Missed the boat on the GP limited edition? Here’s something that’s up your alley.
When the MINI John Cooper Works GP first arrived, it was the most powerful production MINI to ever come out of the house’s workshops. Packing 301 horses under the hood, it only took five seconds to get to 60. Now, imagine seeing something so small and unassuming on the highway, then watching it hold its own against far more sporty looking models, and you’ve got something that’s borderline crazy.
It was a bit of an overachiever in the hot hatch department, but it was also more than a little rare. Only 3,000 of the JCW GP exist, and by now, most of these have likely been spoken for.
Photo: MINI Philippines
So now comes the successor to the high-performance hatch: the John Cooper Works GP Inspired Edition. And as you can guess from the name, it takes a lot of its cues from the GP.
If you’re not familiar with the John Cooper Works line, it’s basically the iconic Cooper. Only, with a high-perfomance engine that’s designed for the tracks. I’d jumped behind the wheel of a JCW a few years back, on a ride-around across the island of Lombok in Indonesia. Along the mountainside roads and on an actual racetrack, the hatch performed remarkably, handling straights and turns like a go-kart. It’s a driving experience that’s unique to the MINI, and it gets even more evident the higher you get up in the MINI range. And while we’ve yet to try the GP Inspired, it already shows that it’s far ahead in the game.
Photo: MINI Philippines
Under the hood, the JCW GP Inspired Edition runs a 2-liter, 4-cylinder, TwinPowerTurbo engine that throws out 235 horsepower. That’s more than enough power for from city to country, and it’s no slouch on the tracks either.
Looks-wise, it has the iconic MINI silhouette, decked in a metallic Racing Grey with a contrasting Melting Silver color on the roof, the mirror caps, and the John Cooper Works spoiler. Coupled with the door handles, the fuel cap, and the scoop on the hood—all in black—it presents a more aggressive look that marks it out like the original GP.
Photo: MINI Philippines
“We received overwhelming response for the MINI John Cooper Works GP when we introduced the car in the Philippines in October last year,” says Kidd Yam, Head of MINI Asia. “As such, we’ve specially developed the MINI John Cooper Works GP Inspired Edition to cater for fans who weren’t able to get their hands on the original, but still want to own a unique piece of motorsports history.”
Only five of these cars will hit Philippine roads. So if you missed out on the original GP, the GP Inspired might just be up your alley.
