might be buying a used mini soon, question about 'power'

[nzmini]

Hi,

I'm in New Zealand and it is extremely hilly here. My commute to work is about 35mins (20mins on steep hilly windy road and 15 on the highway part of which is an incline). Currently I have a 1996 1000cc Nissan march/Micra. The Nissan majorly struggles and most of my commute is with my foot to the floor, loud revving and not going very fast. It CAN NOT accelerate uphill it basically is revved to the max and getting up the hill but basically only able to maintain speed. I am starting to look at 2002-2003 Mini Coopers but at 1600cc I am unsure if I will be in a similar situation. How do the stock coopers handle on inclines/hills? Can they somewhat accelerate uphill without redlining and sounding like a 747 is taking off by your head? I know my best bet is a CooperS and I am desperately trying to find a deal on one. And lastly I am curious on year and airbag configurations. I see some have 6 airbags but are any of those 6 side curtain that protect your head? Or is it 2 front, 2 torso front, 2 torso back..

Thanks!!

[nzmini]

ok some research shows base cooper 2003 has 116hp, my nissan has 54hp. So it is more than double my current small car which makes me think it should work quite well. I would be interested to know what inexpensive mods I could do to a base cooper to boost it's hp a bit. I suppose I could just take it to one of those boy racer shops and say I'd like an extra 20hp or so..

[bad venge]

My mini has Two front driver/passenger air bags , two in the sides of the front seat and two in the A pillars beside the windshield

Truthfully the best $$$ spent on performance mods is an air intake ,header and exhaust