About 2 months ago, I was helping out fellow club member Adam Davis with a drive story for his motoring website www.lautista.com.au. The brief this time was to drive and compare an original 1960s Mini Cooper S with the recently superseded supercharged version, and the current turbo version. I was lucky enough to have a decent drive in the supercharged model, but more about that later. I’d never had any great love of the later Minis, but I can respect the fact that they are a fun and pretty quick car. Reviews of them are usually pretty favourable, and some of the ones that turn up to our sprint days are indecently fast.

As I started talking to the two blokes who owned the later Minis, both were, shall we say, keen, to point out that the cars belonged to their wives, and that they were practical, stylish and easy to drive cars. That said, they were both also very vocal about how much fun the cars were, and how fast you could hustle them along. The driver of the supercharged car was upset that on one particular stretch of the drive his car was 3km/h down on the turbo car. Suffice to say that both of them were having twice as much fun as legally allowed on the open road.

That drive day came to mind on the day that I drove the MiTo Sport. I had chosen to take the Alfa on the same roads we had driven the Minis, partly to try to compare the Alfa to one of its admitted rivals, and partly because it’s a fantastic road which I had not known about previously, and which is reasonably close to Lance Dixon Alfa Romeo who had kindly loaned me the car.

The Mito has a tough market segment in the ‘trendy small premium’ (my words) market. The two obvious competitors are the Mini and the Fiat 500, but there are many other hatches in the price bracket that may not have quite the badge cachet, or obvious ‘style’ of these cars, but which are very accomplished and well regarded cars. I’m thinking Focus XR5, Clio 197, Megane 225, WRX - feel free to make your own list. Of course, those are the hatches that I would shop against the MiTo, but it’s fair to say that the targeted MiTo buyer would possibly not consider those cars, although the official press release does say, “Cool young drivers will relish the choice and excitement that this new model – a real driver’s car – brings. Keen pricing, Alfa’s evocative heritage and the MiTo’s good looks mark it out as a genuine contender within this competitive sector”. A real driver’s car eh? We’ll see about that….

Damon Earwaker at Lance Dixon was kind enough to organise the loan of the car for me at very short notice, and was extremely accommodating and helpful, although he did blanch slightly when I told him how long I would be away with the car. To his credit though, he still gave me the key, and took the time to give me the usual salesman rundown on the car’s features. First impressions are important, and first impressions are good with the MiTo. I will admit that I haven’t been a fan of the looks, going by the images I had seen on that there internet thing, but I’m pleased to report that the Sport model looks pretty darn good in the metal. The wheels are really well suited to the car, the big red Brembo brake callipers look big and red, and just quietly, the car looks sensational in white.

Alfa are making a big deal of the fact that this car needs to impart the feeling of a quality car in a small car size, and the car is suitably equipped to help with this impression, but quality is far more than how many gadgets you can fit into the car. For my mind, quality was very good, but could be better. The door gives a very satisfying thud when you close it, and the fit and finish of the interior is generally excellent, with only a couple of niggly points. The graphics on the display screens look just slightly old-fashioned to me. They’re not garish or annoying, they just look slightly cheap. Speaking of cheap, the sliding cover for the USB slot is particularly nasty, and if it feels flimsy now, how’s it going to be in six months? The USB slot is situated directly in front of the handbrake, and I can imagine quite a few USB drives are going to be snapped off in the slot. And I hated the look and feel of the steering wheel; it’s far too bulky for my tastes, the plastic coloured to look like satin finished aluminium (to match the mirrors and light surrounds) is, well, plasticky, and I actually found my hand getting numb after two hours driving the car – but that just be my strange driving position. Other than that the interior is very nice, and it certainly feels like a well made and expensive car. The optional leather seats look fantastic too, and can be specced for around the cost of two decent Alfa 90s ($2500). There are plenty of gadgets, but I didn’t play with many of them. If you’re interested, your friendly dealer can give you a brochure outlining them all; I was more interested in how the MiTo drives….

The seats in the MiTo are very comfortable, and the driving position pretty standard for a hatchback. Unfortunately the footrest is way too close to the seat, so that my left leg was uncomfortably bent, and I can imagine this being quite annoying on a long drive. More serious was that because there is a big distance between the driver and the windscreen, when going through tight corners the rear view mirror or the A pillar hindered the view through the corner, meaning you have to shift your head slightly to ensure you can see what you need to see. There is also a pretty big blind spot over your left shoulder when looking behind, the C pillar is quite large and you have to really trust your mirrors. The carbon fibre-look trim can reflect quite badly in the windscreen in direct sunlight, but that went away with polarised sunglasses on, which I’m sure we all have for driving, don’t we?

