ShareThisLet's stipulate at the start: All Mini Coopers are fun to drive.
It doesn't matter whether it's the base car with the 118-horsepower engine, the S with 172 horsepower, or even the stretched and heavier Clubman model.
So, you wonder, why would anyone plunk down $33,550 for the 208-horsepower John Cooper Works version of this little shoebox on wheels?
Before addressing that, a bit of background on the name: In the late 1950s, a British automotive genius named Sir Alec Issigonis dreamed up the Mini, a tiny two-door hatchback with a major innovation: a crosswise-mounted four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels. It was sold with both Austin and Morris badges.
The car was an instant hit because of its tidy dimensions, quick handling, roomy (for its size) interior and superior fuel economy. But the popularity was mostly in Europe because Americans were still wedded to ponderous size, fueled by cheap gasoline.
Of course, it wasn't long before enthusiasts were tweaking the Mini's performance. John Cooper, a legendary British race driver and tuner, came up with the Mini Cooper, which had more horsepower, better brakes and improved handling.
By today's lights, it doesn't seem like much, but in that day it was a high-performance car, especially in European rallies. It won the famed Monte Carlo race three times between 1964 and 1967.
When BMW of Germany took over the Mini assets and decided to resurrect the car in 2000, it used the cachet of the Cooper name on the new version, though it actually wasn't so much a Mini any more. In size, it more resembled the original Austin and Morris 850 models, which were larger versions of the sixties Mini with the same front-drive and crosswise engine layout as their smaller sibling.
The new Mini Cooper, like its predecessor, was an instant and continuing hit after its introduction in the U.S. in 2002. In fact, it was the only car sold in the United States that experienced a substantial sales increase -- 28.6 percent -- in 2008, when car and light truck sales were down by nearly four million in the worst sales year since 1992.
There were two versions: the Cooper and Cooper S. Because the high-performance Cooper name already was attached to the Mini, a new name had to be dredged up for the even higher-performance model. Hence the John Cooper Works designation, which makes it seem as if the car had rolled straight out of a small British racing garage.
The John Cooper Works upgrade, available on both the two-door Mini hatchback and the new three-door Clubman model, has a stiffer racetrack-oriented suspension system, bigger brakes, 17-inch alloy wheels and, of course, the turbocharged 208-horsepower, 1.6-liter engine.
Because we've stipulated that all Mini Coopers are fun to drive, we return to the question of price. A base Mini has a starting sticker of $19,200 and delivers a hefty fun quotient, especially in the dodgem game of urban traffic, where its tidy dimensions enable the driver to poke holes in the flow and slip into tiny parking spaces.
The John Cooper Works model starts at $29,200 and, with optional equipment, the test car had a suggested price of $33,550.
So we're back to the question of why you would plunk down that kind of dough. In a word, it's performance, though more performance than anyone is likely to use often in daily driving. The turbo motor's 208 horsepower can propel the JCW Mini to 60 miles an hour in 6.2 seconds, according to Mini test figures, with a top speed of 147 miles an hour.
It's exciting, with a blatting exhaust note that resonates throughout the interior, but it comes with drawbacks, including massive torque steer -- that front-drive phenomenon of the steering wheel trying to jump out of the driver's hands while turning under hard acceleration. Also, the raspy exhaust sound can become tiring during long-distance highway cruising.
The handling is quick, almost go-kart-like because of the Mini's tidy dimensions and short wheelbase -- the distance between the front and rear axles. But because the suspension system is racetrack tuned, the ride is rock hard and the JCW skips over irregular road surfaces in cornering.
Clutch action is light and progressive, so it's easy to drive smoothly, and the shift linkage on the manual six-speed transmission, despite a few rough spots, has a precise feel. An automatic transmission is not available.
Because Mini Cooper owners like to personalize their rides, the option list stretches out to the horizon, so you can spend a bundle even on a base car. The tested JCW had full safety equipment, leather and cloth upholstery, a panoramic sunroof, automatic climate control, and Bluetooth and iPod capability.
Like all Minis, the interior is British quirky, with a giant speedometer in the middle of the dash and an array of toggle switches overhead and on the dash. Curiously, though it has pushbutton starting, you have to insert the remote-control fob into the dash. Why not a simple key? Also inexplicable: the mesh shade on the sunroof doesn't block sunlight.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. For more columns, go to scrippsnews.com)
DriveWays with MINICOOPER-SPECS
