic. The noise it made, the handling was cohesive albeit a lack of grip from ridiculously by current standards 10in wheels and tires. If you notice, the new BMW Mini Cooper S’s have that same whine from its supercharged engine. BMW engineers knew that and tried hard to incorporate that trademark while. Albeit being a supercharger while instead of the transmission. Notice that last time a brand new Mini cost less that RM10K in the early 1970s. The only irony was that it was FWD, and not RWD as you might expect from a 1960s designed car. Now, you have to pay RM190K minimum for a BMW Mini that’s not so ‘Mini’ in the first place.
I have not driven the new Mini at this point of time, but what I can tell you is that I have driven the old original British as British can be Mini and it is a cheap, cheery and fun car to drive. 850cc , in cream and weighing less than 600kgs can be bloody fun. The steering, while set at a funny angle is direct and responsive. The handling, amazing. You can punt the car into a corner and it will just turn. I mean really throw it into a curve and instantly reacts. With its narrow tires its a hoot as you find yourself somewhat 4 wheel sliding around or because its so short you feel that its already past the corner its supposed to take and its already charging to the next set of corners! There is nothing really slacking in the car. This is due to the short wheelbase partly and the hydrolastic suspension. What is surprising about the Mini is that it looks tiny, it is confirmed to be like Doctor Who’s Tardis. Very roomy on the inside. Even a huge guy like me fits nicely in it.
The difference between the old Mini and the New Mini is that the former is a real small car for the masses whereas the new one is as large as a Satria Neo and priced like a 1,200sq ft. condominium in Petaling Jaya. There is nothing ‘people’s car’ about it.
This car was actually a car for the masses, but it is so much fun to drive and it is amazing that we Malaysians don’t have a car like this at all. The Savvy you may say? Does it look like an Design Icon with the toilet seat bonnet, funny kink in the front door and so forth? I don’t think so. The Viva? No. Not even close. The Kelisa? A mere copy of the original without the solidity of a mini and the extra something special. The New Saga? You must be joking. The closest is still the Suzuki Swift. And for that my friends, pay RM70K for a small, fun car. Proper fun is expensive nowdays and just to rub it in, I am lucky to be able to afford it or for that matter, have a sister in law who now owns one.
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