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It probably doesn’t send the right message when your all-electric open-wheel racing series safety car has an exhaust pipe, does it? So now that the BMW i8 Formula E safety car has reached the end of its life and BMW has announced that it will end its participation in said series, it is time for a brave young city car to get down to business. and deliver. without any tailpipe emissions. Here is the new all electric Mini Pacesetter Insipred By JCW Safety Car.
From the third round of the 2020/21 season, the Pacesetter will set the tone. He will make his debut on April 10 at the Rome E-Prix with the official driver of the Formula E safety car Bruno Correia at the wheel. Formula E tends to be quite a busy sport in contact, so the Mini Pacesetter is likely to record a decent number of miles this season.
“We have already shown how driving pleasure and electric mobility go hand in hand with the electric MINI,” says Bernd Körber, Managing Director of MINI. “However, the JCW-inspired MINI Electric Pacesetter goes at least one step further and combines the performance character of the John Cooper Works brand with electric mobility. This extreme version of the electric MINI was developed as a safety car for Formula E, so it is clearly not intended for use on public roads. But it does reveal one of the directions we could take with the electrification of the JCW brand. For me, the message is clear: electrification and John Cooper Works are a good solution. “
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The body kit of this machine is not quite the same as the hard edged out of this world Mini Cooper JCW GP. It incorporates a set of fairly aggressive wide rockets and side skirts, along with a more aggressive front and rear fascia, as well as the giant GP wing attached to the rear, packed with all the necessary safety lights. Without the livery and the lights, this could easily be a production-ready electric hot hatchback. I really hope this is the case. I really like what this thing looks like.
The wheels are my favorite part. This is the standard JCW GP split-four-spoke design, but with color accents that really make them stand out. With black and orange centers everywhere else, they appear to be a whole different wheel. This is a very cool design element to make the Mini Pacesetter stand out on the track. We all know I love the bright color accents.
The interior of the car has been stripped down to the minimum necessary, for obvious reasons. With only two front seats remaining, lightweight racing seats and harness, and custom welded roll bar, this thing is ready for the track. Everything from the center gauges to the steering wheel has been taken out and redone in carbon fiber to simplify and add, well, you know. Even the door panels have been stripped down as much as possible, with fabric straps to help close the door rather than a handle. Then the whole interior was painted in Racing White.
Mini says it managed to reduce the weight of the Pacesetter to just 1,230 kilograms, about 130 kilograms lighter than the Mini Cooper SE street electric hatch. The powertrain remains the same, but with 181 horses and 206 Pound-feet on tap for zippy performance around town. After lightening up the car, Mini claims a 0-60 time of 6.7 seconds, but Car & Driver recorded a 6.1 second run from Cooper Street SE, so it’s likely that the Pacesetter could drop a few clicks of the stopwatch even from that time on.
Suspension work is paid for by Proper, three-way adjustable stroke coilovers, plus stroke control arms, a 10mm wider track and four-piston cribbed brakes from the JCW GP. Tires are chosen from Michelin Pilot Sport bin in size 245/40 R18, which means their construction is identical to that of the Formula E racing front tire.
Mini, I beg you, sell this car to the world right now. Exactly like that.
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