F54 MINI Clubman JCW
Discussion
We’ve got a 2018 MINI Cooper S Clubman. It’s only done 7k miles, and it’s a swift enough car that sounds pretty good. But today I borrowed a new JCW Clubman from my local dealer... it’s got 306 PS vs the 192 of ours, 4 wheel drive compared to front and an 8 speed auto compared to the 7 speed DSG box. Ours also has 19” wheels with adaptive suspension - the demo car had standard suspension. But, it did have the Harman Kardon sound system that I didn’t spec.
So, a few thoughts...
It’s quick, much quicker (as you’d expect) and sounds far better. A nice raspy exhaust sound with the right number of pops and crackles in sport mode. A bit quieter in mid, which is fine. The four wheel drive really improves the way the car drives - even with ‘just’ 192 PS it’s all too easy to overcome the traction in ours, especially at junctions and in the damp. Epic torque steer can be provoked. All gone in the JCW, though it will run out of grip perhaps sooner than you’d expect. It also doesn’t brake as well as you think is should, though I’ll caveat that with the fact the demo car had only done 900 miles.
The 8 speed box is very different to the DSG one; in sport the DSG ‘box changes down much quicker when you put your foot down at low to mid speeds. But when cruising it’s remarkably reluctant to change down. The 8 speed was slower to change down at lower speeds, but too keen to change down on dual carriageways when I only moved the accelerator slightly.
I prefer the ride on the adaptive damper in ‘mid’ mode. Slightly softer than the suspension in the JCW. In sport the adaptive dampers are much harder than the JCW on standard suspension. I rarely use this setting!
Other thoughts? Both cars have panoramic roofs. Needed in the JCW to lighten the dark interior - the only option is black, either recaros in faux leather/alcantara (the demo car) or optional lounge leather. The recaros were comfortable and grippy. Both had the Nav plus pack; the JCW had a cheaper feeling I drive controller though, reminiscent of that in MINIs with standard nav. The HK audio did sound better, but not sure it’s £600 better...
Those are my slightly unstructured thoughts after a couple of hours and 60odd miles of mainly narrow, windy and reasonably lightly trafficked country roads!
So, a few thoughts...
It’s quick, much quicker (as you’d expect) and sounds far better. A nice raspy exhaust sound with the right number of pops and crackles in sport mode. A bit quieter in mid, which is fine. The four wheel drive really improves the way the car drives - even with ‘just’ 192 PS it’s all too easy to overcome the traction in ours, especially at junctions and in the damp. Epic torque steer can be provoked. All gone in the JCW, though it will run out of grip perhaps sooner than you’d expect. It also doesn’t brake as well as you think is should, though I’ll caveat that with the fact the demo car had only done 900 miles.
The 8 speed box is very different to the DSG one; in sport the DSG ‘box changes down much quicker when you put your foot down at low to mid speeds. But when cruising it’s remarkably reluctant to change down. The 8 speed was slower to change down at lower speeds, but too keen to change down on dual carriageways when I only moved the accelerator slightly.
I prefer the ride on the adaptive damper in ‘mid’ mode. Slightly softer than the suspension in the JCW. In sport the adaptive dampers are much harder than the JCW on standard suspension. I rarely use this setting!
Other thoughts? Both cars have panoramic roofs. Needed in the JCW to lighten the dark interior - the only option is black, either recaros in faux leather/alcantara (the demo car) or optional lounge leather. The recaros were comfortable and grippy. Both had the Nav plus pack; the JCW had a cheaper feeling I drive controller though, reminiscent of that in MINIs with standard nav. The HK audio did sound better, but not sure it’s £600 better...
Those are my slightly unstructured thoughts after a couple of hours and 60odd miles of mainly narrow, windy and reasonably lightly trafficked country roads!
The 8 speed auto was replaced in the Cooper S around July / August last year, because the demo car I drove in June 18 was an 8 speed and ours was delivered at the beginning of August with a 7 speed DSG ‘box. It also had the BMW style shifter. Presumably it can’t handle the additional power/torque of the JCW version though, as the demo car had the 8 speed ‘box, though with the later shifter 
Interesting read, thanks OP 
Mrs ZS is waiting on delivery of a new Cooper S Clubman, should be ready next month. She's currently got a 3 door hatch Cooper SD, and while there's nothing wrong with it we wanted the extra doors/space, plus a few extra bits of kit like sunroof, LED headlights, HK stereo, etc (the standard stereo is woeful).
