MINI JCW Convertible P90217419
MINI JCW Convertible P90217418
MINI JCW Convertible 001
MINI JCW Convertible P90217394
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Michael Taylor2 May 2016
REVIEW

MINI JCW Convertible 2016 Review

MINI's strongest engine in its softest car delivers unusually good results

MINI John Cooper Works Convertible    
International Launch Review
Florence, Italy

This is the best convertible that MINI has ever made and the JCW is the fastest of them. There’s an argument to be made over whether it’s a better car than the softer-riding Cooper S version, but it’s undeniably swift across even horridly broken ground and it’s raucous when you want it to be. It’s just a question of how quick you need a MINI Convertible to actually be. The new MINI JCW Convertible goes on sale in Australia by the end of this year.

The mountainside passes and back roads of Tuscany don’t make pretty viewing for suspension and chassis engineers. They are notoriously narrow and range, in places, from shockingly broken to deeply creased to shiny and slippery with wear to sudden step-ups and step-downs from under-surface subsidence.

Then there are the hordes of tourist buses that traverse connections between the ancient, mountaintop citadels, the farmers bouncing from field to field in battered yellow and orange tractors and the ubiquitous swarms of gormlessly dithering Fiat Panda drivers.

The convertible version of the last John Cooper Works MINI had a reputation for having a suspension set-up and a quality of ride that went so far beyond being firm that it could only see the word in its rear-view mirror, and, even then, the folded roof got in the way.

MINI JCW Convertible 001

Launching the new MINI JCW Convertible here was always going to be either extreme folly or proving an extreme point. It turned out to be the latter.

The all-new Cooper S Convertible, launched in the US earlier this year, showed the once-hard rider had developed an almost-full set of adult manners. That maturity has translated pretty well to the JCW, too.

You’re never going to mistake it for a limo, but its combination of the new family front-drive architecture (shared with the BMW X1 and 2 Series), active damping and a multi-link rear-end deliver a car that can still ride provocatively hard in places without being teeth-rattling when the tyres hit ugly things.

It’s faster than it used to be, thanks to a 10 per cent lift in power, and it’s appreciably quicker in a straight line than the Cooper S version, too.

MINI JCW Convertible P90217394

There is an unusual degree of sophistication in the 2.0-litre turbocharged four cylinder sitting across the engine bay. It has all sorts of stuff that lived only at M a few years ago, like variable valve timing and lift (double VANOS, in BMW-speak), plus fully variable valve control (Valvetronic), and a turbocharger integrated into the exhaust manifold.

It’s the strongest MINI engine, giving up 170kW of power from 5200 to 6000rpm and lifting the six-speed manual version we drove across to 100km/h in 6.6 seconds. The six-speed auto, while not as involving to drive, is a tenth of a second quicker.

But 6.6 seconds is 0.3 seconds faster than the old JCW Convertible and 0.7 seconds faster than the just-launched Cooper S Convertible. It also picks up 7km/h of vMax on its predecessor, topping out 242km/h in manual form (240km/h as an auto).

MINI JCW Convertible P90217401

MINI clearly had no reservations about the mid-range pulling strength of the engine, either, because the manual ‘box skips a direct-drive gear and instead lives with overdriven fourth, fifth and six gears. It’s not even close, with fourth listing at 0.921 and sixth stretching that to 0.628.

The automatic starts the over-driven caper at fifth gear (0.851) and adds a tall sixth (0.672), and it has a taller diff ratio than the manual-equipped cars.

At 1310kg dry (DIN, or 1385 on the EC measurement), the JCW Convertible isn’t the featherweight the 'MINI' badge suggests, but it never seems to struggle with its array of over-driven cogs. It’s 35kg heavier than the Cooper S Convertible, mainly through strengthening and cooling demands, but it’s also 24mm longer because it has a new, more aggressive nose.

It helps its performance immensely that the engine layout itself is enormously oversquare (82.0mm bore plays a 94.6mm stroke), and its 320Nm of torque arrives at just 1250rpm. It hangs on until 4800rpm, too.

MINI JCW Convertible P90217402

The gear ratios themselves indicate that this is an engine all about its mid-range torque, and even a quick drive confirms this.

Don’t expect high-revving sweetness or a linear power delivery. The JCW doesn’t work like that.

It’s all torque, and plenty of action.

It’s a deep little rumbler at idle, though it has a green mode (which you access by twisting a ring that surrounds the gear lever) that makes it more civil. But that’s hardly the point of the JCW.

Its core strength is strength. Bucket loads of the stuff, from whatever point of the rev range you happen to be in when you mash the accelerator pedal.

MINI JCW Convertible P90206793

Its sprinting urge is interrupted every few seconds only by the slightly awkward relationship between the tall gear lever and the high clutch take-up point, but it seems to come very quickly as it despatches first gear in a heartbeat.

