Club TCM
30-06-2006, 06:55 PM
A new Mini is launched later this year, so to round off the current range BMW has built the ultimate track-day blaster. The Mini GP is easily the most focussed yet so we went to the Adria racetrack near Venice to test it.
Add-ons

The funky GP, or to give it its ridiculous full moniker, the 'Mini Cooper S featuring the John Cooper Works GP Kit', raises a few eyebrows and will not to be everyone’s taste. Carbon fibre rear wing, comprehensive body kit, the limited edition model number blazoned on the roof and the red door mirrors all shout 'look at me'. Still, that sort of approach hasn’t harmed sales of Imprezas and Mitsubishi Evos, and buyers have already been found for all 2000 of the GPs that will be built. It also comes only in one colour, grey, though BMW undoubtedly has a posher name for it, and needs to in a Mini that sets you back £22k.

Cosmetics aside (BMW claims that all these aerodynamic improvements really do make a difference) the technical specification is the impressive bit. Until the GP came along you could buy a regular Mini Cooper S with 170bhp or the John Cooper Works model with 210bhp. If you opted for the Works model you could also specify a chassis upgrade with lower, stiffer suspension, bigger brakes and a strut brace. This chassis upgrade is an aftermarket item fitted by your dealer, which means you pay for these bits all over again as your originals are then useless.

Now the GP throws all these into one delectable, package assembled not in Cowley but by Bertone in Italy. Power is increased to 218bhp with a new, faster supercharger and a revised exhaust. The Mini’s weight is down by 50kg too, by the simple expedient of throwing out the rear seats and fitting some rather nifty new cast aluminium alloy rear suspension arms. The GP also gets some rather sexy 18-inch alloys.

It all looks very track-day focussed but that’s far from the full story. Certainly it works well on the circuit. You’ll see from the pictures that there’s hardly any body roll in the bends. What you can’t see is the tremendous stability both under braking and through the corners. The GP turns in instantly and can be made to track accurately from clipping point to apex and out again.
Handling

The key here is 'made'. Like any powerful front-wheel-drive car on a circuit, you need to be neat and tidy or you’ll scrub away speed in the corners. BMW’s DSC system will cut engine power if the front starts to slide, or you can switch it off for more personal control. Either way, you’ll be quicker if you keep just within the wheel-spin boundary. This GP comes within a limited slip differential that helps put the power down, while the DSC lets you have a decent degree of fun before it starts mothering you.

Peter gets to grips with the Mini GP
But for the ultimate experience, the DSC button is switched off and your foot is planted hard to the floor. Whisk through the six-speed gearbox towards the first bend, stab the brakes as hard as you can while letting the ABS do its job, heel and toe down the gears and flick the thick leather wheel towards the apex. Or go into the bend as fast you dare and lift off the throttle quickly at the same time as turning in. The tail comes around and then you’re back on the throttle controlling a perfect four-wheel-drift.

Get it just right and the Mini GP executes another perfect, high-G manoeuvre. Get it wrong and you miss the apex entirely, exiting the bend in a flurry to wheelspin and tyre smoke. It’s always big, big, fun. Even 210bhp isn’t enough to make this Mini seem shattering quick down the straight, though. Race circuits have an ability to humble most road cars and this Mini is no exception. It comes as a pleasant surprise, then, that the GP is such an accomplished car on regular roads. Here it feels deliciously quick with even more rewarding steering.

The compact dimensions mean that you can set up a real rhythm along narrow twisting roads at speeds that wouldn’t be possible in a larger supercar. The really impressive feature, however, is that despite those huge alloys, ultra low-profile tyres and lowered suspension, the ride has sufficient compliance to deal with bumps without unsettling the car or its passengers. There is a great pair of Recaros, a Bose stereo and, in the UK, air conditioning too.
Verdict

So can a Mini with two seats really be worth £22,000? The 'Mini Cooper S featuring the John Cooper Works GP Kit' isn’t the raw performance car, the Mini version of a 911GT3, that some had hoped for. Instead it is a more comfortable, more useable compromise but a car that feels rather special for all that. The fact that the whole UK allocation of less than 500 quickly sold out perhaps says it all. If you haven’t got your order in already, too bad. If your name is already on the list, chances are you’ll be dead chuffed.
Add-ons

The funky GP, or to give it its ridiculous full moniker, the 'Mini Cooper S featuring the John Cooper Works GP Kit', raises a few eyebrows and will not to be everyone’s taste. Carbon fibre rear wing, comprehensive body kit, the limited edition model number blazoned on the roof and the red door mirrors all shout 'look at me'. Still, that sort of approach hasn’t harmed sales of Imprezas and Mitsubishi Evos, and buyers have already been found for all 2000 of the GPs that will be built. It also comes only in one colour, grey, though BMW undoubtedly has a posher name for it, and needs to in a Mini that sets you back £22k.

Cosmetics aside (BMW claims that all these aerodynamic improvements really do make a difference) the technical specification is the impressive bit. Until the GP came along you could buy a regular Mini Cooper S with 170bhp or the John Cooper Works model with 210bhp. If you opted for the Works model you could also specify a chassis upgrade with lower, stiffer suspension, bigger brakes and a strut brace. This chassis upgrade is an aftermarket item fitted by your dealer, which means you pay for these bits all over again as your originals are then useless.

Now the GP throws all these into one delectable, package assembled not in Cowley but by Bertone in Italy. Power is increased to 218bhp with a new, faster supercharger and a revised exhaust. The Mini’s weight is down by 50kg too, by the simple expedient of throwing out the rear seats and fitting some rather nifty new cast aluminium alloy rear suspension arms. The GP also gets some rather sexy 18-inch alloys.

It all looks very track-day focussed but that’s far from the full story. Certainly it works well on the circuit. You’ll see from the pictures that there’s hardly any body roll in the bends. What you can’t see is the tremendous stability both under braking and through the corners. The GP turns in instantly and can be made to track accurately from clipping point to apex and out again.
Handling

The key here is 'made'. Like any powerful front-wheel-drive car on a circuit, you need to be neat and tidy or you’ll scrub away speed in the corners. BMW’s DSC system will cut engine power if the front starts to slide, or you can switch it off for more personal control. Either way, you’ll be quicker if you keep just within the wheel-spin boundary. This GP comes within a limited slip differential that helps put the power down, while the DSC lets you have a decent degree of fun before it starts mothering you.

Peter gets to grips with the Mini GP
But for the ultimate experience, the DSC button is switched off and your foot is planted hard to the floor. Whisk through the six-speed gearbox towards the first bend, stab the brakes as hard as you can while letting the ABS do its job, heel and toe down the gears and flick the thick leather wheel towards the apex. Or go into the bend as fast you dare and lift off the throttle quickly at the same time as turning in. The tail comes around and then you’re back on the throttle controlling a perfect four-wheel-drift.

Get it just right and the Mini GP executes another perfect, high-G manoeuvre. Get it wrong and you miss the apex entirely, exiting the bend in a flurry to wheelspin and tyre smoke. It’s always big, big, fun. Even 210bhp isn’t enough to make this Mini seem shattering quick down the straight, though. Race circuits have an ability to humble most road cars and this Mini is no exception. It comes as a pleasant surprise, then, that the GP is such an accomplished car on regular roads. Here it feels deliciously quick with even more rewarding steering.

The compact dimensions mean that you can set up a real rhythm along narrow twisting roads at speeds that wouldn’t be possible in a larger supercar. The really impressive feature, however, is that despite those huge alloys, ultra low-profile tyres and lowered suspension, the ride has sufficient compliance to deal with bumps without unsettling the car or its passengers. There is a great pair of Recaros, a Bose stereo and, in the UK, air conditioning too.
Verdict

So can a Mini with two seats really be worth £22,000? The 'Mini Cooper S featuring the John Cooper Works GP Kit' isn’t the raw performance car, the Mini version of a 911GT3, that some had hoped for. Instead it is a more comfortable, more useable compromise but a car that feels rather special for all that. The fact that the whole UK allocation of less than 500 quickly sold out perhaps says it all. If you haven’t got your order in already, too bad. If your name is already on the list, chances are you’ll be dead chuffed.