MINI2 2003 June

John Cooper Works MINI Cooper S Review

This review has been a long time coming. It’s taken a while for us to be able to get our hands on the Works ‘S’, and when we finally did in April, the car supplied by MINI developed an air-bag warning light fault, which certainly put a dampener on the whole experience, and also meant we didn’t quite feel like hurtling around without knowing for sure we’d have full protection should things go a little pear shaped.

Well, it’s the start of June, and I’ve finally got my hands on another MINI Cooper S, tuned by John Cooper Works in East Preston. The first example I had in April was overall quite nicely specced, with a few mod-cons, CD, Chili Pack (but with the 16″ wheels for better handling). However, the latest machine that BMW have kindly let me loose in has virtually no kit at all. No CD. No Air-Con, no leather, no sunroof, no front fog lights. Not even map reading lights! This is about as bare-bones as you can get. But that’s no bad thing. Basic equals light. Light is good.

So, this is it, ‘The Works’. Top of the range, officially approved 200bhp MINI. And it’s not cheap either. This ‘almost bare bones’ Works Cooper S still has a retail price of over £18,000 (that doesn’t include the cost of actually fitting the kit that a customer would have to pay either). Now, whatever you might say, for a MINI with no ‘toys’, that’s not cheap. This is why, I believe, so many questions and doubts still linger over the value of the John Cooper Works package. £3,500 for 37 horsepower extra seems like a lot of money, even more so when you consider so many aftermarket tuners seem to be getting the same or even more power for as little as around one third of the cost. Often I get the feeling the only thing the JCW kit sells on is the fact your Cooper is still fully warranted, and that it doesn’t impact on service agreements such as TLC either.

That said, there’s more to it than that, and more than just ‘paying for a badge’ too. In fact, the badges are so discreet, they’re hardly worth the money anyway. Only a real ‘in the know’ MINI enthusiast would tell a works from the standard car at a glance. Front and rear badges (shown above) hardly shout ‘look at me’ and the elegantly engraved tailpipes while slightly larger, and sweeter sounding than the standard ‘double beer can’ affair, don’t exactly leap out at you either. But it seems that’s the point. As mad as it seems, John Cooper Works have tried to stick 200bhp in a small front wheel drivel hatch back, and make it somewhat graceful and refined piece of kit. When I think about it, it’s bonkers.

When I very first drove the John Cooper Works S, I have to admit, I wasn’t taken aback by it. In fact, I was down right disappointed. Take into account the fact that I already own a MINI Cooper S, and I drive it every day, and at the time I had also been driving around in an S which had a replacement cold air intake kit, and a loud aftermarket sports exhaust. I really wanted the Works to blow my socks off, and in the couple of days of ‘regular’ driving I had in it, and compared to my ’standard’ S, it just didn’t. I could feel a difference sure, mostly the fact that the car pulled better from low down, and actually felt smoother than the standard MINI Cooper S. But it just didn’t seem to be all that more playful. The exhaust note is not far from standard, and the supercharger whine, while louder and slightly deeper in tone than the usual, wasn’t as loud as a standard unit fitted with a cone type filter. So, I had a few runs, did some 0-60 tests, and then, for no apparent reason, the air-bag light came on. And that was pretty much game over. All in all, a little bit of a disappointing and short lived MINI adventure. I held off writing a report, because it was tarnished by the faulty car, and also I felt I hadn’t had proper chance to play. I’m glad I did.

That brings me here, to John Cooper Works MINI Cooper S Adventure, Part II. I’d already managed to do my 0-60mph runs in the previous car (6.73 seconds) and I’d already taken plenty of nice still shots of the John Cooper Works ‘bits’ on the ill fated Dark Silver MINI too. So I’d made my mind up that this time, I was going to have fun. In retrospect, this was a wise choice. When the car turned up, I was surprised at the sheer lack of creature comforts. I was also very unsure of the stripes and ’silver’ union jack combination on the Works S too. But the roof is quite new, and the stripes are supposed to add a certain sporty look to the car. Not sure how many photographic BHPs they’re worth, but they do add something to the look of the car.