It will give up decent acceleration even in top gear from about 3000rpm, which is about the get-serious point in every gear.

In first gear, the front-driver hooks up remarkably well and punches so quickly that you have to reach for second gear almost as soon as you’ve lifted the clutch. In fact, when you’re just dawdling around in traffic, you don’t really need first gear at all.

It gets more serious in second gear, and second and third will cover most of the fun work on winding mountain roads, or in short straight-line bursts before the speed limits stop the fun.

MINI JCW Convertible P90217418

Revving the engine doesn’t deliver that wonderful, linear climb to a crescendo. In fact, you’re reaching for another gear even before the car reaches its power peak, because it’s just more effective in the torque curve.

It softens off the noise and the power delivery above 6000rpm, which is another reason not to bother pushing the engine to breathe faster. It’s frustrating, because the mid-range is so strong that, to the ear and the backside, it feels like it’s just getting going and climbing on top of its delivery when it all fades away.

There are compensations for that beneath the body, and the JCW Convertible is capable of carrying more speed through corners than anybody would rightfully think possible. In fact, it is so capable on winding roads that it doesn’t need to back down to cars like the Mazda MX-5 for sheer capability, and it would make minced meat of a Benz SLC, especially if you throw in a few bumps.

While the ride is firm, it no longer keeps shoving that firmness in your face to remind you that you’ve bought a hard-edged, sporty MINI. Its rebound control is now so good that it can combine the firm spring rate but still keep the rubber on the road after bump strikes.

MINI JCW Convertible P90217383

That means it can flow through situations that would have seen its predecessor bounce and that means both more pace and greater control.

It’s an easy car to drive quickly and almost immediately gives its drivers the feeling that it’s never, ever going to do anything to bite them.

So you can push and push and it will eventually push wide only when you’re carrying stupid levels of corner-entry speed and then, with the engine so big on its low-end torque delivery, it’s always ready to pull out strongly from any situation.

Only occasionally did we find the road surface conspiring to reveal that bane of front-drive performance cars – torque steer. Otherwise, it just leaves corners cleanly and quickly, layering on more speed rather than jumping, and that’s a product of working best at lower revs. MINI’s extra bracing beneath the engine bay and under both ends has paid dividends.

MINI JCW Convertible P90206789

In amongst all of this is an unmistakeable collection of deep, gruff bellows and histrionic bubbles and crackles on the overrun, and it carries over the Cooper S’s automatic gearshift blip on downshifts. Pity. We like doing that bit ourselves.

Its steering weight is just about right in its sports mode, even if the feedback loop about the road beneath you isn’t nuanced, but it feels too light in its lesser two modes. MINI went to Italian supplier Brembo for the JCW Convertible’s four-piston front brake callipers and they stubbornly refused to fade on our test, keeping the brake pedal admirably high and consistent.

Straighter pieces of road highlight the practicality of the donor car, with the manually-operated wind blocker proving useful, but rendering the rear seats uninhabitable. You can take it out completely and leave it in the luggage area, which can carry 160 litres of stuff, or 215 litres when the multi-layer cloth roof is locked in the up position.

It folds up or down in 18 seconds, though MINI understandably limits its operation to 30km/h. It’s an enormous parachute, after all. The front bit slides back and forward at any speed, though, creating a Targa-style, full-width sunroof.

The biggest problem, by far, with the roof is how high it piles high when it’s folded down. It’s so high that the rear-vision mirror is more or less redundant. You won’t see a car behind you until it drops back about 40 metres behind you (we tested this) and even then it will only be its roofline.

Up to you whether that’s a minor or major quibble, but the rest of the car is a mature, quick little package that’s now a lot more usable, more of the time, than it used to be.

Sure, the Convertible is the least sporting of the MINI range, but it’s also now three cars (roof up, Targa open, fully open) in one, which is useful.

And it now backs up the JCW engine’s belligerence with some genuine cornering ability that won’t frighten its drivers. And that’s pretty good.

2016 MINI JCW pricing and specifications:
Price: TBC
On sale: Q4, 2016
Engine: 2.0-litre inline four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 170kW/320Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual (auto option)
Fuel: 6.5L/100km (5.9 auto)
CO2: 152g/km (138 auto)
Safety rating: TBC

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Written byMichael Taylor
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Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
Expert rating
71/100
Engine, Drivetrain & Chassis
16/20
Price, Packaging & Practicality
13/20
Safety & Technology
15/20
Behind The Wheel
15/20
X-Factor
12/20
Pros
  • Easy handling prowess
  • Strong engine at most revs
  • Targa roof rocks
Cons
  • Doesn’t reward high revs
  • Cheap plastic trim for targa roof-rails
  • Folded roof badly hampers rear vision
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