She really would like the JCW but unfortunately it's out of budget, plus I expect running costs would have been a little higher than we'd like. Would you say the Cooper S is much of a compromise compared to the JCW?
Mrs ZS is waiting on delivery of a new Cooper S Clubman, should be ready next month. She's currently got a 3 door hatch Cooper SD, and while there's nothing wrong with it we wanted the extra doors/space, plus a few extra bits of kit like sunroof, LED headlights, HK stereo, etc (the standard stereo is woeful).
She really would like the JCW but unfortunately it's out of budget, plus I expect running costs would have been a little higher than we'd like. Would you say the Cooper S is much of a compromise compared to the JCW?
Zetec-S said:
Interesting read, thanks OP
Mrs ZS is waiting on delivery of a new Cooper S Clubman, should be ready next month. She's currently got a 3 door hatch Cooper SD, and while there's nothing wrong with it we wanted the extra doors/space, plus a few extra bits of kit like sunroof, LED headlights, HK stereo, etc (the standard stereo is woeful).
She really would like the JCW but unfortunately it's out of budget, plus I expect running costs would have been a little higher than we'd like. Would you say the Cooper S is much of a compromise compared to the JCW?
Well, here’s a mini review of our Clubman, which is just over a year old now. It was bought to replace a SEAT Ibiza which was written off (not by me, by my partner I hasten to add Mrs ZS is waiting on delivery of a new Cooper S Clubman, should be ready next month. She's currently got a 3 door hatch Cooper SD, and while there's nothing wrong with it we wanted the extra doors/space, plus a few extra bits of kit like sunroof, LED headlights, HK stereo, etc (the standard stereo is woeful).
She really would like the JCW but unfortunately it's out of budget, plus I expect running costs would have been a little higher than we'd like. Would you say the Cooper S is much of a compromise compared to the JCW?
when it was less than three months old. The Cooper S is only really a compromise in acceleration, since it’s noticeably slower than the JCW, Our other car is a BMW 235 which has similar performance to the JCW though; my guess is a Cooper SD has similar performance to an S, but will feel quicker in day to day driving as you have to rev the petrol Cooper S to get the performance. Sounds nice in sport when you do though! It’s also economical - we took it to York this weekend, which is a 600 mile round trip, and the OBC says we averaged 47mpg. That’s with stop start traffic on the M25 and cruise controlled 82 where possible.
It’s now just over a year since the Clubman was delivered, and it’s only done 7,500 miles. Initially the replacement ordered was a MINI Cooper 3 door auto, which with a few options and after discount was £23kish. The order was then tweaked, and what was delivered at the beginning of August last year was a MINI Cooper S Clubman with a 7 speed DSG ‘box.
First things first, these are not particularly cheap cars, or rather, they can be but by the time you’ve plundered the options list they’re not... List price of a Cooper S Clubman was a not unreasonable £23,000. Colour and interior trim options added around £2k to that. The CHILI pack was £3,300, the DSG ‘box £1,800 and the Navigation plus pack £1,300. Over £31k now. Throw in a sunroof, adaptive dampers and a few other bits and pieces and the list price ended up at a frankly ludicrous £33,560. A decent discount / deposit contribution brought it down to a fraction over £29k, but even so it was more expensive than I initially planned. But, you know what, it feels as if it’s worth every penny. A combination of design, quality of materials, build and finish means it feels like a quality piece of kit. I don’t regret spending the money, though I imagine some of it was residual value suicide...
There’s only one option that I regret specifying, and that’s the £100 option of black instead of silver wheels. I chose them as the car’s melting silver (silvery beige colour) with a black roof / mirrors and privacy glass at the back. But, shortly after delivery I swapped the wheels for a set of 19” John Cooper Works style 526 silver/black wheels that look far better! It’s also had a set of sports stripes fitted to the bonnet and boot, again in black.
To drive it feels like a MINI; small, chunky, go-kart like. 19” wheels, run flat tyres and dampers in ‘sport’ does the ride no favours, but configure ‘sport’ as drivetrain only and leave dampers in comfort and it’s fine. You have to have drivetrain in ‘sport’ or it’s far too reluctant to change down. Large potholes can still send a bang through the car though even when the dampers are in comfort. With hindsight, standard (non adaptive) dampers and 18” wheels with non run flat tyres and an optional space saver spare might be the optimum set-up. That’d have saved a bit of money.
