Concept, News

MINI’s new JCW GP Concept look bonkers

MINI by definition portrays a lot of personality. It showcases who you are and what you stand for. And now, MINI has one suited for those who want to achieve the ultimate driving fun on both the track and the road. Here is the MINI John Cooper Works GP Concept. A mouthful indeed so I shall just shorten it to the MINI JCW GP Concept.

This isn’t the first GP related MINI as this concept version takes up after the 2006 MINI Cooper S JCW GP kit and the 2012 MINI JCW GP itself. The MINI JCW GP Concept will have a limited run of 2000 units worldwide.

“The MINI John Cooper Works GP Concept is all about the unfettered feeling of driving and levels of performance found in motor sport competition,” says Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad. “This is driving fun in its purest form.”

What is different about this car? For one thing, the looks. You get large front and rear aprons, side skirts and a roof spoiler which stands out so much. The car is also wider than the current MINI and it is built with a blend of lightweight materials such as carbon fibre in order to achieve a balanced weight distribution so that the MINI retains its signature go-kart like handling.

“If you know about MINI, you’ll be aware of the brand’s long and successful history in motor sport,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design. “The MINI John Cooper Works GP Concept brings together the full suite of defining MINI design features and showcases them at their sportiest and most exciting. What we’re looking at here is maximum performance, maximum MINI.”

You get plenty of air intakes all around which makes the MINI look ridiculously delicious and a splash of Black Jack Anthracite paint with Curbside Red metallic accent covers the car. I never knew paint could have such imaginative names these days. At the end of the day, it does still look distinctively MINI and you can’t miss it. On the car you will see the number 59 plastered around which gives a reference to the year the classic MINI was born, 1959.

The MINI JCW GP Concept comes with 19-inch racetrack lightweight wheels. In the interior you get what a typical car suited for the track, two bucket seats with roll cages around and no rear seats. Still, MINI being MINI, the whole array of motorsport goodness still looks absolutely gorgeous. It isn’t a full race car so you do maintain a certain standard of comfort in the car as well.

Now the question is, where can I get one of these babies.