This is probably one of the lightest MINIs I’ve driven in, like all the press Cooper S cars, it’s fitted with the standard MINI Cooper S x-lite 16″ wheels, clad with Dunlop runflat tyres. The options list extends to floor mats, DSC, Metallic Paint, Decals, and a Warning Triangle/First Aid Kit. And it has to be said, although I’d struggle to live without air-con on a daily basis (not to mention a CD player), this was a great spec for the sportiest MINI you can get from your local dealership. The lighter the car, the more the extra power will show through, the more the extra power shows through, the better the impression the reviewer (in this case me) will get. The better the impression they get, the more nice things they might say about the car. I’m sad to admit that it worked. I’m a sucker. MINI gave me a car that said “Go on, do your best…” I did, and it was a blast!

Put simply, this is the best MINI I have had the pleasure to drive so far, and not by any small margin either. It takes the standard MINI Cooper S, a fantastic car already, and gives it a nice healthy shot in the arm. The results are remarkable really. So much so, that I think John Cooper Works have actually achieved their ‘bonkers’ idea of giving you a 200bhp MINI and still offer you a refined and well mannered drive at the same time.

The thing that really grabs me about the John Cooper Works S is the fact that in every day situations it offers improved driving characteristics over the standard MINI Cooper S, while offering real punch and useable power when you want to have some big, foot to the floor, corner munching, hill eating, fun! In day to day driving I found the car more responsive on pick-up, be it when it’s been warmed, or when it’s starting from cold in the morning. The car is very smooth, all the way from idle to the rev limit. Any small flat spots have been ironed out, and the power just feels like it’s always there if you need it. I cant help feeling, even as a proud Cooper S owner myself, that this is the car that the Cooper S should have been. And maybe that’s the biggest failing of this car. It doesn’t feel ‘raw’ or ‘aftermarket’ in any way shape or form. If you’d not driven an S before, or even if you have, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is how they all should feel.

For all the praise you can give this car when used on the daily slog around town, it’s at play time when you’d really want a MINI with such racing pedigree and years of tuning history (not to mention years of development and refinement) behind it’s badges to really impress. The John Cooper Works S doesn’t disappoint here either. With the standard ASC+T (or in this case, the additional DSC) switched on, it can become a frustrating affair. While doubtless a very wise safety feature to include, either system can become intrusive, sometimes frustratingly so, especially when pulling away from a stand still. You might soon find the blinking orange warning light and accompanying engine braking a little annoying to say the least. I know I did, so it spent most of it’s time disabled.

With the traction control off, the car can easily smoke the tyres in first gear, and you can often get another good sized ‘chirp’ when snapping the gearbox into second. The power when you’re at full throttle is so much more jolting than in the standard S it’s just fantastic. This Cooper S feels so much more like the ‘classic’ hot hatch experience of such cars as the 1.9 Peugeot 205, or VW Golf (Rabbit) GTI. This really is my kind of car.

But, as the classic Pirelli advertising slogan says: “Power is nothing without control”. The good news here is that the MINI Cooper S chassis is more than up to handling the extra bhp and torque the Works kit gives the engine. The handling, especially on the 16″ wheels (even with the compromise runflat tyres) is exceptional, and very predictable. You can pull yourself in and out of bends at speeds that at first you would think you really shouldn’t (or couldn’t), and it’s great fun to get the car to sweep through a bend, tail out a little, then back on the throttle to pull you out and on with your adventure. Even with the extra power on tap and under foot, you’d have to do something very silly to get yourself completely out of shape with the superb handling characteristics of this setup.

The great thing is that while the car feels safe, it’s certainly far from a ‘numb’ and removed drive. The extra power just gives the car what it deserves, and brings out the best of the body that all MINI owners across the range already enjoy. The difference with the Works is that everything is just “more so” than in any other MINI you can get from your local friendly dealer. But that’s still the lingering doubt in my mind. Is it worth the money? Can eighteen grand for a ‘low spec’ Cooper S ever be justified (or well over £19,000 for the level of trim ‘most’ owners seem to go for). I don’t know. But, If I had the money burning a hole in my pocket I’d go and get my car converted tomorrow! The real test for me, however, will be how the kits from leading aftermarket suppliers will compare with this little beast of a car. And in the months to come I intend to find out. The Works S is the benchmark, a refined, beautiful, nasty, vivacious, audacious, tremendous little car. OK, so it took me some time to get there, but now, I love it.