Monday 9th March 2009

MINI John Cooper Works Reader Test

Track fun in the ultimate MINI, does it live up to the hype of its history...?

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For the last 12 months PistonHeads has been running a MINI Cooper S fitted with the JCW tuning kit, and there wasn’t a day that we didn’t enjoy driving it. When the car first arrived, we weren’t too sure what to expect but there wasn’t any need to worry as the MINI impressed on track days as much as it did on our favourite B roads.

In many ways the design of the MINI remains faithful to that of the original, with a wheel in each corner providing the grin-inducing handling that the car has become famous for.

Back in July ’08 PistonHeads reviewed the MINI John Cooper Works at its UK launch, and we came away impressed. This new variant was to be the fastest MINI yet and offered some impressive figures: 211bhp from its 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, 260Nm peak torque equating to 148mph and a 0-62mph time of 6.5 seconds.

Every report we run on a MINI usually ends up with a lot of comments as debate rages over every aspect of the car. It is clear that this is a car that knows how to divide opinion.

We happened to mention these debates to the team at MINI UK, and asked if they would like to offer a new John Cooper Works to a reader so they could write their own road test for the homepage. MINI went one better and offered us ten cars and suggested that we hire Brands Hatch to give them a proper test.

This video shows what happens when 10 PHers were given Brands Hatch for a day with the intentions of delivering their verdict on the car. After watching it, head to the reviews section to see what they thought.

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If after watching the video of the day at Brands Hatch you find yourself hankering after some MINI track action, you might like to get yourself down to Silverstone from May 22-24 for MINI United. Fans of new and classic MINI will be congregating in their thousands to celebrate MINI's 50th birthday, for more details see www.miniunited.com

To read the PH'ers views visit the MINI JCW Microsite

[RacingPete]

Yee-ha!

[Shabs]

I am guessing that these are A LOT better than the previous JWC as I wouldn't have described that as "F*@king Awesome" or a "Performance Car"

[Silent1]

I wonder how one would go against the R53 Cooper S

[BBS-LM]

Is there going to be a similar test for the Ford RS.

[Garlick]

He never did buy me that cup of tea

[robert_raw]

We have a cooper S as a pool car in work, it is a very cool car to drive. Not sure if it is as fast or quite as good handling as my Integra Type R, but a very capable fun car.

[Andrew_M]

Nice day out

[logoman]

was that an advert? edited like one anyway.

[Garlick]

logoman said:

was that an advert? edited like one anyway.

The video was certainly edited to have pace and be enjoyable to watch rathar than offer the verdicts, these can be read here http://www.pistonheads.com/subsite/minijcw/tests.a...

[PurpleTT]

Thanks for a great day Garlick and PH - even if my verdict on the JCW was a bit luke-warm.

As colleagues at work have asked me, I thougt just in case anyone on here has any doubts I should stress for the record the Mini UK team were totally hands-off and did nothing to influence us on the day. We were very much left to jump in and out of different (colour & spec) cars and draw our own conclusions. I was expecting a bit of a hard sell to be honest with incentives, discounts, compliments on our driving etc etc but nothing at all. Regrettably

Oh hang on, we did get a nice key ring and stickers. But that was all.

Andy

[911stu]

I was blown away by the acting .... Garlic and Ollie are naturals , i am sure ther is a part for them in the re-make of Prisoner Cell Block H.

Edited by 911stu on Monday 9th March 16:39

[S3_Graham]

aparently i didnt get picked for this then sounds like a right hoot!

[Garlick]

911stu said:

Sorry i didnt realy notice a test . I was blown away by the acting .... Garlic and Ollie are naturals , i am sure ther is a part for them in the re-make of Prisoner Cell Block H.

We are available for opening supermarkets, after dinner speaking or perhaps we should just stick to hiding behind keyboards

[sleep envy]

Garlick said:

911stu said:

Sorry i didnt realy notice a test . I was blown away by the acting .... Garlic and Ollie are naturals , i am sure ther is a part for them in the re-make of Prisoner Cell Block H.

We are available for opening supermarkets, after dinner speaking or perhaps we should just stick to hiding behind keyboards

I've got an envelope that needs opening

how much?

Edited by sleep envy on Monday 9th March 16:41

[Antj]

Wow.


Really good to have a couple of Mini owners in your test line-up.

Did i count 1 current owner of a cooper D.

Why is it on the Twingo PH day you had all renault owners, then on the Mini day virtually no mini owners.

[JCW]

Silent1 said:

I wonder how one would go against the R53 Cooper S

Its a much stronger proposition.

[Garlick]

Antj said:

Why is it on the Twingo PH day you had all renault owners, then on the Mini day virtually no mini owners.

We felt that with the Renault day, we had too many testers who were already fans of the marque, this time we wanted a mix of those who liked MINI, those who didn't and those who were somewhere in the middle. It gives a more balanced review.

[Silent1]

JCW said:

Silent1 said:

I wonder how one would go against the R53 Cooper S

Its a much stronger proposition.

But a bit heavier too.


I'd quite like to play with a JCW in my MINI, as after an incident with an E46 M3, i think it might be quicker than i thought, but i'm not too sure yet.

[Antj]

Garlick said:

Antj said:

Why is it on the Twingo PH day you had all renault owners, then on the Mini day virtually no mini owners.

We felt that with the Renault day, we had too many testers who were already fans of the marque, this time we wanted a mix of those who liked MINI, those who didn't and those who were somewhere in the middle. It gives a more balanced review.

10% mini owners, not that balanced.

Just for info, we rolling roaded 2 completly bog standard JCW's last week. both achieved 230 bhp.

[Bob Fossil]

Is it true what they say about a lot of them running higher than published outputs? I've just picked up an 09' Cooper S with the Works kit fitted, and it feels very quick indeed.

My previous car was a Prodrive'd Impreza, so I know what quick feels like...