F56 JCW - More Details and Pictures

[Craig]

Saw the JCW at Kirkcaldy today... Still not my cup of tea but as a drivers car it seems to tick a lot of boxes for people...


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[Coop1]

Glad you liked it Eddie. I am looking at late June for delivery. Glad didnt go for chili pack. Big waste of money esp if dont like those two tone 18s. Colour was a dilemma. Think the off white pepper will be fine with blk roof and wheels and the red grill trim/side scuttles and calipers offsetting that. Auto box is ace. Go buy!!

[AndyP & Lenore]

Took one of these out from JCW World at Eastern MINI today. Had to see what all the fuss was about this "auto box".

A bit of background, more for the current members who don't know Lenore and I that well... We've had several MINI's since 2003 and every one has been an "automatic"; our first was a Cooper CVT then they've all been either Cooper S's or JCW's. So as far as the 'MINI Automatic' is concerned, we may not know it all but after 10 'auto' MINI's, I'd like to think we know our stuff...

Our thoughts are that the auto box in the F56 JCW is identical to the auto box in the R56. It's not, I asked Paul at Eastern. But as much as it's a 'different' box, it does exactly the same job, just as well as the previous car. But it's still a huge improvement on the auto box in the R53 Cooper S Auto box which was good, but a bit reluctant to change down when required which resulted in revs being held too high - more frustrating than anything. It also upshifts quicker than the R53 Cooper S auto box, but when making a direct comparison with the R56 Cooper S auto box, there's really little to separate them. It still upshifts quicker than you can blink.

But I do love the new double-thump from the exhaust which you get on an under-load change up. To be honest it's very similar to what we got in our Audi S5 and we now get in our Merc A45 AMG, but these are obviously significantly more expensive cars where you would expect a bit more noise for your bucks. But on that (exhaust) note, we were both left a bit disappointed with the downshift and run-on pops, bangs and crackles.... hardly any at all. Our R56 JCW Convertible makes enough noise to make small children clasp their hands to their ears when traveling through small villages. But the F seemed to be very muted indeed. We wondered if it had Pilkington triple glazing so we opened the windaes but to no avail, still muted. Spoke to Paul about this when we got back and it seems an upgraded bi-modal (£2,000 option) exhaust is required to enjoy such sounds. Hmmmm. It's good the option is there, but I do tend to think if you're buying the top-of-the-range model, should that not be a standard item?

The inside is sumptuous, very comfy indeed, with seats which don't let you slide around when cornering at incredible speeds. In fact, I'd go as far as saying they were the best seats MINI have ever made. The info screen was very nice and would look lovely when used for a sat nav but our car didn't have one. :( Lenore wasn't keen on the fact you don't get the speedo of any kind in the middle of the dash any more - although I realise that's an F design thing, not just the JCW.

The outside is..... hmmmm. Sorry, but it still doesn't gel with me. I'm going to be quite honest here, it's just too big. About an inch bigger all round (according to Paul), but I seem to recall the R56 was about the same increase over the R53. Where will the madness end?

Overall, it's a very very very nice car to drive, very fast indeed and you can really get a sense of the extra horses under the bonnet over our R56 JCW Vert. But it wasn't good enough to encourage me out of our own car at the moment. Maybe when the new convertible is out in spring next year. But I get a sense from Mrs P that our MINI Convertible days are running out, with a 235i a strong possible replacement.