I love my Mini S , I drove the JCW and the GT model as well they are both nice, I would stick with std JCW car...me my base Mini S with 16's and a little ECU bump from Dinan are fine for day to day....

 

As an owner and tuner of both Porsches and the Mini Cooper S, I think the GP is worth the price. I bought one and have around 1000 miles on it. I agree that 18" wheels, aero package and fake brake cooling ducts, aren't too cool, but the engine and suspension tuning are very good. I'd prefer a stiffer suspension and 16 or 17 inch wheels. Stoptech and Brembo make better brake upgrades than the Cooper Works parts, but the Cooper Works stuff is well-tuned for street use. The Mini Cooper suspension has very little travel to begin with, and when lowered is bordering on stupid suspension travel. The JCW GP suspension is very good, especially on 17" wheels! It has, unique for the GP only, a pair of cast aluminum trailing arms to replace the cheesy stamped steel ones on all other Mini Coopers. It could still benefit from some increased stiffness in the rear springs and rear anti-roll bar. As for the in-cockpit, rear stiffening bar, it is real. It has a nicely made pair of anodized, fabricated steel chassis mounts with threaded backing plates that sandwich the unibody structure between the pieces clamping them together with 5 8mm Torx bolts per side. The aluminum bar then bolts between them. Much sturdier than needed to prevent groceries from tipping over! I hated to remove it, but I have a couple of Border Collies that need the space.
Considering the price of the GP, compared to a JCW with aero package, the price ends up quite close. If you'd rather have Stoptechs or Brembos and JIC Cross suspension (now available for the Mini) I'd still recommend the JCW kit and LSD with an otherwise stripped Cooper S. I'm sure the GPs will resell well.

PerfPow
www.perfectpowerinc.com

 

Alvin,
they have 2 in sac niello, ask for dave and hold off on paying over msrp, they will sell. one of them was for me but i decided not to at the last mninute.

 

They are really nice, if you want a stock car then go for it, but you can get more performance for the same price if you start out with a standard Cooper S.

 

Go with the GP. They are a limited production run and are setup pretty well, and they are warrantied.

 

the gti with a chip an dsg is hottttt!
i drove one and instantly fall in love.

 

Paint the lower valances according to your exterior colour and get the rear bumper from abt with the quad pipe mufflers and a Digi-Tec ecu upgrade with Abt cf airbox and voila looking at 25-30hp increase over the 200bhp.

 

The performance was better, yes. Especially in the higher range, but there weren't any turbo lag to speak of, more of a linear power curve. It felt like you were driving a more mature version of the old supercharged engine. It was faster,but also lacked that extra. What made the previous version's engine so fun, is now missing. Granted, it does have better acceleration on the highway, but it feels more like any other European hatch than it feels like a Mini on steroids. I test drove it, yet walked out feeling perfectly happy with driving home in my "old" Mini, yet longing for some extra power. But that's another problem now, isn't it?

 

i have a feeling that's exactly how i might react. may just keep mine and add the m62 supercharger, i love the wine of the supercharger.
sincerely
irishmini

 

it is addicting!

 

THANKS for all the inputs guys. after test driving the car I actually decided to purchase the new lancer Evo MR SE for a little bit more. Its the best for the buck car

 

The lancer MR is amazing. Saw a couple at the track a few months ago, man they were "flying". One lad had a new aftermarket suspension. The car was lowered - it looked awesome. You know the T.V. ad where the old man yells at the car to slowdown when it is actually stopped!
The MR lowered is away better example.

Congrats with your new stable addition.

sincerely
irishmini

 

thanks I agree Im really happy with it. I added a full suspension from works here in tha bay area. runs like in rails all for less than 3k.for its price and a liittle tuning it would give a lot of exotics or p cars a run for the money..

next upgarde is the works stage 4 close to 400 hp all for $4000 including labor .

 

same price as the gp but w/ steroids

w/ a little tune 316whp
full works suspension w/ kw variant3 coil overs
best bang for the buck.

 

Hmm...that's a little misleading.

EVO MSRP's are into the late $30's now and the car pictured looks to have about $8000+ invested. The GP MSRP was around $31150 or so.

Both great cars. Two very different personalities. Two very different concepts of automotive art.