I still remember the excitement of taken my beefed-up Mini Cooper out for a nightly spin on slippery roads after heavy snowfalls. Once the Finnish-style 'see-saw' driving technique for bends was mastered, you could propel these small cars extremely fast even under the worst road conditions.
Build quality of these cars, however, was 'British' with what that entailed at the time. Thus maintenance issues and rust killed the car after a few years. In this respect I assume the humongous 'Minis' of today are vastly better.