A few weeks ago, we reviewed the MINI Cooper Clubman and found it generally good, but substantially underpowered to suit our tastes. We believed that the MINI Cooper S Clubman would be the Clubman to have, and we're happy to say we got our chance to put the S Clubman edition through its paces in beautiful Carmel Valley, Calif. this week and it lived right up to our high expectations.

The Cooper S Clubman is the real thing

The second year of the turbocharged engine has lost none of its zip, and the Clubman's long wheelbase makes for a quick, yet stable platform. We're still not fans of the new dash design, but if you're shopping Clubman, you really need the S version to keep the Sport in the world's best real Sport Utility Vehicle.