The MINI John Cooper Works, or MINI JCW, is the hottest of hot production MINIs to date, with the rare exception of the extremely limited MINI Cooper S with John Cooper Works GP Kit. It is also, until the the Clubman version arrives in the UK later this summer, by far the most expensive MINI to come from the Oxford production plant. Our test vehicle comes in at a staggering £24,000 on the road once optional extras have been added to the tally. That’s a lot of money for a small car, even if it is a MINI, the original, and some would say only “premium small car”.
The MINI John Cooper Works is priced well out of the MINI range’s usual market and competition. Starting at over £21,000 you can acquire some pretty decent and varied alternatives, how about a new VW Scirocco GT or Ford Focus ST for the petrol heads and those looking for something a little different, or a top of the range Honda Insight or new Toyota Prius for the eco-conscious car buyer in you. While being a bit of a specialised trail blazer, rather than a mass-market MINI, this car has got to be good to justify the rather hefty price tag, especially in difficult financial times.
So what does £21k buy you then? 211 hp, 280 Nm of torque and a 0-62 time of 6.5 seconds for a start, and for many, those are the figures that matter. It also buys you an aerodynamics package, a vast array of John Cooper Works interior and exterior badging, 17″ wheels and larger, high performance, not to mention red painted and purposeful looking front brakes.
The tuned and strengthened engine is based on the same lump found in the MINI Cooper S, however the factory MINI John Cooper Works has undergone some serious fettling, based on proven enhancements from the MINI CHALLENGE race series cars.
The basic engine remains unchanged, the crankcase, crankshaft, conrods all remain standard. The intake valves and valve seat rings are upgraded, piston sidewalls reinforced and compression ratio reduced to 10.0:1. The cylinder head has increased wall thickness to reduce any localised stress or hot spots when running at peak performance.
To gulp in a optimum volume of air the MINI John Cooper Works features a larger air mass sensor and charge air line, which results in a greater throughput of clean air and a reduction in the potential loss of throttle power. These are paired with a larger air intake to feed the system the required quantity of oxygen.
The MINI JCW also includes a strengthened and larger twin-scroll turbocharger and exhaust manifold which are key in the car’s performance enhancements. The maximum charge pressure of the turbine is increased from 0.9 bar in the MINI Cooper S to 1.3 bar for the John Cooper Works thanks to a change in material used in machining. This ensures a high temperature can be preserved for longer in the combustion chambers and plays an important role in the JCWs impressive peak torque figure for a relatively small and efficient engine.
From that point backward the exhaust system, including catalytic converter, have been enlarged and improved to allow for free flowing, and terrific sounding passing of gas from the rear. If you’ll excuse the turn of phrase.
The MINI John Cooper Works also includes EDLC. This recently added automotive initialism stands for Electronic Differential Lock Control, sometimes referred to as an ediff, and replaces the traditional limited slip differential. It is designed, when most of your other assistive acronyms are disabled, to help keep wheel spin to a minimum and increase traction when, for example, powering out of a tight bend.
What you don’t get is one of the cornerstones of MINIMALISM. The auto stop-start start system fitted across the rest of the MINI range, Cooper S included, is conspicuously absent in the MINI John Cooper Works.
But what does all this technology, improvements and reinforcements amount to when bundled together in the very tidy exterior of the MINI John Cooper Works?
From our time with the car, it’s almost as if you get two cars for your money. Go steady on the accelerator and you get a pretty regular, comfortable, easy to drive MINI. The interior finish, with its anthracite roof lining, piano black dash, and delightfully tactile alcantara sport steering wheel cocoons you in a calm and cosy environment. The engine rumble is dampened nicely and the car behaves impeccably in heavy traffic.
But the MINI John Cooper Works isn’t really intended for crawling in traffic, and as much as it will take the daily grind in its stride, you just feel it’s urging you to let it free on the open roads. A blip of the throttle gives a lovely aural response from the beefed up exhaust system, and when a car is begging to be driven as much as the JCW is, it’d be rude not to oblige.
Hit the open roads, the country lanes, press the sport button and the MINI John Cooper Works can really begin to show you what it’s all about. Despite all of the engine modifications and improvements one of the most obvious improvements is the braking. When you haul anchor the JCW responds sharply and kills the speed quickly, but not over aggressively.
The handling, with optional sports sports suspension (a must have in our opinion) is top notch. More comfortable and better dampened than in previous MINIs bearing the “Works” emblem, but very easy to read and control even on uneven and sharply twisting, undulating road surfaces. We’d love to try an example with the lowered, dealer fit option John Cooper Works suspension, but the factory sports suspension does a very decent job for a no cost option.
Once again the MINI sounds terrific, the symphony of the turbo, engine, exhaust all being played with a degree of over enthusiasm respond delightfully. The car moves quickly through the gears, and the only criticism, as with many hot hatches and performance vehicles, is that our roads do not provide sufficient challenge to truly test the engine of this car. If you chose a MINI John Cooper Works, then track days are something you really should try, to get the very best of this tiny beast.
If shopping among other hot hatches or “stylish” cars, there are criticisms you could aim at the MINI John Cooper Works, but these are drawbacks, idiosyncrasies, of the MINI range as a whole. Packaging is compromised, luggage and rear passenger space will never stand toe to toe with bigger cars such as Hondas and Fords… But this is a MINI, this is a fun little car, a car for the driver to enjoy and perhaps, if completely unavoidable, occasional donkey work. This isn’t a car to lug the family around day to day and blast down the M1 at 100+ because you can, this isn’t a Meriva VXR for mums and dads who wish they could have a fun little car but can’t quite allow themselves.
This is the MINI John Cooper Works and it has once again set the benchmark for small, fun, seriously quick cars with bags of personality. The sheer number of times you’ll see phrases such as “MINI Killer” pumped out by the motoring press is an endorsement of how important this car is to the MINI range. This isn’t a car beyond compare or reproach, and MINI must not rest on their laurels, but it really is a genuine pocket rocket and a pint size package of fun, and just about everything a range topping MINI should be.
Tags: bmw, jcw, john cooper, john cooper works, mini, mini jcw, mini john cooper works
Great review – I’m loving every moment of my JCW and the split personality is part of that – it copes well in town and is a dream on the twisties and the sound it makes is lovely!