First look: 2024 Mini John Cooper Works
You can't buy the new petrol-powered JCW just yet - but you can already be thankful it still exists
It was weirdly easy to forget about the outgoing F56 John Cooper Works. There wasn’t much fundamentally wrong with Mini’s 231hp hot hatch, except that it was dynamically outgunned for much of its life cycle by the sparklier Ford Fiesta ST and Hyundai i20 N, which both managed to waltz off with the ‘fun to drive’ supermini bragging rights. That was all well and good while it lasted, of course - right up until Ford and Hyundai unceremoniously ditched the Fiesta ST and i20 N for being too flagrantly old school to live.
Kudos to BMW then for not doing the same (despite the fact that the battery-electric Mini is already well-established and now very definitely the focus of the three-door lineup). We knew the British-built, petrol-powered JCW was returning for one more bite of the apple, and while its official unveiling isn’t due till the autumn, the model’s first motorsport appearance (it is due to feature in the SP 3T class at N24 later this month) clearly dictated an early preview of the design changes.
Pleasingly, this sticks with the tried and tested method: it’s a BMW Mini, but with the styling volume turned up. That includes the weirdly pinched back end, sadly - although we quite like it from the front, where there’s a more assertive grille and chunkier intakes. Needless to say, some of what you’re looking at should be taken with a pinch of competitive salt (this is the JCW ‘PRO’ version after all, and will be run by Bulldog Racing team in bespoke camouflage at Nürburgring-Nordschleife) but the basics are very much all there and it speaks to rerun of the model’s established characteristics.
As you might imagine, this isn’t a coincidence: underneath, the new model shares much with its predecessor, and while BMW is saving all the technical details for its official launch, the JCW is expected to retain the 2.0-litre turbocharged motor and the same mechanical layout - albeit in updated format. Hopefully, that will mean a bit more power and (if we’re lucky) some additional vim from the front-drive chassis. Although, on the basis that there is also an EV version in the works, probably we should just count ourselves lucky that the combustion JCW is returning to showrooms at all. For the first time in a very long while, Mini has the go-faster supermini segment virtually to itself.
One thing for sure any car maker currently bringing a new ICE car into the world should be given some form of high recognition and award given the profound sense of regret at the demise of ICE that is often scribed by the automotive journalists across the many publications available not just here on PH. It's a sentiment echoed by many consumers as well when I attend the classic car meeting, car club & Sunday meeting events I go to. The low turn out or often absence of EVs attendending has not escaped my attention and it's interestingly only the main agent sponsored events that drop the EV,s in because they have to or it's either all they've got left to sell. At such events I've tried to make a point of trying to find a willing Ronny rep selling the EV dream who is prepared to give me their own honest opinions. This often involves choosing the "right moment' when they are outside of the earshot of other pre programmed EV commerades. This always requires some persistance and promised anonymity thrown for good measure. It should come as no surprise that many of them (not all though) have this same sense of regret that we are being herded down a automotive EV road lots of consumers simply don't want to go down.The thing that really pisses me off is that those with real influence and the ear of government are doing little to convey the publics feelings and their own. The likes of the head of Aston Martin with his recent two fingered salute is one such exception. I'm one of them many EV naysayers even my expression of wishes on my death ensures I will remain battery free because it states no EV hearse to be used. Back to the here an now though and this JCW is great news and likely the wife's ticket to her next car which will replace the current one she's already got.
Think a visit to Soper of Lincoln is on the cards and placing an order.
It is good that you can still buy one of these new I reckon, especially when you consider the current obsession with EVs.
In the flesh they are a lot better looking and come across as a fun little car, back to how a Mini should look. The only JCW was the EV obviously, but the standard S was a fun and funky place to be.
That said, she preferred the 128ti to any of the MINIs, and even to the M135i.
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