Yesterday we saw a MINI Cooper S getting beat in a drag race by a Ford Fiesta ST. That didn’t sit right with some people in Oxford, knowing that one of their best-selling models can be handed such a beat down therefore actions were taken and today we get to celebrate the announcement of the brand new MINI John Cooper Works GP model. The new car will follow in the footsteps of the concept unveiled in 2017, a concept that looked so good, nobody thought it would ever end up in production.
Well, the automotive world is definitely changing and concepts are closer to reality than ever thanks to new technologies. The new MINI JCW GP model will become the most powerful car the British brand ever made with a 2-liter 4-cylinder engine under the hood, delivering 300 HP to the front wheels. Our earlier report turned out to be true, as this bad boy will have the same mill found on the BMW X2 M35i model, the most powerful 4-cylinder engine the Bavarian brand ever developed.
Unfortunately, the new car will only be made in a limited run of 3,000 units and if you want one you’ll have to wait till next year when it will officially start deliveries. Furthermore, all the pictures the MINI people were willing to share with us are used in this article so your guess as to how close to the concept it will look like is as good as ours. However, what’s most important is that now the JCW GP model is entering its final stages of development which means we’ll get to see it on the Nurburgring.
According to MINI, the suspension will be developed specifically for this model and will be adapted to the output of the new engine. The aerodynamics and braking will surely follow in the same footsteps and, who knows, maybe we’ll see the new car breaking some Ring records. “The fastest MINI in our brand history – which now goes back 60 years – is an expression of pure racing passion,” says Thomas Giuliani, Vice President Product and Launch Management. “We are well aware of the enormous fascination exercised by the MINI John Cooper Works GP, not just from the euphoric reactions to the concept vehicle but also from past experience: after all, every one of its predecessors was completely sold out even before the official market launch.”
