Big fender and no rear seats: the 2021 Mini John Cooper Works GP

To some people, John Cooper is best known for the racing cars bearing his name that showed F1 and Indianapolis that the engine had to go behind the driver. He taught this lesson in 1960, and 61 years later it still holds true. But others will associate his name with the small front-wheel drive Minis, which he tuned in addition to building successful single-seaters.

The Mini Cooper was a low-budget performance car, a good 16 years before VW imagined the Golf GTI, beloved by rally drivers and celluloid bank robbers. These days, there’s a whole John Cooper Works lineup at Mini, with hot versions of the various vehicles that now make up the Mini lineup. And it’s the hottest of all, the 2021 Mini John Cooper Works GP at $ 44,900.

Limited to just 3000 cars, the JCW GP is the most extreme Mini you can buy that isn’t a Dakar off-road race. Its track has been widened, pulling the wheels away from each other, hence the bare carbon fiber reinforced plastic fender arch extensions with vents you could lose a finger inside.

Aerodynamics have obviously been a design concern – evidenced by the larger spoiler on the front lip and that massive dual-element case at the rear. And up front there are additional scoops and ducts to get more cool, cool air to the big front brakes and a 2.0L turbocharged engine that’s much more powerful than anything else in the lineup. Mini, with 301 hp (225 kW) and 331 lb-ft (450 Nm)) on call to your right foot.

All of this is sent to the front wheels, and only via an eight-speed automatic gearbox – there’s no option for a manual transmission here. You get a mechanical limited-slip differential, however – we’ll talk about that later.

Since we are discussing things that Mini has left outside of GP JPW, don’t make plans that involve more than one passenger. Instead of a rear seat, there is a bright red chassis brace, making it a strictly two-seater car. Ditching the rear seats to save weight is a proven technique on track-oriented sports cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 or the current Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, as well as those crazy mid-engined hatchbacks that Renault is running out of time. in time.

The Mini diet was so successful that the JCW GP has a curb weight of just 2,855 lbs (1295 kg), which is considered featherweight in our time dominated by the NCAP safety rating. Obviously, being wider and lighter means a unique suspension setup, and the JCW GP is both lower than a normal Mini and stiffer – much, much stiffer. Some brands of performance cars, like Lotus, make their cars run by making them flexible so that they flow on the road. Mini took the opposite approach, with stiffer bushings and even gaskets without rubber here and there.

The result is certainly intriguing. It’s still a Mini, so it fits in tiny spaces, it’s easy to park, and without a back seat it’s pretty easy to haul cargo. It’s even relatively economical for such a crazy car, getting 30mpg (7.8l / 100km) on the highway and 24mpg (9.8l / 100km) in town, even if you push it. But the driving experience shares a lot with that of a supercar – really. Because it’s so steep and so low, bumps and potholes are your enemy. But since it’s also so light, instead of hitting a bump, you might bounce it off instead. Either way, your spine is a bit jarring.

There are ample reserves of front grip, thanks to some Hankook summer tires which still did their job admirably in an ambient temperature of 11 ° C (52 ° F). In fact, the grip between the sticky rubber and the limited slip differential was such that I never came close to the car’s traction limit on the road. I’m not sure I saw DSC engage once, and it would have to go really fast to provoke it to the point of ending up in a ditch. The brakes were more than capable of slowing everything down.

It seems faster than a 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km / h) time of 5.2 seconds would suggest it, although to get the most out of the engine you’ll want the S-drive, or just control it. yourself with the metal 3D printed paddleshifters. Be warned, however; there’s a fair amount of steering torque in the lower gears, as 300bhp is still a lot to ask for from the front wheels, even with traction control and 21st century tire technology.

But no matter how fast you can make a turn, it’s not exciting enough. This could be due to the feel of steering, or the lack of it: you turn and the car drives off, there is grip, but the steering doesn’t really communicate much.

I can’t help but wonder if a three pedal option could have increased the driver engagement factor. That, or a session on the track. As you might expect, Mini set the JCW GP at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany, and the boundaries of a racing track provide the freedom and security to explore a car’s performance in a way that would irresponsible on the road. I suspect I could write a more glowing report with the JCW GP and have had some track time; cars like this can sometimes come to life in nine or ten tenths.

But I didn’t, and for just driving down the street, this one seems overkill.

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