Since I had a 30 minute drive through suburbia to get to my chosen drive route anyway, I figured I’d leave the DNA system in Normal. DNA is a three position switch which alters throttle response and the set-up of the steering through three different modes; Dynamic, Normal, and All-Weather. In Dynamic mode the throttle response is quicker, the steering is sharper and the handling more direct, and most tests of the car I’ve read have criticised the system as a gimmick and that Dynamic is the only mode you need.

In Normal mode and in city driving, it’s a very nice car to be in. The ride is pretty good, there is plenty of low and mid range power for getting away from lights and accelerating into gaps, and the steering and gearchange are nice and light, with just enough feel. I have read criticism of the steering, but the only thing I noticed was that at standstill when you move the wheel you can definitely feel an ‘electronic’ resistance to the wheel. I have a Momo Logitech wheel for playing racing games on my PC, and it actually felt very similar to that, and I’ve done a 1.35 lap of Phillip Island with that wheel so it can’t be too bad!

As the roads start to open out a bit I experiment with the DNA system, and sure enough, the car is slightly quicker in Dynamic, and definitely feels more eager and connected to the road. Dynamic mode gives you a few more torques to play with, and they’re welcome, the MiTo feels very strong in the mid range. There is no noticeable turbo lag, and it’s quite surprising how quickly the car can get going in high gears. At 100km/h 5th gear provides strong acceleration, and 4th gear from the same speed moves you along very quickly indeed. It basically feels like a pretty strong 2 litre engine in what is a small car. There is not a lot of point in holding onto the revs through to the red line however, as it gets a bit breathless and thrashy at the top end. Although the redline is at 6500rpm, I was usually changing at about 5500rpm, which is where peak power is anyway.

I found the handling of the MiTo pretty impressive, and was quite pleasantly surprised by the speed it could maintain. The road I was driving was a little greasy, but the car coped extremely well. I was making pretty fast progress, but there was only the occasional hint at the cars limits. Because of the great mid range I was able to take corners a gear higher than I would have normally, but it was still able to give the odd hint of wheelspin powering out of tight corners at 60-70km/h. The electronic diff seems to work very well in these circumstances, even with a little wheelspin it would just maintain its line and power through the corner. And while you can tighten your line slightly with a bit of lift-off coming into a corner, it is only very slight, and you need to be going pretty hard to find these limits. It’s not the most involving drive, but there is just enough there to keep you happy, and on a slippery and unfamiliar road it means you can keep up a decent speed and still have a pretty good margin of safety.

The second half of my ‘handling course’ is downhill, and on the day it was greasy, with leaves and the occasional branch on the road, as well as logging trucks and locals going slowly in either direction. I was genuinely amazed at the speed I could carry in the MiTo. It really does have fantastic grip in these circumstances, meaning you can keep up a good speed through the corners, maintaining momentum for the next straight. Combined with the brakes which are very powerful, the MiTo gives you a lot of confidence in its abilities. So while it may not be as involving as some Alfas of the past, it does give you a slight peek into what is happening underneath you, while maintaining a far higher speed. As an example, I know that if I had been in my 90, or a GTV6, on the same day I would not have been able to keep up with the MiTo. I would have been having fun, arguably more fun, spinning the wheels out of every corner, locking brakes on wet leaves, understeering into the path of trucks etc, but I would have been a long way behind the new car.

And as for comparisons to the Mini? Well I didn’t drive the Mini for as long as I did the Mito, but there a few things of note. The power, and the power delivery of both cars felt remarkably similar, ie very strong mid range, but little to get excited about at the top end, and little point in holding onto too many revs. The Mini was more involving, and had the slight edge in outright cornering speed, and in fun. That said, on a greasy and unfamiliar road the MiTo would be slightly faster, on a dry road the Mini would be quicker if your bravery was up to it. The Mito has a slightly better ride than the Mini, and is generally a more comfortable drive.

So, like the Minis, the MiTo can make for a stylish and practical everyday car, and can be appreciated for its quality and equipment levels. But it can also be slipped into Dynamic mode and be taken out for a pretty satisfying thrash on the weekend. I said to my partner that day that I’d be happy if she had one of these as her everyday car, which I could take for a drive occasionally and still have fun in. “Yes”, she said, “Me too”.

Thanks to Damon Earwaker and Lance Dixon for the loan of the MiTo Sport.

Sheldon McIntosh