Island Life Magazine Ltd February / March 2016 | Page 53

MOTORING

“With a 2-litre
four-cylinder
engine, the
JCW feels fast in
any gear”

Snows MINI
Forest Road, Newport. Tel: [phone]
www.snowsgroup.co.uk/mini

Depending on which driving mode you’re in, the
surround can light up in a variety of ways – when the car
is set to sport mode, for example, it illustrates revs.
The screen itself displays the sat-nav and infotainment,
and if the car has the optional parking assistant, it will
also display the reverse camera image.
So what else has changed? Driving the JCW you will
notice straight away that there have been significant
changes made to its suspension set-up. The strut front
axle and multi-link rear axle, meanwhile, have been
overhauled for improved agility and control, with
bespoke kinematics and retuned spring and damper
rates. The anti-roll bars are hollow to save weight, and all
JCWs have electronically adjustable dampers as standard.
The manual gearbox, meanwhile, adds the missing layer
of interaction that blights the automatic-equipped JCW.
Shifting up through the gears and working your way back
down the ‘box under braking is such an innate part of the
small hot hatch experience – a manual shift makes the
quickest MINI a much more enjoyable, engaging car. The
shift quality is good, too, with a tightly defined gate.
The JCW has a 2.0 litre turbo unit squeezed under its
bonnet, which produces 228bhp and 236b ft of torque,
making it the fastest MINI yet. Yes, it is closely related
to the MINI Cooper S, however there are significant
internal changes to bring that extra power. New pistons,
cooling and a more powerful turbo help to deliver that
awesome power.
The JCW comes with an option of automatic or manual
shift: I say, go for the manual, which is much more fun.
The six-speed torque converter gearbox is taken from the
MINI stable, although the software for this gearbox has
been tweaked. With this box you do get the shift paddles
which can be fun, but if you’re a real driver, you’ll want to
opt for the manual option all day long.
A 0-62mph time of 6.1 sec for automatic cars and 6.3
sec in the manual puts the JCW firmly in line with the rest
of the hot-hatch competition. A top speed of 153mph is
impressive too.
In reality, the new JCW never feels anything other than
rapid. Its small size combines with an eager chassis and a
much-improved sports exhaust system to ensure this hot
hatch almost always feels exciting.
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