MINI is a brand that I have always been a fan of, having had a classic Mini as a daily driver for years and the fact that modern MINI did a good job at recapturing that magic that made the original Mini so iconic. That said I haven't spent a lot of time behind the wheel of modern MINIs, in fact, that last new MINI I drove would have been in the early 2000s.
So when the opportunity came up to drive the new MINI John Cooper Works GP, I was excited. MINI is a brand that still hangs its hat on the glory days of the 1960s when Mini Coopers were known as "Giant Killers" after impressive wins at the Rallye Monte Carlo and bringing home Touring Car championships from around the world. My original Mini was a smile-inducing joy to drive, with its souped-up 1275cc and 4 speed, I had high hopes that the new GP would recreate some of those feelings.
The GP isn't new for 2021, the last two generations of MINI have offered a GP Trim level, but this one by far seems to be the rawest performance-focused version to date. This is a very special car and nothing has been left untouched from the standard MINI. The first thing you notice is the massive aero package, front and rear bumpers, fender flares, and a large rear wing all reshape the profile of the little hatchback. Moving inside weight savings are the obvious priority as the back seat has been replaced with a brace, overhead grab handles have also been deleted, manual seats, and a warning sticker that this car must be hand washed thanks to all of the carbon-fiber that they have used.
To keep the car rubber side down, a revised suspension, massive brakes, and specially developed Hankook tires are stuffed under the carbon-fiber fender flares. But it isn't all looks and weight savings, the GP gets an additional 73 horsepower, bringing it up just over 300hp. Drop it in GP mode and the car really comes to life on the back roads, but if you really want to experience driving this MINI you have to turn off all the driver's aids and pretend you are
Paddy Hopkirk. The torque steer is there but mitigated slightly by the locking differential, but it still feels like most fast front-wheel-drive cars, which isn't a bad thing.
Power is more than adequate but it lacks that rev-happy powerplant that you would expect in a hot hatch. The chassis and suspension could easily handle a lot more, but even on the ragged edge of the tachometer, the car feels like it is asking for more. The flappy paddles are very fun but again the settings are less aggressive than expected, sometimes when calling for a downshift the computer ignores you, losing momentum. On a track, this would be a major issue, on a street car it is just a minor annoyance. Because of the limited production, just 3000 globally, the team at MINI couldn't produce the new GP with a manual transmission, which is understandable, but a manual in this chassis would make so much more sense. That said in automatic mode the transmission makes sense for running around town and is smooth and still fun to drive.
The GP does have a very special feeling, when you get in a GP it feels like you have just sat down in a McLaren or a GT3, it has that same purpose-built, and like the Minis of the 60s, I bet the GP will give any of your supercar friends a run for their money on the backroads. For $45,750 it is more fun to drive than many much more expensive sports cars but is more expensive than the
Veloster N or Golf R, but having driven both of those, the GP feels much more special. I doubt that most MINI GP buyers are looking at other options, you buy a MINI GP because you are a MINI fan and you want the ultimate MINI, which after a week behind the wheel, I think they delivered on.
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