Mini Cooper S Works 210: PH Fleet
Is there really any of the 'original' new Mini in the current Cooper S?
With collection day for our Melting Silver Mini looming - who comes up with these colour names? - time has really been of the essence to do as much with our Works 210 as possible. Because, as you might have been able to tell, I'm really rather keen on it.
What I've always been less enthusiastic about, though, and as has been picked up on in the comments, is just how much this car costs. It's always been a peripheral concern, but has been brought into starker focus this month by driving cars like the new Fiesta ST and the Hyundai i30 N; both very different, yet both proving very complete and entertaining packages for the same money as the Mini (or quite a bit less). You could have a Fiesta ST-2 or an i30 N without a single option added and be very content. I understand that Minis are about personalisation, really I do, but it can come across as a little baffling sometimes, not to mention drawing attention away from a thoroughly decent base product.
From 'our' car I think a good chunk of money could be saved by ditching the £2,710 tech pack - I will admit that the head-up display is superb, but the parking sensors and stereo upgrade could be done without. Just. From what I can see the JCW Chili Pack brings fairly limited benefits too, with climate control and auto headlights seemingly the main advantages. For £2k. Take the best part of £5k from it and the case if far more convincing to make for the Mini. Easier said than done when it comes to speccing your own car and wanting lot of nice stuff in it, but I think it's worth noting that not all Mini hatches have to be £28k. With the money saved you could get a limited-slip diff from the Challenge put in, for example...
Also driven this month were the latest Mini update - which feels more mature than this car again - and the one you're actually reading this story for - the GP1. Borrowed from BMW's delightfully diverse heritage fleet and showing just 15,000 miles, we asked for it on the loose premise of comparing it with the long-termer. Really, though, I'd been dying for a go ever since Ben had his turbocharged GP2 and raved about it; both iterations enjoy reputations as proper little hot hatch screamers, and as something of a Mini convert now the anticipation had only built further.
It didn't disappoint. Now I get it. Now I see why people whinge about Minis becoming too grown up and too soft - no doubt those with old Minis say just the same about BMW ones - because the GP is hilarious. The supercharger shrieks, the tyres squeal, the whole thing fizzes and buzzes with energy. Everything that feels good dynamically about the Works 210 is taken up a notch in the 12 year-old car - turn in is sharper, the agility greater, the tomfoolery easier to access. It just demands being driven quicker and quicker, darting into bends and tearing down straights gleefully. It's an absolute joy.
Oh sure, it's also firmer, louder and less well appointed than the current car, but not to an unreasonable degree. It's what makes so many of these mid-2000s performance cars so enticing a decade later: sufficient amenities to make them useable everyday, combined with the sort of interesting engines and engaging dynamics that seem to elude many contemporary offerings. So yes, while it was nice to get back into the newer car's heated seat and listen to its digital radio, it had been made to feel a little tame by the GP. Even with the exhaust on.
I'm not sure anybody has ever proclaimed the 2000s as some sort of halcyon highpoint for fast cars, but time in the GP has me more sure of it than ever. It would seem the market holds the GP in equally high esteem too, with the most affordable cars on PH still £12,000; indeed the very best ones are £15k, placing them on a par with the later turbocharged GPs. I couldn't part with E46 M3 money for a Mini, however much fun it is, though experience of the GP certainly makes those sub-£3k supercharged Minis more tempting than ever.
That said, the new new Mini will still be a tough one to bid farewell to. More on that, and what will be replacing it, next month.
FACT SHEET
Car: 2017 Mini Cooper S Works 210
On fleet since: January 2018
Run by: Matt
Mileage: 5,724
List price new: £19,994.40 (As tested £28,344.40 comprising £475 for Melting Silver metallic paint, £300 for Mini active from 12/06/17 to 11/06/20, £1,695 for Works enhanced kit, £75 for John Cooper Works sport leather steering wheel, £375 for variable damper control, £80 for black bonnet stripes, £120 for Anthracite roof lining, £220 for sun protection glass, £215 for front seat heating, £2,710 for Mini hatch tech pack, £2,000 for Chili pack for JCW sports pack and £85 for LED headlights with extended contents)
Last month at a glance: Why a GP1 could be the one for Mini fans
Previous updates:
Is this the Mini Mk3 we've been waiting for?
Mini making its mark on many!
Puncture proves more problematic than predicted...
To wonderful Wales in the mighty Mini
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Photos: Dafydd Wood
So now I have a 7 series for work so the M3 feels like an M3 again!
If you just want something small, nimble and quick, grab a R53 Cooper S whilst you can, I made money on mine and I'm sure they'll keep moving up.
