Monday 14th May 2012

Mini John Cooper Works GP returns

Hardcore limited-edition Mini makes a comeback - and this time it's the fastest Mini ever

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Mini has unveiled the second iteration of its hardcore John Cooper Works GP limited edition at the Mini United festival in Le Castellet, France.

No official performance figures - or even detailed technical specs - have yet been revealed for the car, but Mini has confidently declared it to be its fastest road car ever, having posted an 8min 23sec run in it during development at the Nordschleife.

That makes it almost 19 seconds quicker than the original Works GP, though still a little way off the official front-wheel drive production record, which was set by a Megane Renaultsport 265 Trophy last summer.

If its predecessor and that lap time are anything to go by, the new Works GP will receive a mild power massage (current betting is somewhere around 220hp to 230hp), while the loss of the rear seats and additional weight saving should cut a few tens of kilos from the kerbweight.

The new Works GP Mini also gets bespoke track-focused Kumho rubber (in conjunction, interestingly, with 17-inch wheels rather than showier 18s) and uprated brakes, as well as various aerodynamic addenda including a bespoke roof spoiler and rear diffuser.

The new Mini cooper JCW GP is limited to a build run of 2,000 cars and is due to go on sale later this year.

 

[Ex Boy Racer]

mmm.... very subtle

[Luke.]

All a bit OTT, but suspect, like the last one, it's looks will grow on me.

[Bill]

A limited edition of 2000? So pretty much as many as they could hope to sell

[smash]

Now that is truly fugly - not only did it hit all the branches on the way down but someone proceeded to chainsaw the ugly tree and it landed squarely on the JCW GP. I look forward to the Stevie Wonder ltd edition.

Still it goes round a track in Germany quite quickly so it must be good, eh? ...

[roystinho]

Looking forward, or maybe not, to seeing the price of this. Wonder if it'll be any better than the Clio 200 I've just sold? That will be the acid test

[DanDC5]

Dear MINI

Please make more things like this.

Thanks

[Twoshoe]

I think it would look a lot better without all the red bits.

[welshjohn]

Just another dull mini

[P4ROT]

As with the original car- I admire the car, just not the styling....

[ndj]

Preparing to laugh uncontrollably when the price is announced.......

[uncle tez]

A bit too max power for my liking.

[JAM35F]

Looks great, definately want one but price will scare me off.

[RemyMartin]

I would guess £30K for this, possibly more.

Never liked the original....don't like this. That said I'm glad cars like this are still being made so all in all its a good thing.

[housen]

2000 issue

not exactly super rare

[s m]

Kumho have certainly 'raised their profile' - preferred choice over Goodyear, Pirelli, Michelin, Conti etc....

[Nickellese]

It's a shame that they dropped the roof graphics with the Ltd ed number, that was my favourite part.

Having said that 4 figures probably isnt as cool.

[Dr Interceptor]

The issue of 2000 cars is exactly the same as the last GP back in 2006... so to be expected.

On a more technical note, the already superb 4-pot brakes have been upgraded to 6-pot items, and it gets a bespoke suspension package, different to all other production MINIs.

As with the last GP, MINI have focused more on aerodynamic improvements rather than huge power gains - well you have to leave something for the tuner boys to do.

[wackojacko]

Nice, I've been eyeing up the older GP works .....

[Froomee]

I quite like this but prefer the original gp.

Two things do come to mind though 1) price and 2) is taking the paint off of the wheel arches the new way to save weight

[s m]

Froomee said:

is taking the paint off of the wheel arches the new way to save weight

???

Were they painted before?