Mini John Cooper Works GP Boasts Impressive Nrburgring Time Despite Being Not Yet Fully Baked

In conjunction with the 24 Hours of Nürburgring this past weekend, Mini presented a lightly-disguised John Cooper Works GP well before its scheduled on-sale date in 2020. With more than 300 horsepower on tap, the new JCW GP is almost half a minute faster than its predecessor around the Nordschleife.

While development tuning is still in process, the JCW GP lapped the “Green Hell” in less than 8 minutes. While that is impressive for any front-wheel-drive hot hatch, it will inevitably be compared to the 7:43.80 that was set by the Civic Type R. Whether it reaches that figure or not, it shares outlandish design style and boy-racer looks with the Type R.

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  • Daniel J Our CX-5 has hit its automatic brakes a few times at in very unnecessary situations. My 2018 doesn't have it, but it will shake and throw a warning if it thinks you should brake. Only once was it needed. The dozen or so times it has gone off I was already on the brakes or traffic was in a pattern that just fooled it.
  • Kosmo This would become interesting with a turbo and 6MT.
  • CanadaCraig 'Afraid' is the wrong word. The question should be, "Do you trust autonomous cars to get you from point A to point B and all points in between safely?" And my answer to that question is 'NO'.
  • Daniel J For us it's just woefully underpowered. Put the 2.5T in it then I might consider it.
  • Bd2 Such practices are deeply frowned upon by Kia and Hyundai dealerships where consumers sport increasing credit scores and household incomes to boot.