Drop-top Desire

FEW CARS TURN HEADS AND ATTRACT admiring glances like a brightly coloured convertible. This isn’t the most expensive or opulent car that we’ve reviewed, and it’s definitely far from the largest — but when the Zesty Yellow drop-top Mini Cooper S arrived at the Car India office, all work ground to a halt as our entire team gathered in the parking lot to admire and examine it from every possible angle.

This is the fourth generation of the modern-era, BMW-owned, three-door Mini, but it hasn’t strayed too far from its established design, sporting that instantly recognisable face, familiar proportions, and design elements that hark back to the original British Minis of days gone by. Characteristic traits include the round headlamps, short overhangs, and that honeycomb grille, which is even