The last time I was in a Mini I was about 16. My friend and I had “borrowed” his mother’s red 1275GT and spent the afternoon zipping around traffic circles at full tilt, arguing that the project we were supposed to be working on we’d finish that evening and anyway trying to get the back wheel to lift was surely something to do with inertia or some such equation and a whole lot more fun.
When his father found out, let’s just say it was the days before kids could sue their parents and giving someone else’s son a good whack wasn’t considered assault.
That put an end to any further thoughts of leaving black stripes on the tar, but I well remember the sense of steering immediacy we felt as we careered towards a bend and threw the little Mini around without lifting off the accelerator or touching the brakes. Only a few inches between your backside and the tar gave us an even more thrilling encounter.
Many (many) years later, stepping into the JCW Countryman and I can still see Alex’s face beaming as he gears down for another assault on a circle somewhere in Lynwood.
It’s a far cry from the original Mini that made a name for itself around the world as a city runabout, rally and track car. The first thing that strikes you is its size, it really is a mini no more. Inside it’s all class with leather, stylish gauges and five doors.
SERIOUS PERFORMER
JCW or John Cooper Works, essentially makes Minis go fast by playing with engine settings, ECU’s, exhausts and lots of fine tuning and playing to get the maximum out of the engine and its components. The JCW Countryman is no exception, pushing out 160kW at 6000rpm and 280Nm between 1900rpm and 5000rpm from its 1600 turbocharged engine. That’s a lot considering its size, and to make it even more exciting, particularly around the bends, power is distributed to all four wheels. It may be permanent all wheel drive but this is no 4x4 and, apart from an occasional trip on well maintained dirt roads, it’s strictly for the black stuff only.
Our test vehicle came with the optional automatic gearbox which is very quick changing gears and suits the engine well but, personally, in a car such as this, I would prefer to do the shifting myself. It has a Steptronic function which does allow you to use the shift paddles on the steering wheel. I couldn’t quite understand why the gears would always be changing up whenever I pulled the paddle that would normally change a gear down. I was going along a lovely twisty piece of road and didn’t have the time to figure it out so changed to the sequential gear selector. Turns out that pulling either paddle changes up and pushing either one changes down.
Give it a bit of stick in sport mode which does all sorts of tweaks to throttle, gearbox and suspension and the exhaust note is going to be bringing you back for more, particularly on the overrun. For a petrolhead there’s no better sound than a well-tuned engine being driven hard, whether it’s a Citi Golf or a state-of-the-art AMG and this JCW certainly doesn’t disappoint.
PREMIUM CABIN
Inside, apart from the oversized speedometer, it’s all BMW quality with subtle lighting, enough space for four adults, and a chunky multi-function steering wheel that fitted pleasantly into my hands. The list of extras is as long as the car is fun to drive and comes standard with safety features such as dynamic stability control, ABS, CBC and six airbags.
The JCW Countryman received approving looks wherever it went and while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it certainly scores high on the overall fun factor and is a lot more practical as an everyday car than it looks. -Saturday Star