It’s got 187 bhp and apparently gets to 60 in 7.2 seconds, so it feels brisk rather than quick. It must have the aerodynamics of a brick as the top speed is listed at just 140 mph though. I haven’t got anywhere near that. Damp roads, 19” wheels, run flat tyres and a ‘T’ junction can lead to the most almighty torque steer mind you. Wind noise is well suppressed, despite the upright windscreen. It’s pretty economical, and will easily average high 40s to the gallon. It never dips below 35mpg, though the tank is rather small.
The interior is light and airy - the sunroof is huge and has a moveable glass panel over the front and a fixed glass panel over the rear. Ours has got a light leather interior, which looks as good as it did when delivered, and black carpets / door trims. No rattles, as you’d expect for such a low mileage car. Comfortable seats, though they suffer from a BMW style adjustments in some but not all directions. Standard lumbar support though, unlike the BMW. Plenty of room for rear seat passenger, and the boots a decent size. This’ll be tested in anger in a couple of weeks as it’ll be four up on a long weekend to Épernay...
Irritatingly the media system, while very similar to the Professional nav in my BMW is not quite the same. Yes, it’s the later touch screen (which I never use) version, but as an example of the irritation if you want to skip forward tracks on Spotify using the steering wheel controls, in the BMW you scroll up, and in the MINI down. Minor, but major at the same time! Likewise the BMW will show me the weather widget in the smaller part of the split screen. The MINI won’t.
In summary, very pleased with the car. Most of the time a 3 door would have been fine, but the rear has been used enough times that I’m pleased we went for the larger one. And I do like the way the Clubman looks, compared to the 5 door MINI. It’s larger too, Golf sized rather than super mini, but doesn’t really look it. Melting silver is a nice colour, reminiscent of the cubanite silver of one of my favourite cars, the S211 E class. I really wanted to order the MINI with the rather nice blue leather interior that’s available, but don’t like any of the colours it might go with outside. So, sadly, if ordering again I’d order the same. Except I can’t, because MINI has simplified its range and now offers Sport or Exclusive as trim levels for the Cooper S
Thanks for that
We've ordered the Cooper S Sport, with auto gearbox. Not got the adaptive dampers and stuck with 18" wheels which from what you say sounds like a good idea. Will be happy with anything from 40+ mpg on a run as we do a fair few long journeys, and to be fair that's not far off the Cooper SD we have at the moment. As long as it's better than the 35mpg I get from my Focus ST that'll do
I'd agree they're not the cheapest, we've added the sunroof and HK stereo amongst other things, so the list price was around £30k, but managed to bring the final price down to around £27k (again more than we planned!) but really looking forward too it. Unfortunately there's now a slight delay in production, apparently some hold up with the seats, but hopefully will be with us by the end of September.
We've ordered the Cooper S Sport, with auto gearbox. Not got the adaptive dampers and stuck with 18" wheels which from what you say sounds like a good idea. Will be happy with anything from 40+ mpg on a run as we do a fair few long journeys, and to be fair that's not far off the Cooper SD we have at the moment. As long as it's better than the 35mpg I get from my Focus ST that'll do
I'd agree they're not the cheapest, we've added the sunroof and HK stereo amongst other things, so the list price was around £30k, but managed to bring the final price down to around £27k (again more than we planned!) but really looking forward too it. Unfortunately there's now a slight delay in production, apparently some hold up with the seats, but hopefully will be with us by the end of September.
My local dealer had one in the showroom, offered with around £5k of discount, taking it to around £35k.... it had a few extras on the spec.
I drove a couple of these last week, one had the panoramic sunroof and it's definitely an option I'd pick, I've grown used to having the extra light in my Clubby.
Not had much experience of modern autos, but I came away thinking I could get used to them in traffic, and having a play with the paddles would keep me happy on the open roads. It was comfy, solid, planted on the road, quick, and made some lovely noises.
I drove a couple of these last week, one had the panoramic sunroof and it's definitely an option I'd pick, I've grown used to having the extra light in my Clubby.
Not had much experience of modern autos, but I came away thinking I could get used to them in traffic, and having a play with the paddles would keep me happy on the open roads. It was comfy, solid, planted on the road, quick, and made some lovely noises.
anyway nice to see Mini have got rid of the run flats and as pointed out by the op it is fairly quick 
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