JCW will it be fun???
Discussion
Sold my M4 last Xmas as spent all the time at the airport whilst I was working away.
Went into mini dealer to look at getting a clubman for the wife and me taking her X3 for my new daily commute. Spotted a 3 door JCW in the nice grey with all the kit on it. Reminded me of my Clio 182 I had years ago.
I know it won’t be M4 performance but I’m guessing they are pretty fun to drive??
They are certainly cheap enough and means I run it for 18months whilst M5 comes.
Anything I should know about mini?? Not familiar with the brand. Is it BMW build quality??
Cheers
Went into mini dealer to look at getting a clubman for the wife and me taking her X3 for my new daily commute. Spotted a 3 door JCW in the nice grey with all the kit on it. Reminded me of my Clio 182 I had years ago.
I know it won’t be M4 performance but I’m guessing they are pretty fun to drive??
They are certainly cheap enough and means I run it for 18months whilst M5 comes.
Anything I should know about mini?? Not familiar with the brand. Is it BMW build quality??
Cheers
I've got a Mini Cooper S and I've had much faster cars previously, the Mini still raises a smile for me. They're great fun to drive on a nice back road. What's also nice is that you can use all of the performance for most of the time.
Don't get me wrong I still love fast cars but I did get frustrated occasionally when I couldn't use their performance. Build quality on the MINI is pretty good and you can get plenty of kit with them if you want it.
Don't get me wrong I still love fast cars but I did get frustrated occasionally when I couldn't use their performance. Build quality on the MINI is pretty good and you can get plenty of kit with them if you want it.
The wife's Cooper SD is enjoyable enough, if she wasn't doing so many miles then we'd probably go for a JCW as I'm sure that's a good step up on the fun factor scale.
Build quality seems pretty good so far, but obviously the downside is parts tend to come at a premium. For example, we had to replace a headlight unit last year and some quotes were £400+. Thank fully not LED as they're in the region of £700 each
Only other complaint is we've had 2 replacement windscreens since we picked it up last year, both from stone chips. Being a fairly low car and the steep angle of the windscreen I don't know if they are more susceptible, or if it's just bad luck on our part?
One final point to add - not sure what the JCW comes with as standard, so just make sure it has the upgraded audio. Ours has standard and it's a little lacking.
Other than that - go for it and enjoy!
Build quality seems pretty good so far, but obviously the downside is parts tend to come at a premium. For example, we had to replace a headlight unit last year and some quotes were £400+. Thank fully not LED as they're in the region of £700 each
Only other complaint is we've had 2 replacement windscreens since we picked it up last year, both from stone chips. Being a fairly low car and the steep angle of the windscreen I don't know if they are more susceptible, or if it's just bad luck on our part?
One final point to add - not sure what the JCW comes with as standard, so just make sure it has the upgraded audio. Ours has standard and it's a little lacking.
Other than that - go for it and enjoy!
I’ve got a 135i equipped with Quaife etc. Wife has a MCS. Her car is great back roads and I had a loan JCW when her car was in for a service at Partridge.
The JCW they lent me was a riot and I look at M cars, but I rec we’ll replace her MCS with a JCW or I might even replace my 135i & C30 Volvo with one.
Getting option packs right is biggest frustration.
Panoramic roof on our MCS is brilliant
The JCW they lent me was a riot and I look at M cars, but I rec we’ll replace her MCS with a JCW or I might even replace my 135i & C30 Volvo with one.
Getting option packs right is biggest frustration.
Panoramic roof on our MCS is brilliant
mikeyscott said:
Can you get JCW on 17” as would put set of PS4/PSS on?
Yes 17"s fit, however many of the F56 (post 2015) JCW owners put 215/40/18 Michelin PS4 on, and say this transforms the car.Normally come with 205/40/18....I'm doing my best to wear down the dunlop runflats, so we can make the change.
Good choice!
I fitted a Racechip Ultimate to my Cooper S last week which supposedly takes it to 255bhp - your gains would be greater on a JCW. Well worth the money, pulls on a standard JCW and keeps with a mate's 17 plate s3 from a roll.
Don't expect much traction if you have runflats though as mine span up 1st, 2nd and 3rd until I changed to Pilot Supersports. If you're looking for something more serious Evolve Automotive can map the JCW to 300bhp although most people recommend an LSD if you're going that far.
I was considering changing to an M140 in the new year but this has swayed my decision, looks like it'll be another year in the Mini.
I fitted a Racechip Ultimate to my Cooper S last week which supposedly takes it to 255bhp - your gains would be greater on a JCW. Well worth the money, pulls on a standard JCW and keeps with a mate's 17 plate s3 from a roll.
Don't expect much traction if you have runflats though as mine span up 1st, 2nd and 3rd until I changed to Pilot Supersports. If you're looking for something more serious Evolve Automotive can map the JCW to 300bhp although most people recommend an LSD if you're going that far.
I was considering changing to an M140 in the new year but this has swayed my decision, looks like it'll be another year in the Mini.
Hammy98 said:
Don't expect much traction if you have runflats though as mine span up 1st, 2nd and 3rd until I changed to Pilot Supersports.
Agree with this Hammy - even on a standard R58 JCW I had little traction on the runflats. The MPSS transformed it altogether - both traction under accelertion and under braking (especially over broken surfaces). All aspects of grip, handling and ride comfort were improved. It actually feelslike a completely different car and makes it much more fun to drive.Gassing Station | New MINIs | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff