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The Most Powerful MINI Ever Built Hits the Goodwood Track

Even though this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a memory already, MINI decided the track found near the famous hill climb was the perfect proving ground. For what? For its most powerful model ever made, of course!
MINI JCW Hatch 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
We’re talking about the John Cooper Works hatch that went into production this month and is starting to reach journalists around the world for the first reviews.

And just how powerful is this thing? Well, under the bonnet hides a 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged mill making 231 HP and 320 Nm (236 lb-ft) of torque. As you probably know this is also the biggest engine ever fitted under the bonnet of a MINI.

All that power is still going to the front wheels on the JCW model, the front axle using a smart, limited slip differential and other innovative stuff to make sure everything is set up to deliver the best fun possible.

You can also buy the car on two different configurations. The manual 6-speed gearbox is the one to get, of course, but if you’re too cool to swap gears yourself, you can also get a 6-speed automatic from Aisin.

That’s also the faster version to 100 km/h (62 mph) in a straight line, by around 0.2 seconds at 6.1 flat. Right below par with its main rival, the Audi S1, which uses a quattro all-wheel drive system and it's faster by 0.3 seconds.

The guys from MINI invited a couple of journalists to test the car on the Goodwood track and the video below is what came of it. As you can see, the hatch is still pretty good at putting a smile on people’s faces and that’s all we need.

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