Road Test: Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works GP

Price as tested: €47,640

+ Handling, performance, styling, seats, noise, fun
– Hard ride, impractical
= Small car, massive fun



The back seats are missing. That’s the first thing you’ll notice when you climb aboard the (deep breath) Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works GP. It’s a limited edition Mini, with just 2,000 production examples for worldwide sale, and it’s been tweaked, tuned and body-kitted to within an inch of its tiny life.

But as I say, the first thing you’ll notice is that the back seats have been binned. That’s both a weight-saving device (the GP weighs in at an impressively dainty 1,100kg) and it improves the handling, thanks to the massive red strut brace stretched across the space where the seats aren’t. It makes the body stiffer, which in turn makes the supension work more precisely which in turn... you get the idea.

Under the bonnet which is under some fairly silly GP stickers and some fairly lovely (an unique to the model) Thunder Grey metallic paint, you’ll find the familiar 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine that has been powering the Mini Cooper S model since 2006. Clearly, for the GP it’s had some tweaks over and above the regular Cooper S and the previously range-topping Cooper S John Cooper Works model, with its 210bhp output. It gets an aluminium cylinder block and engine mounts, reinforced pistons and cylinder head, a low-weight crankshaft and even valves filled with sodium to improve their cooling efficiency. And all of that jiggery-pokery gives you... 218bhp. Hmmm. So not a massive improvement in power, then.

But it must be a torque-monster, with that uprated twin-scroll turbo, right? Well, no. 260Nm of torque (280Nm on short-lived overboost) is about what you get from a 1.6 diesel Cooper D.

This Mini is all adding up a bit oddly, isn’t it? The bodykit, and those gorgeous 17” alloys, seem to be writing profligate cheques that the engine simply can’t cash. And then you clock the time that this car set around the (FearsomeⓇ) Nurburgring race circuit in Germany. Now, normally, I regard Nurburgring times as just so much pointless genitalia-waving but the Mini GP’s time of 8.23 is seriously impressive, and with that relatively under-powered engine, means that the chassis must be doing something right.

Unique coil-over-inverted-shock front suspension is the first step, combined with reduced front toe-in, a 20mm drop in ride height and 330mm front brakes grabbed by six-piston calipers. Understand any of that? No, me neither, but it sounds impressive.

More impressive is the way it works on the road, and here again the Mini GP confounds expectations. With those deleted rear seats, the strut brace, the bodykit and the liquorice-strip tyres, you’ll be expecting a stripped-out, race-spec cabin. But no. Here there is climate control, an iPod connection, Bluetooth phone and a trip computer. Here too are lovely, leather-wrapped bucket seats that grip without squeeze and cosset without ache. This is... civilised. And that is surprisingly true of the whole car. Yes, it rides firmly and around town it bucks and skips over bumps in a highly irritating manner. But get it out onto the open road, and suddenly the ride settles down, and aside from an occasional tendency of those specially-designed 215/40 front tyres to tramline, it’s just so poised and well setup that it can take your breath away. The traction and stability control system can be set up to stop the car sliding out of control, but to do so without interrupting engine power, a bugbear of all keen drivers. The bodykit may look silly, but it cuts rear-end aerodynamic lift by a claimed 90%, so it keeps the GP planted to the road.

The steering is just about perfectly weighted, and feed back a constant chatter of road surface data to your fingers. That long-held Mini trait of seemingly endless front-end grip is magnified here, so that the nose flicks into tight, fast corners with a tenacity that borders on the terrier-like. But it never, ever feels nervous. Even on a proper, bumpy, wet, puddle-and-mud strewn Irish back road, the Mini GP feels secure, sure footed and above all, fun. While it might be setup for the race track (and the suspension is fully adjustable for that if you have the time, tools and inclination) it is actually a supremely talented road car, able to devour favourite stretches in a madcap dash of fizzing revs and limpet-grip. And it can then settle down, quiet down and be a surprisingly comfy and capable motorway cruiser, or at least a far better one than the GT3-styling would have you believe.

Downsides? Well, that lack of rear seats means that it’s either a two-seater with a massive boot or a seriously impractical van. The brakes which are so brilliant and reassuring on a fast run are irritatingly snatchy and sudden around town and it does cost €47,640. For a Mini. With no back seats.

For all that, I’d be amazed if the GP doesn’t sell out, and fast. For a select few, those with the right roads on their doorstep and a love for the Mini brand, it is a brilliant little thing – all pumped-up aggression with a bass-line of usability. Yes, it’s both silly and over-priced, but then so are most Hollywood film stars, and the world would be a poorer place without them, too. It’s not quite the best hot hatch around (Renault Megane RS, step forward) but it is just terrific fun, missing seats and all.


Facts & Figures
Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works GP
Price as tested: €47,640
Range price: €17,900 to €49,940
Capacity: 1,598cc
Power: 218bhp
Torque: 260Nm 
Top speed: 230kmh 
0-100kmh: 6.3sec
Economy: 7.1l-100km (39.7mpg)
CO2 emissions: 165g/km
VRT Band: D. €570 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star adult, 3-star child, 2-star pedestrian