The traditionally powerful coronation of MiniSeries always gets the addition John Cooper Works. That promises a lot of power on the front axle, in the case of the new Mini John Cooper Works convertible it is 170 kW / 231 PS, which are obtained from a 2,0-liter four-cylinder with turbocharger. Incidentally, these performance figures are identical to the fixed-roof Mini, which was left on our roads a year ago. From now on, the fleet open-air fun is available at the mini-dealer, starting at 33.500 Euro.
For this base sum you get the short "JCW" four-seater with a crisp manual transmission. Perfect and hakelfrei you switch through the six forward gears, only the switching gears should be quite a bit sportier, so be shorter. If you prefer to switch, pay 1.850 Euro extra for the sports automatic transmission called Steptronic. In addition to the pleasant comfort, especially in city traffic, the automatic has the advantage that the standard acceleration from zero to 100 km / h can be realized a tenth of a second faster: in 6,5 seconds, instead of in optimized manual 6,6 seconds. In addition to the acceleration, the factory specified consumption is lower. The automatic version is on average with 5,9 liters on 100 kilometers, with manual switching, there are 6,5 liters at the same distance. The disadvantage of the laziness of switching: The top speed already ends two km / h earlier, at 240 km / h, instead of at 242 km / h. It should be noted at the same time that the considerable driving pleasure at the next fuel stop has to be paid dearly. If you want to do that, you can easily double the NEDC factory specification. During our extensive test drives through the winding Tuscany, we got on average with 9,7 liters and still had a big smile on his face.
Visually comes the not even four-meter-long small car in a mixture of retro and aggressive therefore. Five large air intakes in the front apron and the huge gapless mouth below the hood act greedy, want to show that this is certainly not an underpowered girl mini. The interior is brand typical sporty, lifestyle and partly also really noble. The leather steering wheel lies perfectly in the hand and the sporty leather seats keep the driver and front passenger even on sharp turns on the four letters. In the second row of seats is reasonably space, only on longer trips, the backbenchers should not have grown too large. Space for smaller suitcases and bags is in the luggage compartment, which always holds 160 liters. When the hood is closed, the volume grows to 215 liters.
The plastic decors look nice and sporty with checkered flag patterns in the dashboard and on the doors. If you like the plate-sized central unit, you are pleased with the long color display. The trick: When changing the driving mode, the drawn mini model changes its appearance. In green mode, the mini gets green arrows that point to frugality and the words "consumption optimized driving pleasure" appears. In mid-mode, the mini gray remains in gray and "typical mini driving fun appears. The always recommended at JCW sports fashion conjures the mini red and white rally stripes on the hood, a rocket and a racing kart appear.
Anyway, we drive fast in sports fashion and enjoy after opening the convertible top in 18 seconds on the fresh air driving fun. The opening and closing of the roof works by the way up to 30 km / h. Practical is the sunroof function of the soft-top, which can open at any speed the top infinitely up to 40 centimeters. If you like the British playful, order the Union Jack, the British flag, in titanium gray for 600 Extra-Euro. When downshifting, there is race-feeling through automated intermediate gas and during overrun after about 3.000 to 5.000 revolutions it sprints gloriously motor sporty from the two medium-centered tailpipes. Especially in tunnels, there is a happy goosebump feeling, as a normal mini and certainly no one could afford with a diesel engine. Safe braking is ensured by the standard Brembo sports braking system, which is installed behind the 17 inch John Cooper Works Silver Track Spoke light-alloy wheels.
In conclusion, it can be said quite clearly that after the John Cooper Works Coupe, even the JCW convertible can be safely driven by men. The other mini-models can not necessarily say that.
(Wolfgang Wieland / SP-X)
