MINI Cooper S JCW GP 2013 Review - International

MINI Cooper S John Cooper Works GP

What we liked:
>> Grip levels
>> Chassis balance and dynamics
>> Style and presentation

Not so much:
>> Only 30 coming to Oz
>> They're almost all sold
>> No back seats (but heaps of boot space!)

First the bad news -- the $56,990 MINI Cooper S John Cooper Works GP hard-core hatchback is almost completely sold out, and we're still a good three months away from the mad midget arriving on local soil.

The good news is that those who have plonked down the almost $60K to get their hands on the sharpest road-going MINI ever built will not be disappointed. Not one bit.

Designed for the die-hard MINI purists, just 2000 of these lighter, faster, and significantly more agile hot hatches have been built. But only 30 are coming to Australia.

Fitted with adjustable suspension, a reinforced body, custom-made wheels, a tricked up engine, vicious brakes and an aerodynamic body kit that puts function before form, it's plain to see the MINI JCW GP means business.

Hunkering down in the heavily bolstered Recaro seats, and securing the bright red seat belt, there's a sense of determination about this car. Ignite the engine and there's slightly louder burble emanating from its bespoke exhaust system and more menace from the turbocharged, intercooled 1.6-litre four-banger.

With a kerb weight of 1185kg and power output of 160kW/280Nm, the car has strong acceleration -- enough to comfortably pin the driver into the seat -- and will dispatch the 0-100km/h dash in 6.3 seconds. The six-speed manual gearbox is a tidy little unit and snicks through gears purposefully, providing good control over the car's motive force.

Top speed is rated at 242km/h.

Punching out of corners with all the car's electronic nannies switched off results in mild wheel spin on tighter corners, but there's so much thrust on offer it makes little difference to exit velocities. The ultra-grippy Kumho Ecsta tyres are very effective in this respect too.

The new bodywork, and especially the big rear wing and massive diffuser, deliver appreciably more downforce than regular models, which helps keep the car glued to the ground.

The steering is also very good. There's bit of heft and lots of feel.

The rear seats have been torn out and replaced with a large horizontal strut brace, effectively increasing MINI GP's body stiffness. It sharpens everything up, especially turn-in.

Indeed, handling dynamics are superlative, in no small part thanks to adjustable suspension that was developed by the MINI racing team. During our track session the damping rates were set to ultra-stiff levels, giving the car excellent body control through corners.

The adjustable suspension is arguably the car's biggest enhancement, and tweakable damper settings can drop the car's ride height by 20mm at most.

And how's this: the front dampers have been flipped upside-down, which improves cornering says MINI, and also allows increased camber off-set. Flying around the Circuito Mallorca Renn Arena in Spain, I tend to agree with MINI's supposition. This thing is ridiculously nimble.

Even when gravity and momentum do get the better of the car on corner entry, inciting a touch of body roll, the ballistic MINI is still responsive to all inputs and does what you tell it to. The level of control it offers, even at its limit, is astonishing.

This manic MINI is nicely balanced and there's not a lot of understeer to speak of, and the whole time it's hugely satisfying to drive -- especially when thrashing around the race track at 9/10ths, the exhaust popping and crackling on the overrun, the tyres emitting a low howl.

It remains to be seen if it's as much fun on the road, but with the suspension set a little softer, I reckon it'd be an absolute hoot on local roads.

MINI's race drivers cracked an 8’23” lap time at the 20km+ Nurburgring road circuit in Germany (the unofficial measuring stick for all self-respecting performance cars) which is rougly 20 seconds faster than its predecessor launched in 2005. It's also not too far off the fastest time set by a front-wheel driver hot hatch, the Renault Megane RS 265's 8’08”.

There's no denying the car's dynamic talent and ability to maintain high mid corner speeds, but perhaps the most arresting part of the car's chassis are its brakes. They are, for lack of a better word, fierce.

Large 335mm front brakes are gripped by massive six piston Brembo calipers, the first time six-pot brakes have been fitted to a MINI, and they deliver breathtaking deceleration. With such a rigid chassis, you get a lot of feel too, so you can really grind the pedal into the floor and almost slide the car into corners under brakes, such is the feedback and power.

To fit such large brakes and calipers within the 17-inch alloy wheels required a little bit of jiggery-pokery. We spoke to MINI's chief chassis engineer, Robert Stumpf, and he explained the unusual four-spoke alloy wheels are not just cast, but "flow-formed" to increase the space available inside the wheel without reducing strength.

The short of it? MINI has developed a hugely compelling car to drive, and the closer you get to its performance threshold, the more fun it is. It's probably not an ideal car to drive to work in everyday, but the fact that you can if you want will be a boon for the 30 Australian owners.

Undoubtedly the fastest and best-handling road-legal MINI to ever come out of the factory, the JCW GP is a lot more than just a tarted up Cooper S. Wholesale changes to the bodywork, suspension and brakes have delivered big gains, resulting in a speedy hot-hatch that has the potential to outpace much more expensive machinery on road and track.