Last weekend I ended up with a couple of friends of mine in a 30 minute test-drive of a MINI. My first glimpse of the car made me think of the Cooper S, since I had no idea we’re dealing with something more powerful. I started circling around the car trying to find the red Cooper like S but got scared by a strange logo which said John Cooper Works (red color is present here as well).
Leaving aside my feelings towards this car, the John Cooper Works develops 211 HP at 6000 RPM, 280 Nm with Overboost function (260 Nm without at 1850-5600 RPM), gets to 100 km/h in 6.5 seconds, reaching 238 km/h. The actual testing of the car was quite a drive through the sinuous road surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the Vitosha mountain. Since I was just a passenger in the car, the only thing I can tell you is that the powerful engine, sport suspension and 17 ” Pirelli Sport tires, accompanied by the aerodynamic kit and the double exhaust pipe make this tiny-city car an irrational beast. It’s quite fast around corners and very stable even on cobble stone roads (it was a bumpy one).
As for me, it was my first time in a car where the DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) light was on 90% of the time. Fortunately, the seat belts did a good job by holding me tight. It was a great experience and if you can get your hands on this tiny beast I am pretty sure you won’t regret it. You can check the following video I shot while in the car. Unfortunately, the quality of the video is low since I didn’t manage to hold the camera very well.
