New Delhi, March 14 -- In India, there are two kinds of people: those who see a convertible and rue its impracticality, and those who romanticize dusk and possibility.

The first group will talk about AQI, humidity, crows with callous aim, and the sheer impracticality of voluntarily removing a roof in a country where the climate is a cocktail of heat, dust and decibels. The others hold down a button and let the sky in.

On paper, a car without a permanent roof seems emphatically irrational. And yet, the first time the fabric roof of the new Mini Cooper S Convertible folds away in under twenty seconds, like a neat piece of mechanical origami, all objections lose authority. A cocooned motoring experience becomes a 'wind in your hair' one. ...