A
YEAR ago, we reported in Witness
Motoring on three two-seater roadsters that were designed to satisfy both
the party people with looks and petrolheads, with a thrilling drive.
Perhaps thanks to the praise heaped
on them in Africa’s oldest newspaper, these unsung heroes have retained their
prices, despite low sales in local show rooms and competing face-lifted models
from their own stables.
Daihatsu recently released the 2013
Copen, not destined for South Africa alas, while a new RCZ already languishes
amid the family sedans on some Peugeot shop floors; and the 2012 Mini Cooper
Coupé continues to attract as much love and vitriol as the previous model
did.
Drivers looking for a car that
celebrates being alive, while making the most of KZN’s twisties, will still do
well to kick the wheels of any of these three.
Gloriously pointless Coupé
 |
| 2012 Mini Cooper Coupe |
THE car that doesn’t so
much nose out the apex as slobber all over it like a bulldog, is the Mini Cooper
Coupé. It is — like all Minis — a gloriously pointless vehicle, but the Cooper
Coupé will turn heads wherever it goes.
But is is only for drivers with really good teeth and absolutely no
fillings. For at legal speeds, the hard-riding Cooper Coupé will shake out any
fillings and the racing chassis will try to wrestle the steering wheel from your
hands over the first pebble.
At illegal speeds on a smooth race track, however, all this comes
together as the wheels make happy little squeals of joy.
The Pug surprise
 |
| The 2013 Peugeot RCZ |
AMONG
this trio, the old Pug continues to surprise its drivers. It is not nearly as
powerful on paper as the engine of say, a Nissan 370 Z, but this is important
only if you are a racer in drag — sorry, drag racer — who hardly touches the
steering wheel.
Take the Pug off a
straight line to hurl it into corners and your smile will get as loopy as the
road. This Peugeot just soaks up the ugliest bumps, and instinctively noses out
the right line through the apex.
Tiny, but the
biggest delight
A haiku is too long
 |
| The 2013 Daihatsu Copen, alas not destined for South Africa. |
DESPITE its low-roof imbuing every
hair on the driver’s head with static, the tiny Daihatsu Copen is the biggest
delight among the trio of unsung heroes.
Daihatsu is Japan’s
oldest car maker with real racing cred, and all of it shows in this little toy
car. With a kerb weight of only 850 kilograms, it can make the most of its tiny
1,3 mill, even with two people in the bucket seats. A short wheelbase, slick
gearbox and responsive steering, all synergise to make this frisky Noddy car a
much bigger vehicle than the sum of its tiny parts suggests.