Quite practical with the larger open rear space too, and contrary to the article they do have heated seats. I’ve often considered swapping the standard Recaros out for a set of Pole Positions though, especially as there’s no requirement for passenger access to the back
On the downside they do like a drink, the RFTs really need to be binned (I have PSS on mine), and the lack of Xenons leaves quite poor illumination at night. Plus there are no speakers in the back, so you’re stuck listening to the supercharger shrieking like mad instead. Which is all part of the appeal for me!
I’ve got a standard R56 MCS. I’d have loved a GP1 but not possible as I need and actually use the rear seats. Haven’t driven earlier MINIs so can’t compare, but I initially found mine brilliant but not thrilling enough: almost too refined/quiet for a hot hatch. Added a JCW exhaust which brought more thrills and binned the RFTs for normal tyres on smaller 16” alloys. It’s now closer to the thrills I’d expect. And that’s all without plundering the options list and hiking up the price: mine has the Chili pack (climate, 17s, bi-xenons, half-leather) and heated seat options but I think that’s it.
Yeah GP1 is a hoot, I love them.
Surely, the closest new mini that you can buy with the same spirit has to be the F56 JCW Challenge Edition, if you can find one that is.
https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...
You don't really need half the stuff that makes them so expensive but people do seem to go mad with the ticklist
Had an late upgrade R53 Cooper S from new and ticked few options, not even Chilli pack which the salesman advised heavily to have
Kept it on the standard 16s ( avoided much of the bone jarring ride complaints from the heavy 17s plus run flats) and had normal tyres once the 195 run flats went west, specced a LSD for £120 and sunroof and aircon
Pretty much it - sales guy said it was the cheapest 'S' he'd ever sold. Can't say I missed the things I didn't spec
Was a great little car and no problems selling it after 9 years.
Roll forward 17 years and I am sorry but BMW Mini has blown it for me. Too many fat Countryman and Clubman editions, the very long 5 door edition and the proportions on the current Cooper/S seem wrong.
Getting really tempted to buy an early R53 Cooper S. Surely they cannot get any cheaper.
You don't really need half the stuff that makes them so expensive but people do seem to go mad with the ticklist
The packs these days arent the good value they were either - as highlighted in that article. Its cheaper to just cherry pick the bits you want individually and spend a few hundred rather than "save" money on options you dont want or need by paying for a £2,000 pack.
Another laughable one is the price of SatNav. The full on Media XL pack is something like £2,000. Crazy.
From behind the wheel the best thing about it is that it's still very obviously a MINI, you can't mistake it for anything else once you're on the move. The engine has good mid-range but misses out on the shriek at the top end that I loved about my R53. Compared to many modern cars the latest MINI still has a ton of character, but most chose to compare it to the R53 which is unfair on the F56 I feel.
I do miss my R53 (as much as I am really enjoying my GT86), but I will have to get another one at some point. Great cars.
I couldn't afford a GP1 though so I have a modded Cooper S which has cost me a lot less for a similar result (250bhp, GP brakes, factory LSD etc). Of course it won't be worth anything like a GP when I come to sell it.
It makes a nice partner to my MX5.
Untitled by Nicholas Horne, on FlickrHolding up PH's Ben Lowden round Silverstone at one of the 2017 Sunday Services.
It lasted a year in my hands as I was in my 30's and when driving it as a daily it always felt a little too frantic and I succumbed to a 3series as I had one as a courtesy car and felt that it was much more grown up and suited me better - how wrong I was...
Fast forward 14 years through a succession of BMW 318, Seat Leon CupraR, 2x Beetles, 2x Ford Kuga, Mini Countryman, AudiA3, Audi S3, BMW 320d and I find myself back in an F56 MINI JCW. Picked it up last week and it has virtually every option that the writer says not to have in the article but has the one thing that you must have with an F56 - the JCW PRO Exhaust.
This thing is the best option I have ever had on a car and knocks at lest 40 years off my age at the pass of a button. My neighbours hate it, my partner doesn't understand it but my 18year old son is as crazy about it as me.
I love the car and more importantly the button as it makes me smile each time I drive it and yes, it is nowhere near as fast as the S3 but it involves you as a driver so much more and is much better to drive (in my opinion as I hated the S3 and got shot of it after 3 months). It has taken me many cars and much money in depreciation but I have found something that is a truly special car that I happier with than anything else I have had for a long time.
And because they're "options" you rarely get any return on the cost of them come resale time.
If they did it like Ford with the ST, ST-2 and ST-3 then at least theres a differential in used values, also makes search for a particular spec easier to search for and easier to compare with other cars.
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